May Hatch Thread--Fill up those bators n' broodies!

[jnjmanning]

Well this is day 3 for my Tolbunts. I put 15 in, no detached aircells , and I believe 10 confirmed fertile, 5 unsure but will wait till day 7 to candle again. I usually dont candle till day 4 for the first time, but I was so excited I couldnt wait!!!!!

 

[wabbit1964]

Incubator with auto egg turner with a batch due 5/13 (7 eggs from my mutt hens) and due 5/16 (24 bought from someone with some fancy breeds)

Good luck everyone

 

[18Peeps]

Yes, shipped eggs are a crap shoot. I once got some from Calif. I live in NC. Three hatched of 12. That, I thought was actually good considering all they went through. This Spring I got some from 400 miles away and they had frozen, go figure. It was not even freezing there. You never know with shipped eggs. The eggs I have now from Hinkjc look good and they were shipped. I have not gotten rid of but three of the 16, I received from her and today is lockdown. They are all developing. Yeh! Lav. and white orps. I love their little fuzzy butts. Orps are the sweetest ladies. I got some from Bargain and they all hatched good too. That was last yr. It is according to how the po. feels that day and who they are handled by on the way. If they decide to shake and be mean to them they will not hatch. Believe me some people will do just that. There's one in every crowd. I love it when I can go pick up the eggs myself. Then i know how they are handled. Even then you do not know how the Roo was performing.

Yep had some bombs there too. Its a rainy Sun. here. Thats' better than drought though. Have a great Sunday everyone.

You're right, you never know how well someone is packing those eggs until you see them after you've already bought them. I think some people really know how to pack eggs well for shipping, and they probably would do well regardless of how far they had to be shipped. Trisha at tls_Ranch on this site does a really great job packing eggs for shipping because she packs them in bubble wrap with the large end/air cell up of the egg up and she puts everything in peanuts too, but the shipments I received (from a different source) all came with the eggs laid on their sides. They all had detached air cells and the poor things had been shaken so much barely any grew. They only had the bubble wrap with no extra peanuts too and a couple got broken in shipping.
I'm very happy to have local eggs this time around though. They are doing well so far

. 29 of 30 eggs seem to be growing!

 

[18Peeps]

Well this is day 3 for my Tolbunts. I put 15 in, no detached aircells , and I believe 10 confirmed fertile, 5 unsure but will wait till day 7 to candle again. I usually dont candle till day 4 for the first time, but I was so excited I couldnt wait!!!!!

It's so hard to wait! I tried to candle a few day 4 and one that I thought was not developing was clearly developing by day 7

. They are Barnevelders so they have brown shells and it made it a little harder to see the veins in there. Maybe that will happen for your remaining 5 too

!

 

[BearSpringsFarm]

So just candled - all 26 are fertile!! Will candle again on day 10 to check for growth.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Justoldbobo]

Just candled a few of mine for fun while rotating them in the egg cartons. Day three and can see veins on couple for sure! They are all brown shell barnyard mix. Some darker than others. Hard to see anything. Just makes me more excited!

 

[AusChook]

I'm going to join. I set these today. They should hatch the 21st of may. This is my second try at incubating and my first batch only hatched 5 days ago.

 

[HippieHomesteader]

Hello all! I set a dozen ancona duck eggs that are set to hatch on May 1. I tossed one at day 14, but all the rest look beautiful. This is my first time incubating, so I'm pretty excited. I just went into lockdown, and I have at least three that have pipped internally, one I expect to pip the shell today. That little peep peep peep is sweet sweet music! I'm trying to be patient, which is made harder by my two year old who keeps asking, "my ducks is hatching today?"

 

[Missyktsm]

Thanks to everyone who replied and verified that my constant bator checking is completely normal...well, with chicken lovers anyway.

So today is day 4 and I'm candling and documenting everything...we'll see how that goes. I think I have a couple with blood rings. Crossing my fingers there are no more.

Oh, quick question...most of these eggs are fairly porous. How can you tell if the egg is fertile and developing with porous spots all over it?

 

[jnjmanning]

Well I let my shipped eggs rest for 24 hrs. They all arrived pointed end down. I placed them in a cut down egg carton when I put them in the incubator. After 3 days I finally placed them in the turner today. The air cells are a little weird shaped, but non were detached! I did the same for my 1st shipped batch and they are doing awesome. I ordered 6, 9 shipped, culled 3 so 6 are in the incubator. When I candled last night I can see every baby chick moving. Looks like eggs aerobics in there! Aircells are a little funny looking, but I am just going to keep a close eye when it comes to hatching. Lockdown 1 week from today! I did read somewhere that they stopped turning shipped eggs at day 16? Anyone else do this or have experience with it?