Nevadans?

[aubreynoramarie]

well the four live ones were obvious...almost the whole shell was very dark, with a large air sac on top. I could see tons of veins and a large mass moving around. The others were bloodrings and some had dark spot in them, but they were very small. i didnt have the heart to open them and look inside, all of the veining was gone in those ones. There are three i left in there but im not holding much hope. I mainly left them in for piece of mind. I could barely see veins, the mass was smaller, and there was no movement.

It just dawned on me that it probobly my fault for candling them every other day. Now i feel like i have doomed my last four eggs by candling them today.

we shall see on day 18. I feel like i should candle them then, but now im scared to. Plus im so doubtful that they will make it through lockdown.

im having a hard time sleeping now because i feel so badly. i wish it was this weekend already so i could at least know for sure!

 

[Penturner]

Audrey, I didn't see how many eggs you set etc. But I also have had horrible experience with shipped eggs. Even if the membrane at the air cell survives, shaking eggs is a known method of preventing an embryo from developing. Some breeds tend to do better than others with shipping and all my experience has been with Serama eggs. Half are lost do to broken air cells. of the remaining half very few develop past a few days. Many do not develop at all. I think we got about 4 chicks out of nearly 40 eggs. Compare that to 40 chicks out of some 50 eggs once our own hens started laying. IF hatching eggs are the only way you can get what you want then it is what you have to do. but it is a false economy method to think it is lower priced. I did actually end up paying shipping charges for just a couple of birds at a time. that gets expensive quick. but now I have a lot of little hens making fertile eggs. And we are no longer hatching any of them.
Hope everyone is well. I have been in the background for a while. Busy trying to grow my own tobacco this year.

Oh and don't be scared for the others. they made it through. so don't get all panicky and harm them with to much care. Candling and checking does them no good. let it ride and they will let you know in 7 days how they are doing.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
I'm glad you left the smaller ones in, sometimes there are some that are just slow to develop. It can be harder to see the veining as they develop more but the bloodring is a sure sign they are gone. I sure hope the rest of them make it! Hatching is such a touchy thing. I wish I had a few really committed broody hens that would stick with it and not let any other hens near their eggs I would just let them do it.

My incubator is acting up now. The electronic thermostat does not match the other 2 thermometers and I am getting spikes and dips! I got woken up several times the past 2 nights because the meat thermoneter's alarm, that I put in there, was going off telling me I have a spike in temps. Now if they would invent an alarm that would let me know when there was a dip.

I think I'm gonna be glued to this stupid thing for the next few days. Anybody know where I can get an electronic thermostat that is accurate and doesn't have such a wide range for on and off? So far the babies seem fine but it's making me more than a little nervous. BTW, some BYC folks are trying to put together an egg train so that we don't have to ship any more. Here's the link...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=348943&p=1 .com

Hey Penturner. Good to see you again.

I thought tobacco required humid climate to thrive. Not that I've ever tried. Anyway, good luck!

 

[NevadaRon]

Quote:
Ha ha. I was planning on selling two of my RIRs and a sex link gal that is at the bottom of the pecking order and she deserves a smaller flock to live in with less stress. They are fantastic layers but don't fit into my breeding program and I am getting too many eggs to sell them all anyway these days.

Quote:

Well Genny, she is a horse person, too!

OK, she wants your three Sunny, and also wants to get some of the younger ones from Genny. She needs to prepare a place for them, but the weather is supposed to turn nasty tomorrow through the weekend. So she would like to pick them up sometime next week. If she makes it next weekend I'll come with her and we can finally put faces to the names!

Aubrey I'm so sorry about your eggs!

I saw some advice in another thread re: hatching that sounded like a good idea to me. The person said to buy organic free range eggs from Trader Joe's and try to hatch them. You will gain experience much cheaper than you will with the fancy breeds you are trying to hatch. They said that many of the TJ's eggs will hatch. You can sell the resulting chicks on CL. And the failures won't bum you out nearly as much. Just a thought!

Penturner I've been wondering where you were! Speaking of CL, there was a person selling some Serama's on there a couple of days ago. They have many others including a trio of silkies, a tro of Cochins, etc.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Ha ha. I was planning on selling two of my RIRs and a sex link gal that is at the bottom of the pecking order and she deserves a smaller flock to live in with less stress. They are fantastic layers but don't fit into my breeding program and I am getting too many eggs to sell them all anyway these days.

Quote:

Well Genny, she is a horse person, too!

