October Hatch-a-long 2022🎃🐣🍁

[Solanacae]

My husband doesn’t even ask anymore… I think he’s given up on me.
His only requirement is not to have the birds in the house. Chicks are allowed to be in the house for one week then any unsold or keepers are moved to the outside brooder. Incubators are in my home office.

I brooded chicks indoors a few times but I’m sold on using broodies to raise chicks for me. No extra mess or dust in the house to deal with. I just keep chickens for personal use, so it works for me. If I was hatching chicks to sell, I’d have to operate differently. I bet it’s fun to be at work and have the incubators right where you can see them.

 

[Solanacae]

Should be ok.
Broodies can stay off the nest often for about an hour or more.

Thank you for the reassurance! I told myself that it wasn’t really that long, and the whole rest of the time the broodies have taken pretty short breaks. I worry a little more about the jostling from the hen that came and scratched up the nest, but I’m just going to have to wait and see how it goes. Day 19 today!

 

[WIchickMama]

Thank you for the reassurance! I told myself that it wasn’t really that long, and the whole rest of the time the broodies have taken pretty short breaks. I worry a little more about the jostling from the hen that came and scratched up the nest, but I’m just going to have to wait and see how it goes. Day 19 today!

any day now--so exciting. I would agree with the rest it should be fine-my broody in July would go off for an hour or more to eat, poop and dust bathe all hatched Good luck and can't wait to see pictures.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

My husband doesn’t even ask anymore… I think he’s given up on me.
His only requirement is not to have the birds in the house. Chicks are allowed to be in the house for one week then any unsold or keepers are moved to the outside brooder. Incubators are in my home office.

Well....my 2 incubators are on the kitchen counter throughout...
Then ya see I have a small brooder I use right beside the incubators til they are like 2 weeks old...or hopping around cause it is without a top.
Me and the grandbabies absolutely LUV this entire process...well except for the 2 that didn't make it and I had to do the dreaded thing.
But instead of them then going to the garage to that brooder...and another mess to have to clean up (which BTW I still hadn't done from last babies) they will be in heated brooder inside the secure run with much less integration issues!
It has been working really well...I just have not ever bypassed the garage brooder before.
But should be

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Well....my 2 incubators are on the kitchen counter throughout...
Then ya see I have a small brooder I use right beside the incubators til they are like 2 weeks old...or hopping around cause it is without a top.
Me and the grandbabies absolutely LUV this entire process...well except for the 2 that didn't make it and I had to do the dreaded thing.
But instead of them then going to the garage to that brooder...and another mess to have to clean up (which BTW I still hadn't done from last babies) they will be in heated brooder inside the secure run with much less integration issues!
It has been working really well...I just have not ever bypassed the garage brooder before.
But should be

Sounds like you have a good plan in place.

 

[Marten]

I think we're done with hatching!

Of the 13 eggs scheduled to hatch, 11 have hatched. Unfortunately, the little guy in the cracked egg failed to internally pip, although he was fully developed. That one hurt a bit, I feel so bad for them. The egg was actually rocking back and forth moving last night, and I'd decided to at least try to help him if he hadn't pipped this morning. By the time I got to him today, he was gone.

One of the smaller cream legbar eggs from a young hen didn't hatch, either. Really, it's almost a case study in waiting for good eggs, because I was given five of the smaller eggs and only two of them made it to hatch. Two were early quitters and the third never pipped. But of the nine larger eggs, eight made it to lockdown and the only one that didn't hatch was the cracked egg.

I also had one pullet hatch very quickly and energetically, but with a partially unabsorbed yolk. I did the "back in the shell in a cup in the incubator" method, and while she's absorbed the yellow part of the yolk, there's still a bloody mass that's still attached. She's been out of the egg for about 20 hours now, so I'm really crossing my fingers for her.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I think we're done with hatching!

Of the 13 eggs scheduled to hatch, 11 have hatched. Unfortunately, the little guy in the cracked egg failed to internally pip, although he was fully developed. That one hurt a bit, I feel so bad for them. The egg was actually rocking back and forth moving last night, and I'd decided to at least try to help him if he hadn't pipped this morning. By the time I got to him today, he was gone.

