May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[SharW75]

Out of the 12 eggs we sent to my nieces' teacher to incubate, only 4 hatched. I'm leaning toward an incubator issue rather than a fertility issue, based on the fact that I'm incubating 8 of our eggs right now, and they're all fertile and developing normally. Anyway, we picked up the 4 little fluff butts yesterday. What sweet babies!

The silver/grey one is from our white crested blue Polish hen and a white silkie rooster; the little wild chipmunk one is from a Brahma hen (we think), and a silkie roo--she has 5 toes on one foot and 4 on the other; the black chick is out of an EE hen and possibly our red cochin bantam roo; and the yellow chick with the faint grey chipmunk coloring is out of our buff rock hen and probably the same silkie rooster. I guess the silkie really gets around! We purposely picked a bunch of different eggs, hoping for a good variety, and we weren't disappointed!

 

[goat114]

I'm glad they're in your hands again.

You say that they don't know what they are doing, but why do they have an incubator?

Have they hatched before or do they just have an incubator because?

Maybe offer to buy the incubator for them so that you can do it by yourself next time. I think it is better off to do it yourself then let somebody else handle your eggs because they feel the burden if the eggs don't make it.

I say this because I had a friend that dropped off some duck eggs and I always feel guilty when some of the eggs don't make it. I know that a lot of it is beyond my control, but I still have that guilty feeling and the burden of it on my heart.

It was only for one night until I could get home and take care of the eggs myself. its my incubator. I have a friend who lost power so my other friend took the incubator to save the eggs.
Now they are safe again at my house. so one friend knows what she is doing and my other friend doesn't know.

 

[mandi427]

Candled tonight and all 4 eggs are still developing and moving around! Lockdown on Thursday, hatch day on Sunday.

 

[Camellia]

My incubator keeps having problems :| . It was at a fine temp earlier and now it’s at 36 c?? Why is it doing this omg :/ what am I doing wrong?? I’ve done everything and the temp won’t go up :-(

 

[CindyinSD]

What's your room temperature? Ideally you want it around 70-75° fahrenheit. Is it sitting against a cold outside wall? Under a thermostat? (where its heat may affect the thermostat's regulation of the room temp) Have you tried providing extra insulation--towels, small blanket, etc. around the incubator's body (don't cover vent holes, though!)

 

[Camellia]

What's your room temperature? Ideally you want it around 70-75° fahrenheit. Is it sitting against a cold outside wall? Under a thermostat? (where its heat may affect the thermostat's regulation of the room temp) Have you tried providing extra insulation--towels, small blanket, etc. around the incubator's body (don't cover vent holes, though!)

room temp is 65, probably why the incubator’s temp lowered. I’ll add some insulation around the bator, hopefully it’ll work, thanks

 

[kelseyk]

Been a long couple of days and have not been able to get on much - branded calves today (all day thing) and prepped a meal for 13 all day yesterday. My OE eggs finally arrived yesterday. I had been keeping in touch with the seller and the delay was definitely her post office's fault. I let them set about 6 hours and then did my preliminary candle and set them upright in my Janoel. I will probably move them over to my hovabator on day 4 as the air cells were all in great shape. Except 1 that was saddled and jiggly.....but it is also a double toll egg. Candled the Svart Hona eggs and they are all doing well. Did the ring/nail test on them....says 1 pullet and 3 cockerels.....I sure hope it is wrong! It will be fun to see how accurate/inaccurate it is. Lol! I marked the eggs and will band them when I take them out of the hatcher. I also candled my Gold Neck D'Uccle eggs (day 7) and pulled 3 - 2 blood rings and a clear that had a completely loose air cell.the remaining 4 seem to have weak veining compared to other eggs I have hatched. Between that and the eggs being more dirty than any other eggs I have gotten, I am just not overly hopeful on that batch. Will just cross fingers and hope some hatch.

Here is the video of the nail test I did on my Svart Hona eggs.

 

[Honora]

And we have an early pip! Day 20 today! Looks like one of the Swedish Flower Hens.

 

[FortCluck]

It was only for one night until I could get home and take care of the eggs myself. its my incubator. I have a friend who lost power so my other friend took the incubator to save the eggs.
Now they are safe again at my house. so one friend knows what she is doing and my other friend doesn't know.

I'd be nervous handing eggs to someone with no experience but it would be a chance for them to learn.

 

[FortCluck]

So two of the Polish crosses have hatched. One looks silver and the other is white and black

These deathlayers throw so many colors. Last time I put eggs in from their brothers. They were golden comet deathlayer crosses. I got 5 different colored chicks and one was all the colors in one (I kept that one).

I'll take pics later in the morning.

My new Chromebook comes today so I can set it up for my hatches and take pics of offspring plus of my layer flock. I may hatch barnyard mixes, but my layer flock is a bunch of eye candy purebreds crossing them has truly been my passion this year. Crossing two purebreds will blow your mind every time. I am always amazed.