OK, she wants your three Sunny, and also wants to get some of the younger ones from Genny. She needs to prepare a place for them, but the weather is supposed to turn nasty tomorrow through the weekend. So she would like to pick them up sometime next week. If she makes it next weekend I'll come with her and we can finally put faces to the names!

...

Cool! I can meet you at Genny's so you don't have to drive to 2 places (that way I get to say "Hi" to Genny) or I could meet you closer to Dayton? Let me know next week.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Okay this is my third and hopefully last time I'll have to write this! Stupid phone! Not so smart indeed.

Penturner, Sunny, an Ron, thanks for the advice and kind words. I knew the risks of trying to incubate shipped eggs, but I had no idea it would be THIS BAD AT ALL. (penturner I started with 30 eggs and a hopeful spirit.) I think I will candle on Friday which will be day 18 lockdown but now I'm kinda scared to. I have no clue how stressed I am going to be about stable temps and proper humidity if any of the eggs actually make it that far.

I think i'll just fork out the cash for a breeding pair or a couple a hens after all this. Can't cost much more than the eighty bucks I spent on these eggs (plus the cost if the bator.) I just wish showgirls weren't so hard to find.

Assuming none of the eggs make it, I do want to try to see what a successful hatch feels like at some point. Afterall, I did build this darn brooder.

Thanks for the egg chain info! Just so you guys know, I will be driving to and from Monterey on the weekend of march fourth is any of you are sending eggs or anything that way or vice versa. I'd love love love to help!

 

[SunnyDawn]

If you are heading to Monterey it's only 430 miles further to this breeder of showgirl chickens...

http://www.rightpet.com/Livestock-p.../breeders/tommy-pet-paradise/showgirl-chicken
Might want to take an extra travel day. Kinda wish I hadn't found this site though. They have American Onagadoris which are an exotic chicken I am in love with! They recommend only experienced breeders try to raise these birds though.

Maybe I should get a couple of phoenix first to get a feel for the type.

JK, I'm not taking on any new projects at this time.
Penturner he also has Junglefowl!

Have some showgirl chicks shipped to you once spring is here and you don't have to worry about freezing temps. Somebody may want to share an order with you. That's what I usually do. I start a thread and ask who wants to share an order of _______ in any certain area (cover areas you travel to regularly) and list the area first (in thread title) to get folks attention. You might want to post pics of showgirl chickens for those that don't know what they are.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
Yep, she is highly intelligent

A meet up would be

Awww......aubrey I am sorry

. Shipped eggs can be

My offer still stands, LF or bantam - once you are ready. What are you using to monitor your humidity? Are you still hand turning - or did you get a turner?

I have a *theory* on shipped eggs that I have not yet tried.........but I am almost thinking that eggs from closer to sea level (or places of regular humidity), when incubated in our enironment need more humidity than "our" eggs - days 1-18. I have noticed that eggs I leave out, evaporate in the shell very quickly - I had set aside some eggs to blow out, broke my finger and the eggs "dried up" before I could drill a hole in them

Course I have not yet tried it, I started just finding breeders who would ship chicks or started birds; but I am going to try it with some eggs I am swapping for.

 

[vegaschick]

Quote:
Yep, ZooMed ReptiTemp 500R! It's great! Kept my poor homemade bator right on track. I had to order it online though cuz I couldn't find it locally at the time. Worth it though.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
Yep, she is highly intelligent

A meet up would be

Awww......aubrey I am sorry

. Shipped eggs can be

My offer still stands, LF or bantam - once you are ready. What are you using to monitor your humidity? Are you still hand turning - or did you get a turner?

I have a *theory* on shipped eggs that I have not yet tried.........but I am almost thinking that eggs from closer to sea level (or places of regular humidity), when incubated in our enironment need more humidity than "our" eggs - days 1-18. I have noticed that eggs I leave out, evaporate in the shell very quickly - I had set aside some eggs to blow out, broke my finger and the eggs "dried up" before I could drill a hole in them

Course I have not yet tried it, I started just finding breeders who would ship chicks or started birds; but I am going to try it with some eggs I am swapping for.

you got it!

I am using just the digital thermometer/ hydrometer mix thing from walmart. The thermometer is way off, so im sure the hydrometer is a little off as well. I dont have a turner but im not hand turning either. I just put the eggs in a carton and tilt the incubator a few times a day. back and forth and back and forth...

I see what youre saying about the humidity. The four that were alive the other night had really big airsacs, it was sort of worrisome because it didnt seem very "wet" in there...