MAY 2016 "Land of the Free Because of the brave!" Hatch-a-Long Hosted by, Mike & Sally

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: X 2 Happy to have you here and in the hatch!
I haven't seen you in a while, I probably missed when you've been on.

Sally, waiting to know if there are any puppies yet. Maybe they came and I missed out, always behind.

I'm waiting to hear too! You didn't miss anything.

Puppies, puppies, puppies!!!

Mostly finished with my breeding pen today:





Just need the tin for the roof and the paint and we're done! Also got more framing done for the bantam coop:


Just need to do the roof framing and then she'll be ready for plywood siding/roofing. Going to do the roof tomorrow.

That's gonna be nice!! Envious here.

I have 3 more broodies! Two of them just hatched chicks a month ago. One of them went and then the next one laid an egg and stayed put on it today. They have been known to fight over eggs so I gave them each a basket to sit on. Hopefully that will work. They can switch baskets, I just hope they will leave eggs in them. I am putting Silkie eggs under everyone but i ran out because everyone went broody at the same time.

I have a few dozen Serama eggs but I can't decide if I should incubate them.... I am already overrun. Yes? No? Yes? No? I can guess what you all would recommend.

Someone actually called me a crazy chicken lady yesterday. Well, I still need more chickens! Maybe just not Seramas.

I have been looking at my old turkey coop which currently just has a few Serama roosters living in it and I am thinking about putting my Silkies in there. It is so big, I am tempted to make it into three or four coops. It has a huge run on one side I could split in half and fencing on the other side could be made into another run. I just have to figure out how to arrange it all!

More broodies!!!!
Serama's? I'd say yes, yes, yes to incubating!!!

But of course, be aware I "might" be an enabler.
I'm starting to drown in oegbs...

 

[Poultator]

I'm interested to hear as well. I think other have incubated refrigerated eggs and done ok.
I think fridges are about 4 C (39 F)?
The big thing is to let them warm to room temp first and then add them to the incubator.
You don't want condensation on the eggs.

I have a theory that the type of egg carton might make a difference in the loss of humidity in the egg, thus affecting the viability of the egg.
I've kinda noticed that the eggs do better coming out of an enclosed styro egg carton than the open pulp ones.
I want to put both eggs from both types in to do an experiment at some point.

I have about 6-8 dozen eggs stacked in a very old fridge that's not a frost free fridge so it won't be dry like a regular fridge.
It's also not working properly and is keeping them around 54 F.
I haven't set any yet and they're getting old.

Thanks, I will definitely keep everyone updated!
I let them sit for 24 hours at room temperature and candled them before putting them in the 'bator. The air sacs on most of them looked okay (they remembered my 'tip' of storing them point down) and they were in a Styrofoam carton, but a couple had ruptured and were full of fluid so we tossed 'em. I know that they have been saving them for me for about a week, and some are older eggs than others, so some have probably only been refrigerated a day or two. I've got 14 eggs in---When I candle next week we will see how they have fared.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

So call me crazy, but I set 24 peafowl eggs last night and today I'm gonna set another 88. Many are older, so I doubt they'll hatch, but I'll set them just for grins.

-Kathy

That's awesome! I set older eggs too.
I'd love to hear how you make out!

Woke up this morning to hatched chicks, turkeys .
due today right on time.....
Kerns Amerucanas 11 out of 13 have hatched ( wish mine were that fertile)
3 turkeys of the eggs I found out side under the broody turkey hen after she hatched her chicks are hatching. one 5 days ago, 2 this morning, 2 not doing anything yet. I left them in the turner until pipped. Because I know they were particle started under the turkey.
2 NN 1 feathered neck out of the Brahma cross NN roo and my blue marans hen.
humidity was down to 20 percent but hatching like mad.
PS my turkey is laying again . 8 eggs so far. She sleeps on them at night with her chicks but I see her outside with her chicks in the daytime. It will be interesting to see if she hatches this clutch of egg....
.........................................................................................................................................
I have Broodies everywhere. in the one NN roo pen there is 2 marans blue hens sitting on I don't know how many eggs. LOTS of them.....
A black marans hen sitting on amerucana eggs (have to check them to see if they are any good. It horrible around here with Broodies or hens that want to set.....


Boy did I make a big mistake didn't get to the feed store yesterday ran out of chick starter. They are hungry and peeping up a storm. It doesn't open until 9. I am going outside.....

That's a lot going on!! Cutie chicks!

 

[junebuggena]

My broody got curious and tried to 'help' a chick hatch too soon. Poor baby didn't make it. Four more eggs pipped, and it looks like the hen has left those alone. Hoping for some healthy babies tomorrow morning.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Quote: Yes, don't toss too early.

Quote:
I candle my guinea eggs just like I do with the chickens, except like Pyxis says...they're harder to see than chicken eggs.
I haven't tossed any of the ones that have shown life, only if I was completely certain it was no good.
I candled mine last night due June 6 and all the ones I had put question marks on were moving fine.
So it was really good I hadn't chucked them out!

