Mahonri's 2nd Annual NYDHatch, watching them grow...

[Happy Chooks]

Plus screwdriver............

 

[SteveH]

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Oh no, this can't be good. Poor Mahonri-one more thing to fret about.

I know. This fertility thing has me puzzled and freaked out too. We were going along just fine and then fertility dropped to about half and now to who-knows-what. A lot of the test hatchers haven't reported back so I do not know for sure what the fertility rates have been. I am shipping out two more batches of test eggs, one today and one next week then no more until fertility improves, probably in the Spring. I have not charged for the eggs and have promised to refund shipping to anyone who paid for the shipping. I stil feel bad. I think everyone needs a backyard full of Icelandic Coop Surfers!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/34566_games_1_of_1-10.jpg

You get some great pics Mary ; you should make and sell a calender for 2011 .

 

[SteveH]

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Took me awhile , but I figured it out LOL .

 

[LarryPQ]

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Took me awhile , but I figured it out LOL .

Accountants. Everthing is plus or minus. My husband HATES it.

 

[Rathbone]

My eggs, oh my dear little eggs are doing NOTHING! Three with little tiny cracks that don't get any bigger. I heard two different cheeps. But the cracks are not progressing AT ALL! I am beside myself!

 

[debilorrah]

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Git yer face off the glass and read a book or knit something. You are gonna make yourself crazy!!!

 

[LarryPQ]

Go clean. Productive AND kills time.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

My eggs (BLRW) were shipped out on Monday from Georgia... still in the mail. It's been in the teens at night... crap!

Also my chickens are driving me nuts... I wanted to hatch some of them. When I'm making breakfast I note which are fertile and which aren't (young roo with about 30 girls here, he's a very busy man) - some days I get maybe 1/6 fertile, today 4/5. I have no idea how many (shipped plus my mutts) eggs to put in my bator to get about 5 chicks. Bator will hold 24 eggs.

Any suggestions?

Boyfriend is an enabler and asked if I was going to buy another incubator. I haven't even put eggs in this one yet or hatched anything! Those are strong words for a man who just finished building the 8x12 coop addition.

 

[SteveH]

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Tell him to build you one for Christmas , a cabinent style .

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Then he'd have to build me another coop.

I got into trouble when I read that you can expect about 10% of shipped chicks to die. Then I figured I was new at it, so figure 25%... so I ordered 29 chickens. They sent 31. Not a single one passed (which is good, but also bad).

I don't want to run into the same thing with incubating... If I put 24 eggs in my bator (the max it will hold) I can foresee all 24 hatching.

Again, I really want just about 5-6 chicks. Max of 8. Shipped eggs from about 800 miles away, in freezing temps... plus my own maybe fertile maybe not also in freezing temps...