Set eggs April 3rd, who's with me!!??

[Frost Homestead]

I candled eggs last week, and although I only candled 8 of the 24 I'm incubating all of the ones I checked looked good. Lockdown is today, so far so good!

Brooster - you'll have to let us know how it turned out!

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

My hatch was not great. Of 18 eggs at lockdown, 6 hatched, and one died immediately. Of the remaining 5, 2 were really weak. I gave them vitamins, and one has fully recovered. The bantam wyandotte appears to have crooked neck? I've heard of this, but never had a chick with this problem. I'm not sure what to do. She's SO cute and tiny. I've been helping her drink. She's alert and chirping, but she can't lift her head or get around. Of the 4 healthy chicks, I have 2 BCM, 1 splash maran, and 1 BLRW. I think I'm done hatching for a few months. I seem to be getting worse at it rather than better. Another chicken farmer suggested the severe monsoons we've been having all month are making my humidity too high during incubation, even though I don't add any water to the bator until lockdown. That would make sense, considering how many of the 18 eggs were fully developed chicks that never managed to internally pip. The area where I live is considered a temperate rain forest. Maybe it's just not ideal for hatching chickens?

Frost- Good luck with the hatch! Let us know how it goes!

 

[SpiritedFarm]

Good Luck Frosthazard!!

Brooster, how is it going?

I ended up with 19/22 Silkie babies..really good hatch. Really diverse colors, i will post pics whn i can figure it out.

Only got 3/12 Buff Orps......Very disapointing.
Going into lockdown on sunday with a batch of Americaunas, silkies, 2 orps, bantam cohin and the list goes on.

 

[Frost Homestead]

Spirited - that's a great % for the silkies, I might actually hatch some if I thought I could get that many out of it

I keep reading silkies are more difficult to hatch for some reason.

Brooster - well that stinks! The first hatch I did we during a period of pretty frequent rain so I never added any water until lockdown and it managed to stay around 40%. This time I'm having the opposite problem, I've filled both water trays, closed the vent, and added a wash cloth and some paper towels to increase the surface area but I can't seem to get the humidity above 60-64%. I'd really like it to be aroun 70-75% but at this point I don't think there's anything I can do.

Hatch day is the 20th

crossing my fingers!! The two hatches I've had so far have only equalled about a 50% average hatch rate so I'm not getting my hopes up too much but *man* it would be great to get more than half of them to hatch. Either way I think I'm just going to sell the chicks anyway, if the few Ameraucanas eggs I put in there hatch I'll probably keep them. I'm starting to get too many roos!

 

[Frost Homestead]

Hubby just called me at work to tell me that at least 4 of the eggs have pipped!

 

[Nickel]

Set eggs on May 1, and went into lockdown and had the cat knock over my bater.....3 eggs cracked and temp was down for a while...Im devestated.......put them back in and will hope.....they are Black Copper Marans

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Frost, how's it going with those pips!?

Aw Nickel, that must have been devastating. My cat always stalks the bator as soon as he hears the first peep. I'd probably ring his neck if he knocked it over. I hope your eggs are still ok. Any rocking or chirping yet? They might be delayed because of the temp drop.

The 2 chicks that hatched this week that were weak both died yesterday. I'm so heartbroken. I've never lost a hatched chick before, and this time I lost 3 of the 6. To make myself feel better, I spontaneously bought a bunch of chicks they had at the feed store. My BF says he's hiding the bator and my wallet. Seriously though, I think I need a break from hatching. I promised my neighbor I'd hatch a bunch of his RIR eggs for him. Hopefully that will go better since they don't have to travel, but after that I might take a break, at least from shipped eggs. I feel like I've wasted a lot of money, and I don't think I can stand any more bad hatches for a while.

 

[Frost Homestead]

Set eggs on May 1, and went into lockdown and had the cat knock over my bater.....3 eggs cracked and temp was down for a while...Im devestated.......put them back in and will hope.....they are Black Copper Marans

awh man that's terrible, I hope some of them make it and end up hatching! I was bug-bombing my house last week and had to put the incubator outside in the coop so I could keep it plugged in and I was so worried that the chickens were going to jump on it and either knock it over or cause it to get unplugged. I thought for sure something was bound to go wrong, surprisingly enough they didn't even care it was in there. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya!

edited to add:
Welcome to BYC Nickel!

 

[Frost Homestead]

When I left for work at 5:30 am there were about 6 or so in the incubator and hubby just called me to tell me he thinks there are about 10 in there now. I know they're cramped because it's a Brinsea 20 and there were already 24 eggs in there. Hubby said he's going to take them out as soon as the last one that he can tell has pipped finishes zipping. That'll give any of the remaining ones some much needed space. I can't wait to get home and see them!

 

[Frost Homestead]

One chick hatched a day late, for a total of 14.



We sold 11 of the Easter Eggers, and are keeping 2 Ameraucanas and one EE out of the hatch. The one little EE hatched a day later than the others and we had already sold them. I swear I always have one hatch out a day later than the others. I still have th bator on just in case but I don't think the remaining eggs are going to do anything