Missed the Easter hatchalong, anyone else setting 4/10?

[OzarkCountryGirl]

Setting eggs tomorrow for 3rd graders.

That should be exciting for them!

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

So far, two have hatched...a Black Australorp and a Buff Ameraucana...with seven more eggs that are pipping. Hatch date is to be this coming Thursday, but it looks as if they've decided to crash the party early.

 

[Alaskan]

Oooh!

Now why are you getting chicks now, and I have to wait another week??

 

[frg34]

Candled my 7 yesterday which was 10.5 days from start. 4 looked good, 2 looked clear and another questionable. Going to leave them for a while longer to be sure. Wasnt expecting any to look clear. I don't look every time for fertility in my eggs, but when I do they have been fertile. Maybe my little rooster is missing 1 or 2 of the hens. 2 that look clear were also laid just a couple hours before I started incubating them. Is that an issue? Doesnt seem like it would be, since I assume a hen remains on her clutch after laying her last egg.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Eggs being laid immediately before being set wouldn't affect fertility at all. Most likely, there is a hen or two that isn't being fertilized. The first time we set eggs from our flock (when we had only 1 rooster and 6 hens) I noticed that none of the eggs from a particular 2 hens were fertile, while all of the eggs from another 2 hens developed (the other 2 laid eggs that were so similar I couldn't accurately tell them apart and only about half of those eggs seemed to be fertile). Clearly some of my hens liked my rooster better than others!

We also candled again last night. The fourth questionable egg was without question dead, we could see what looked like veining but there was far too much light shining through the shell (it was a green egg, too dark to easily candle). But all of the others looked great! So now we have nothing to do but sit on our hands until Sunday. We're going to go into lockdown Sunday night, since we work all day and really only get over to check the eggs in the evenings, and also since the incubator has been running a little on the higher side and in the past we've consistently had chicks about a day early.

 

[Alaskan]

I am having problems talking myself into doing another incubator clean out (checking for clears, quitters and potential exploders and tossing them). I just want lots of babies, and do not want to see my egg numbers dwindle.

 

[Alaskan]

OK....I am going to be gone all weekend.. -sigh- so I guess I better go through the incubator now, get it over with.

 

[1muttsfan]

Let it go if you want - just have a sniff around for anything "off". I prefer to keep my hopes intact.

 

[Alaskan]

Let it go if you want - just have a sniff around for anything "off".  I prefer to keep my hopes intact.

Nah, the nightmares of exploding eggs was enough to talk me into doing a very thorough candling.

Tossed some but still have some. So next week will still have lots of chicks. -sigh- and

I didn't toss any iffy ones either. Shipped eggs..... Gonna have to toss some...... Still disappointing

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

Nah, the nightmares of exploding eggs was enough to talk me into doing a very thorough candling.

Been there, done that