One of the smaller cream legbar eggs from a young hen didn't hatch, either. Really, it's almost a case study in waiting for good eggs, because I was given five of the smaller eggs and only two of them made it to hatch. Two were early quitters and the third never pipped. But of the nine larger eggs, eight made it to lockdown and the only one that didn't hatch was the cracked egg.

I also had one pullet hatch very quickly and energetically, but with a partially unabsorbed yolk. I did the "back in the shell in a cup in the incubator" method, and while she's absorbed the yellow part of the yolk, there's still a bloody mass that's still attached. She's been out of the egg for about 20 hours now, so I'm really crossing my fingers for her.

11/13 is an excellent hatch rate.
Fingers crossed for your little one with the yolk issue.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

I haven’t really been getting alerts from this thread, also haven’t updated in a bit. I have two clutches of 8, set to hatch within 3 days of eachother.
The first is hatching October 12th, under my broody hen reese’s. I candles them yesterday and one seemed about at half the growth of others, but I didn’t toss it because I didn’t want to jump the gun on whether or not it was viable. Here is reese’s, in her angry broody glory.
She is brooding on her eggs in a feed bowl at the moment.

My second set is going to hatch October 15th(I think?) and is meant to give me olive eggers. Kind of paranoid i’ll get brown egg layers, but whatever. Since it’s an incubator hatch, i’m very paranoid, and also at the same time unsure if they’re grown enough. I had a lot of issues candling with my last incubator hatch as well though.
And… I think I just had another girl go broody. My chocolate orpington pullet, Cat in the hat, has been scooping eggs under her, shuffling on her nest, and screaming at me when I touch her this morning. If she’s still on the nest when I collect eggs this afternoon i’m going to label her as broody. Hoping she isn’t.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I think we're done with hatching!

Of the 13 eggs scheduled to hatch, 11 have hatched. Unfortunately, the little guy in the cracked egg failed to internally pip, although he was fully developed. That one hurt a bit, I feel so bad for them. The egg was actually rocking back and forth moving last night, and I'd decided to at least try to help him if he hadn't pipped this morning. By the time I got to him today, he was gone.

One of the smaller cream legbar eggs from a young hen didn't hatch, either. Really, it's almost a case study in waiting for good eggs, because I was given five of the smaller eggs and only two of them made it to hatch. Two were early quitters and the third never pipped. But of the nine larger eggs, eight made it to lockdown and the only one that didn't hatch was the cracked egg.

I also had one pullet hatch very quickly and energetically, but with a partially unabsorbed yolk. I did the "back in the shell in a cup in the incubator" method, and while she's absorbed the yellow part of the yolk, there's still a bloody mass that's still attached. She's been out of the egg for about 20 hours now, so I'm really crossing my fingers for her.

That really is a great hatch!
I'm so sorry the lil one didn't make it though.
And hopefully the eager pullet will absorb and do just fine!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I haven’t really been getting alerts from this thread, also haven’t updated in a bit. I have two clutches of 8, set to hatch within 3 days of eachother.
The first is hatching October 12th, under my broody hen reese’s. I candles them yesterday and one seemed about at half the growth of others, but I didn’t toss it because I didn’t want to jump the gun on whether or not it was viable. Here is reese’s, in her angry broody glory.
She is brooding on her eggs in a feed bowl at the moment.

View attachment 3279444
My second set is going to hatch October 15th(I think?) and is meant to give me olive eggers. Kind of paranoid i’ll get brown egg layers, but whatever. Since it’s an incubator hatch, i’m very paranoid, and also at the same time unsure if they’re grown enough. I had a lot of issues candling with my last incubator hatch as well though.
And… I think I just had another girl go broody. My chocolate orpington pullet, Cat in the hat, has been scooping eggs under her, shuffling on her nest, and screaming at me when I touch her this morning. If she’s still on the nest when I collect eggs this afternoon i’m going to label her as broody. Hoping she isn’t.
View attachment 3279445

Love the broody faces!
Sounds like you have a lot of different hatches going on with varying results. Fingers crossed that you get some nice chicks from all of these hatches!