Great! My first hatch of the season is going well so far. I think I told you I set 25 New Hampshire and all made it to lockdown. So far I have 13 hatched zooming around the hatcher and today is day 21 at 2PMI 'll throw a shout out recommendation here, I'm heading into day six of incubation on 18 Germans I got from you and my test candle last night showed progress in the three I checked
You may hear from me again later this spring, I may get some Marans from you
Great! My first hatch of the season is going well so far. I think I told you I set 25 New Hampshire and all made it to lockdown. So far I have 13 hatched zooming around the hatcher and today is day 21 at 2PM
Great! My first hatch of the season is going well so far. I think I told you I set 25 New Hampshire and all made it to lockdown. So far I have 13 hatched zooming around the hatcher and today is day 21 at 2PM
Day 1 - 18, 45 - 55% humidity. I used a new Sportsman digital incubator for this first set and the temp held pretty steady at 99.6 and humidity 48%. I do all the hatching in my old gqf hovabators, humidity 55 - 65% and of course when hatching is happening the humidity rises to as much as 80% at times. I have had sucessfull hatches for years this way even with the Marans which some say are harder to hatch. I have always hatched on their sides but this time tried them standing up in egg cartons. So far, really liking this method. Makes sense that if day 1-18 you have them standing up in auto turners that they would hatch better standing up. If you have them on their sides for day 1 - 18 and manually turn, hatch them on their sides.Curious as to your preferred hatching method. I was going to go regular humidity, then I wanted to go dry method to avoid drowned chicks, and then I was reading a thread about low humidistat adversely affecting the epigenetics of the birds being hatched. I take epigenetics as seriously as regular genetics so now I'm all just cross eyed and confused. Well. That's what more research and chit chatting is for.
Thinking May at the latest. I just have one Ameraucana pair and she just laid her fourth egg today. They need to be at least Medium in size before I will try to hatch them and I always do a test hatch before selling any to make sure of fertility and hatchability.Ah. I'm flexible with time. Coordinating all this makes it so my timeline has to be more....wimbly wombly timey whimey.
What's "later" in the seasons, because I'm good with anything before summer really.
Blue Ameraucanas would be absolutely lovely!
I'm also adding lavender orpingtons to my "want" list.. Or any orpingtons that carry the gene but have great builds so I can breed in my own lavender eventually.
Ultimately I realize I might not be able to get all these eggs at one time, but I'll try and get them all together as close as possible to keep things as neat and tidy as possible (in my own mind).
Gonna go make my way to Home Depot to shop around a bit.
I have gathered eggs for 14 days and had very successfull hatches. When single mating I want enough eggs to make using the incubator worthwhile so I save for longer. 7 Days is optimum for hatchability. I store them on a shelf in my bedroom closet in egg cartons with a wedge under one end changing ends morning and night (if I remember!), it is about 50 - 55 deg. in there. I don't save anything for hatching that is dirty or lightbulb/oddly shaped.