They're different than chicken eggs with how the embryo moves.
I don't care for incubating them....but I am looking forward to getting keets! Hopefully...

Good luck. I found them to be odd to candle too. Some seem to develop at different rates.

Lol...I just came in from candling the 4 guinea eggs that are under my last two broodies (I ended up not changing the eggs because I was going to be away when they were hatching) and I it looks like 3 of the 4 keets have internally pipped.

They're not due until Monday so this caught me off guard.
I'm not certain if the one egg is viable or if it's died.

Is Monday day 26 or 28? I hatched my first batch, first pip on day 25, hatched day 26, Then 4 pipped and Hatched Day 28, and one piped day 28 and hatched day 29.

I just got a batch of guinea eggs from a friend into the 'bator, but I'm pretty sure they were refrigerated for a few days. We shall wait and see what develops.

Good Luck!

Just a quick update:

The last egg I was waiting on died. Opened it the next day.

The keets are pipping today.
Then the one broody hopped off the nest to go eat!

And she was gone for a while.
Meanwhile her eggs are sitting there with big cracks in them out in the open...

I didn't intervene...I want to see if she knows more than I think she does...lol!!
The guinea hen lays every day...and I've got more eggs, I guess.

I have 9 guinea eggs that are good and a few that are questionable.
I have 6 left of the blue egge layer, plus the 2 groups of started eggs...
and the guinea eggs I set today. So far anyway.

Good luck!

Wow, Mike! I can't even see any veining in my eggs!

To be honest I just find the guinea eggs weird...lol.
But that only makes me more determined to hatch more!

Monday would be day 28. That's good to know about the wide spread on hatching.
Thank you for the additional information.
I'm not knowledgeable at all about the guinea eggs other than what I'm experiencing right now.

But I do have some exciting updates...

Day 21 and I have 5 babies already! While taking out some chicks real quick and cleaning up egg shells I saw some stuff under a egg. So I checked that egg and he had pipped wrong side down and through the yolk. He was already gone before I noticed. 4 eggs left but haven't pipped but I did see movement. I think they are just a day behind because I put them in the next day after the others. Now on to the pictures!! They are a cross between a barnevelder roo and a black sex link hen so I guess they are backyard mutts?

That or "hybrids" depending on how your breeding them...lol.

Thank you all for the good luck!

Quote:
That's unfortunate about the couple of ruptured eggs...but nice on getting 14 eggs in!!!
Sounds like you've got it all under control.

 

[darkbluespace]

[COLOR=333333]So call me crazy, but I set 24 peafowl eggs last night and today I'm gonna set another 88. Many are older, so I doubt they'll hatch, but I'll set them just for grins.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]-Kathy[/COLOR]

I have had eggs I was going to set and then didn't for a week or two, then finally decided to put them in with newer eggs and was surprised to find that they did equally well! These were tiny eggs too, I would think that the bigger eggs would be viable for longer. I have a soft spot for peafowl, what pretty and interesting birds!

 

[sasafras4u2]

Yes sally sunshines dog had 9 puppies a few days ago

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Yes sally sunshines dog had 9 puppies a few days ago

did I miss the announcement then??

 

[pjnbill22]

We woke to find a few CLBs, BLRW, and OEs have hatched. All other eggs 20+ have pipped &/or begun to zip. Just as I was about to celebrate, I noticed the temp is 103 and one thermometer shows that the temp range in the past 24 hours has been 106-95! One chick is dead. The others are panting. We removed them quickly and gave them water. We wrapped the remaining eggs in cool, moist paper towels, and found that every one of them is fully developed, but DIS. I feel like a mass murderer. Bill looked like he was going to cry. I am sick to my stomach. Luckily Curtis (12 years) was allowed to stay up very late last night to watch a movie and wasn't up yet- he's very sensitive about our animals, but I guess we all are. I'm going to soak in the tub for a bit. My head hurts.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I had to put down two chicks from the 16th hatch. One had a damaged hip and one was a failure to thrive.
Poor little guys. I have one more that's a failure to thrive, I keep hoping he'll catch on...

In happier news, here's what was waiting for me this morning...





I got a white keet!!!

(ok, or porcelain/icy,ivory/opaline etc...whichever it turns out to be...lol)

I knew the fellow I'd gotten them from had either pieds or whites once upon a time, but had went back to strictly pearl.
All the guineas he has are pearl in appearance.
But the female (and I think the male too) have variegated toes.
I was hoping it'd be an indication like black tongues in sheep.
So I've been quietly hoping for something wild to hatch!!

Now I just hope it's a female.

The hen did know what she was doing leaving the nest...lol
All the broodies are under a year old and this is their first time being broody.

I checked the last two guinea eggs. One's cracking!

Below is what they look like cracking out of the shell. Definitely different than a chick pip.
I think the second egg may be dead...but I'll be patient, especially with what Mike said earlier.
Thanks Mike!!