March 2017! Hatch with us!

[orrpeople]

HI there! My first hatch. Put them in bator last Monday. Using a farm innovator 4250 and trying not to feel discouraged after reading posts here of people not liking them. I got 8 olive Eggers and 8 French copper Marans that I paid for from someone local. Really hoping some hatch. I think I've been running the humidity too high at 55 to 65%

Local eggs will do better in general, and are a little more tolerant of fluctuations in temp and humidity than shipped eggs. You are right, though, probably good to drop your humidity. People vary widely on their preferences, but I will say that I think your particular breeds of eggs (BCM, and, I'm assuming your OEs are BCM crosses) would do much better in the low 30s - sometimes I even let them run in the high 20s.

 

[yeye5]

5 days until my first group of cream legbars are due. This is one of the first hatches I've done with strictly "for me" to raise chicks... no sexlinks, no meaties, no one waiting on them to buy...I feel kind of selfish. A friend asked, "What kind of birds are you hatching next?" After I described the breed, I had to stifle my desire to say, "They're all mine!!!!"

Good for you! Reading your posts it sounds like you have lots of people and pressure around the hatches that are "for" others. Not that "for you" hatch lessens the pressure but I see it as excited anticipation. I'm tickled for you and hope they ALL hatch perfectly!
How many eggs are expected to hatch in this round?
What else do you have going in there?

 

[orrpeople]

6 days after those, I have another Cream Legbar batch (local), some Silverudd's Blues (been following a breeder here on BYC that does beautiful work with these birds, so I'm super excited about those), and then the Swedish Flower Hens that I'm going to sell. I had been trying and trying to find someone with 55 Flowery Hens (besides the outrageously priced Greenfire) because they are autosexing, as well as great layers that will have some longevity (the whole 'production layer' racket makes me sick...disposable birds grrr.....but, I digress). But, I couldn't find any, so I chose SFH because they have some similar characteristics, but they are not autosexing. Then, as soon as I have a nice lot of them from two good breeders in the incubator, I find two very good sources for the 55s! One is even local!! So, that is my very loooonnnggggg answer to what I'm working on currently!

 

[yeye5]

I'm guessing your X on the egg is for turning purposes - mine have x's where I'm predicting the chick will pip. I don't draw the air sacks (I used to, but after dropping a couple eggs, I decided I didn't have enough coordination), but I look for that low point in the air sack and put on my prediction pip mark. This also helps me to lay them with the correct side up at lockdown!

Question #1: what different pens/pencils are safe to marks eggs with vs which are absolute No-no's (toxicity etc)?
If I'm trying to get a hen to go broody I make very visible marks in sharpie. Those are for me to distinguish the "fake" real eggs from the new eggs that are being laid. However I'd think sharpie would be toxic to the embryo. Is that correct?
I've seen others' marks on the hatch-a-long threads made in pencil so the other day I did mark a date (when egg was laid) on a few eggs. Other options?

Question #2: when I try to candle eggs, especially in this "crazy-hatch" with eggs from so many dates laid, it looks to me like the air sack moves as I tilt the egg and that the dark part moves along with it. Do air sacks move? Or is the movement made from the mass of the hopefully live chick putting pressure on the air sack when I tilt the egg?
Thanks.

 

[Jessimom]

Question #1: what different pens/pencils are safe to marks eggs with vs which are absolute No-no's (toxicity etc)?
If I'm trying to get a hen to go broody I make very visible marks in sharpie. Those are for me to distinguish the "fake" real eggs from the new eggs that are being laid. However I'd think sharpie would be toxic to the embryo. Is that correct?
I've seen others' marks on the hatch-a-long threads made in pencil so the other day I did mark a date (when egg was laid) on a few eggs. Other options?

Question #2: when I try to candle eggs, especially in this "crazy-hatch" with eggs from so many dates laid, it looks to me like the air sack moves as I tilt the egg and that the dark part moves along with it. Do air sacks move? Or is the movement made from the mass of the hopefully live chick putting pressure on the air sack when I tilt the egg?
Thanks.

Question 1:
There have been "tests" done with sharpies and dry erase markers - they colored the ENTIRE egg. They had 100% hatch. So, I use Sharpies on mine. My hatches haven't gotten any worse or better than when I only used pencil.

Question 2:
When I see a moving air cell, to me that says it's detached. I have had very little luck hatching detached air cells, but I think there is advice out there on how to help if it is detached.

Good luck!!

 

[yeye5]

This post here is sort of a run-on from the one above. I've been thinking way too much about eggs...

When/if you all have a hatch in which a certain number of eggs hatch in the expected time, how long do you wait before you remove the other eggs?
IF the situation (mine is from being an amateur but it could also be the darkness of the shells for other cases) is one where you can't tell much by candling, what do you all do? I mean do you discard and all done? Do you open the egg to see what may have happened? In such cases, do you open it at the air sack?
What (the simple and the gross) have people found inside?
*I once had a bad egg ferment and cracking it caused the egg to explode violently spewing disgusting smelling goo all over my legs. Is that simply a timing thing? or caused by some sort of bacteria getting in?

I believe those are my left over questions though as you can guess, I'll probably come up with a few more before the month is over.
The olive egg that's still in the nest was set on either a Friday night or Saturday morning. This past weekend made it 21 days and over.
Is there any harm done to open in--Outside the nest of course.
See? There was already another question...

And, despite saying I wasn't going to do this, I did add in the 2 remaining olive eggs. They were destined for the nature-recycle anyway as they'd been laid 2-12 and 2-14. It was a crazy reaction to the sadness of the chick that died yesterday in the shelll. Of Course Mima knows they're added. She's giving me dirty looks! How can one egg be cold like it came from inside and another right next to the cold one be warm to hot? That's so strange!

 

[dan26552]

My ducks gone broody, guess I'll let her set on a clutch.

 

[Jessimom]

Well, my broody hen situation has good news and bad news. My full size hen, I moved a large dog crate into their coop (plenty of room), put a tarp on it, so nobody can sit on it and poo. I put food and water, hay and wood chips and moved over broody momma. She hated it and got off the nest (thankfully, I hadn't given her any eggs yet).

My silkies - I was told there were 2 silkies brooding...they were wrong. There was 1 silkie all by herself brooding, and in the other laying area there was a pile of 6 or 7 silkies brooding. I was easily able to section off the pile of silkies, so I slipped 6 eggs under the bottom/back hen. If they stay on those eggs, I'll probably give them 6 more tonight.

Has anyone else tried to brood under a PILE of silkies? Do I forcibly take out a few of the hens? Let them brood somewhere else?

Thanks!

 

[angieangie]

Has anyone ever had eggs that went in at the same time grow at different rates? I have some that look like a few day behind what they should be. They are still moving. And I have some that I think are quitters look like they stopped growing a few days ago and aren't moving. But I am leaving them all in unless I smell something funky, just in case.

 

[Jessimom]

Has anyone ever had eggs that went in at the same time grow at different rates? I have some that look like a few day behind what they should be. They are still moving. And I have some that I think are quitters look like they stopped growing a few days ago and aren't moving. But I am leaving them all in unless I smell something funky, just in case.

I don't know....I think I see that sometimes - what I THINK, is that it might just be the way the chick is sitting in the shell when we candle it. It could me a smaller chick. I've had chicks too big to actually hatch. I sometimes see those smaller chicks hatch, sometimes they don't. I always write Maybe on the eggs that don't look as mature as the others. That way when "maybe's hatch, I feel great!