Set 16 Eggs August 4th @11:30 am 2010

[Valley Girl]

This is my second kick at the incubator

I set 16 chicken eggs yesterday all from my own hens.My first hatch in June was pretty good,18 out of 24 hatched and are doing really well.Still not sure what I have yet.......hopefully not too many roosters!

Here's some pictures from my last hatch......I have rhode islands and the rooster was an Austrlorp and this is what I ended up with

Does anyone have any idea what the little brown one might be.....it's the only one like that and seems to be everyones favourite

Isn't it pretty

This is the only one that looks like a rhode.

 

[featherz]

brown one looks like my EE's! (greenish legs and all), even though I assume it isn't with that rooster/hen combo. How did that one get in there?

Neat!

Good luck on your hatch - mine are cooking too!

 

[Valley Girl]

I know our rhode islands are crossed with the white leghorn,we got those at our local feed store but the roosters(we had two) came from a fellow that claimed they were pure australorp.Of course I'm no expert but he sure is a pretty boy

What are EE's

one of the white ones has those same greenish legs........she has her tights on,that what I think.

 

[mothersin2ition]

very pretty birds! You got white chickens from a cross between austraulorp and rhode islands? Wow! I just set 31 eggs yesterday as well, 12 are crosses of french black maran (rooster) and Americauna (EE ie easter eggers) hens. The rest are mutt chickens, dad is either a barred rock bantam or cuckoo maran, the hens are all sorts of different breeds

kinda just sitting around waiting to see what hatches!
Anyway, we can be \\hatch buddies! What kind of bator do you use, what settings are you at?
Im using my little giant forced air bator, hand turning the eggs. Temp is around 100 and humidity is in the 30-40% range.

 

[Valley Girl]

Sure we can be hatch buddies.The Rhodes aren't pure bred so that's where the white ones came from.This is only my second time hatching.
Sounds like you are going to have an interesting and colourful hatch! Do you have any pictures you can post,I would love to see some of your hens.
I have a cabinet bator, a GQF sportsman,bought it second hand it's forced air and has an automatic egg turner.It works quite well. My temp is 99.5 and the humidity is 60%. My last batch it ranged between 55% to 65%. I had 24 eggs and 18 hatched.3 had yolks and 3 had chicks that didn't make it

I haven't done a wet bulb reading yet but I have a dry reading and a hydrometer and that is what I'm going by.It was bang on last time.

So now we wait

 

[mothersin2ition]

I will try to get some pics today of my flock, but Im only actually hatching 3 of my own. I ordered 12 from a member here on BYC (they will be olive eggers if they hatch) and I got 18 from my friend who has buff orpingtons and golden comets penned with a buff orpington rooster. Also I got 3 eggs from a pen where there is a cuckoo maran rooster with BO hens.
I have been hand turning and im definitely going to invest in an auto turner for next go-around.
When do you plan on candling?

 

[mothersin2ition]

Hey Valley Girl, how's your hatch coming along? I have had disaster after disaster with mine

including blowing the circuit board in my bator, and having to run out and get another one to try and save the eggs. Tonight I candled for the first time and out of 31, I now have 16. The olive eggers that I bought off BYC, all but 4 had air bubbles inside, and no development. The rest of the eggs I took out were infertile (I had gotten them from a friend and her rooster is old, and apparently his fertility is declining). There was only one egg that I pulled that had any development at all, and I pulled it because there was a blood ring. Apparently it died sometime in the last day or two.
Well, theres my update. I ordered an egg candler and I hope it gets here soon. Its hard to candle with the big flashlight i have right now. Have you candled yours yet?

 

[Valley Girl]

OMG!!! That's terrible! So sorry you lost so many eggs.Can you get more or did they come from a long ways away? I always worry about something happening to my incubator,it being second hand but knock on wood,so far no problems.
I haven't candled any yet,like you I'm using a flash light and I almost dropped one from the last batch

freaked me out a bit! LOL I might try a few tonight,I don't like to keep opening the bator,unless I have to. I did add two more eggs.I have one Australorp hen and I got her eggs on the 6th and 7th.So they'll be a couple days later. When I did the last ones I didn't know which eggs were hers as there were several in that nesting box the day I set them but with these two I know,it was the only egg in there and I waited

two days in a row

what we do sometimes!! LOL

So that's it from here,I wish you better luck,keep your chin up,Val

 

[mothersin2ition]

the eggs I ordered came from virginia, so yes very far away. I wont be ordering any again right now. Im just hoping that maybe one or (dare I dream?) two hatch out of those- and we'll see what hatches from the mix I got from my friend. I can always incubate my own eggs, they are mostly all fertilized and Im getting about 8 per day. They'd all be mutts though lol.
good news is, my broody hen just hatched 3 babies this weekend! 2 were buff orpington purebreds from my friend (yay!!) and one was mine- an americauna/barred rock mix.

 

[mothersin2ition]

Another depressing update. I got my egg candler in the mail today so I looked at the eggs again. I am now down to 3

. 2 had blood rings, the rest were infertile. I only have one of my shipped eggs left, but it looks promising so far. I can see the veins starting to show up quite a bit.

that it survives. Of course if it does make it to hatch, it will probably be a roo LOL.
Anyway, Im going to collect eggs from my girls tomorrow and throw them in the bator. Im determined to have something out of this hatch!