Official Christmas Hatch! c'mon and join

[Poco Pollo]

Day 10 - Just candled my hatch. I removed 4 clear Salmon Faverolles eggs and 1 clear Cream Brabanter egg. That leaves me with 16 wiggling Brabanters and 11 wiggling Salmon Faverolles. I hope they all keep developing. I love both breeds. I have a Cream Brabanter cockerel who hops up on my back whenever I go into the pen to feed and water. He rides around on my shoulder when I stand. He needs some new girlfriends, so I'm hoping for a hatch of nothing but pullets. (Ha!!! If it happens it's going to be a record. My DH says my incubator only has one setting: rooster.)

 

[kathyinmo]

Dawn ....
Is that .... is it? Is that one of my grandchicks? How many did you get? LOVE, love, love that picture!

guinea fowl galore ...
About candleing, there is a sticky at the top of the page. .... here
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876

 

[chickenmeadow]

charmedbychickens: here's the address for the great egg stage photos here on the BYC (wow, what an effort), you can click on the individual pictures to enlarge them (as joebryandt mentioned); and another of my favorite topics addresses. If your candling light is dull then just look for dark mass to decide if it's possibly a good fertile egg at day 7 or 10, as opposed to transluent/clear/unfertile eggs. Best of luck to you; gather info, don't fret, learn & enjoy!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876 (egg development)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=113681&p=3 (dry incubation method)

 

[chickenmeadow]

3chickens: Wow, what an adorable Christmas card that picture makes!

 

[Freckle Face Farm]

Quote:
Why Yes you have Grandchics.. I ended up with 4 whites and 1 buff...

They are sooo cute.. I had 1 pip but never made it out

But 5 is the lucky #

 

[charmedbychickens]

Thanks Save the Favs. I spent a good part of the day today reading up on incubating here, and the thing that I have come away with is that is is mostly trial and error. I am one who takes my errors very hard but your right, I gotta just relax and do the best with it. I have a few BCM's and EE's in there- no idea what is happening with them as I can't see through them. But the girls that laid them happen to be my roo's favorites, so I am very confident that they were fertile. The others are going to be farmyard special's- no idea who laid them. It will be fun trying to figure it out if they hatch.

I can't wait till Christmas!!! I feel like a little kid waiting for presents.

 

[sangel4you]

charmed my thought EXACTLY!!! Forget presents this year (unless maybe it's another bator or something) all I want is my chickies to hatch!!!

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
That's exactly what I did! I read everything I could find! Then, of course, I still had questions. My very first hatch was great! It was a barnyard mix of eggs I bought at the Farmer's market! My second hatch was awful ... eggs I paid for, of course. My mistake was that I covered all the holes on the bottom of the bator. I didn't know that was for oxygen! I also didn't keep the vents on top open enough ... so, the poor things died due to lack of oxygen. I learned that lesson!

 

[sangel4you]

wait, there's holes on the bottom of the bator? wouldnt they be closed anyway from sitting on something?

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Bottom of the styrofoam bators have holes. I thought they were an overflow thing... duh!! .... There are tiny little feet (actually a little bump like) that are on the corners of the bottom ... suppose to hold it up higher I guess. Actually, some people set the incubator up on blocks or something, just to be sure the oxygen circulates better through those holes. I do that now, after I heard the suggestion.