November Hatch-A-Long (2014)

[darkbluespace]

Temp is back up in my bator so I went ahead and candled... everyone looks good! 8 Frizzle Serama in various stages and 10 out of 12 duck eggs are developing!!!! Thrilled and nervous because that is a lot of ducklings!!

 

[Steampunked]

Well, I managed to find a hygrometer, and it was about 80% humidity in the incubator, so I lowered the water, and it hit 20%...argh. Lockdown is on this coming thurs, so hopefully I'll manage to keep it at 30-40% until then, and I won't get swollen chicks...who knows.

At least next time I'll have more of a clue, even if I fail these guys.

 

[DuckLover1029]

is anybody else getting anxious from all the waiting, it seems like the 20th is soooooooooooo far away!!

 

[Junibutt]

is anybody else getting anxious from all the waiting, it seems like the 20th is soooooooooooo far away!!

I sympathize with duck hatchers, too long of a wait for me! You should try emus next time))

 

[Rainier]

I am exhausted! Our power was just out for about 5 hours!

I tried to keep my eggs warm by putting bags of hot water in the incubator and keeping a down comforter over it. The digital thermometer didn't go below 93 but it must have gotten much cooler in there. Hopefully they will be fine, I'm not too worried. I was mostly worried the power would be off all night like last time and I have 4 one day old chicks to keep warm! Two were still in the incubator, thankfully they were about ready to come out. If this had happened yesterday I am sure I would have lost them. I made a fire in the wood stove and put the chicks in a little basket in front of it with a thermometer so I could keep an eye on the temp. Everyone seems to be doing well considering the drama!

I thought for sure we were going to lose power. We had really bad winds and horrible rain (even for WA). Luckily we didn't lose power. Never would have thought to put chicks in front of the stove, ours gets so hot.

 

[commanderforts]

we bought chickens 2 times. the first they would follow and love you so I assume they were incubated in incubators. the second ones were raised by their mothers and were terrified of humans since they were born. and one was a turkey! we raised him with chickens

 

[commanderforts]

lucky for me Arizona is hot! but once we had 5 chicks in the winter and the runt died over night being smothered. first chickens ever. another one died of unknown causes. it was just stiff on the floor.
but our second chickens all lived and the turkey is huge!

 

[Junibutt]

we bought chickens 2 times. the first they would follow and love you so I assume they were incubated in incubators. the second ones were raised by their mothers and were terrified of humans since they were born. and one was a turkey! we raised him with chickens

Yes, thats the only problem raising with broodies. The chicks end up behaving wildly

 

[MrsFitzDarcy]

This is my second try at incubating eggs. Last time I had mostly clears. I ended up with 2 chicks that are still alive.

Due November 11:

• 15 Crested Cream Legbar
• 6 Silkie crosses (just a test to see if my roo is fertile)

Due November 18:

• 6 Rouen duck eggs

I can't wait to candle in two days!

 

[Dcat]

Since you did not do a fertility test on the eggs before testing? I would say that any eggs that were clear should not be counted in the hatch rate. If some developed but quit (blood ring), that should be counted. So if we count based off fertile eggs, and all 5 of yours hatch, you will have a 100% hatch rate but if you base it on total set, you will have a 50% hatch rate on chicken eggs.

Thanks Junibutt, I am basing it on fertile eggs not the whole set. The only fertility test I did was to crack a couple to see if any showed the bullseye. I didn't see any in the quail eggs but my daughter thought she saw one so we tried them. I did end up going to the website of the woman I bought the eggs from and with the quail she specifically said she keeps her breeding pairs separate and all others are used only for egg production. The lady did not advertise in any way that she was selling fertilized eggs, I just took the chance that they might be. I figured it couldn't hurt to try them and if none were fertile then I would still have a nice local farm to purchase fresh eggs rather than from the supermarket.