Setting Eggs 12/28 - Hatching Buddies? Hatch-Along

[chickenbelle]

I started a batch of Coturnix quail today. I am waiting for the husband to notice

.

LOL. I went to get lemon cuckoo marans eggs yesterday from a man who had literally THOUSANDS of different baby quail.

They were everywhere! He sells his for hunting. He even had a "flight pen" for them to practice flying before the hunters pick them up. I don't hunt quail or eat quail so I had no idea. I smiled all the way out of his driveway reminding my chicken enabling family that they better not ever pick on me for my chickens as it could totally be worse! LOL

 

[DraigAthar]

I smiled all the way out of his driveway reminding my chicken enabling family that they better not ever pick on me for my chickens as it could totally be worse! LOL

LOL! It's so true.

 

[DraigAthar]

Good morning! Two snowstorms back to back here in NH left a nice blanket of snow on everything. Took a photo of the coops this morning, it makes me smile because they look like my own personal little Christmas village. Haha!

 

[Sphinx]

That's a beautiful picture. We've gotten a ton of snow here in the last few days, and it's been so pretty here too.

 

[laseterlass]

46 in Anchorage. We are having a chinook.

It is melting. I had Orpingtons. There is a no rooster zoning here and they were to loud. I got quail because even though they are loud, there is no mention of them in the zoning.....Now I have D'uccles too. I know that my close neighbors do not care, but. We will have to wait and see. I make pickled eggs and we do eat the boys. If you do decide to get Coturnix? You have the best right there. James Marie.

 

[hokankai]

Set a dozen eggs this evening after moving my incubator and letting it equalize. Instead of doing the dry incubation method I'll be monitoring the weights of the eggs and adjust accordingly. Right now it's hovering around 40-50%.

After setting do I need to let them chill for a day or can I start turning in the morning?

I have NO idea how many are fertile because I think I grabbed a couple from my new layers and I don't know if they're letting the rooster mount them yet...so it'll be a surprise!

 

[farmgirl44]

i think if they are from home, you should start turning in the morning

for you!!!


i'm sitting on my hands, because i keep wanting to candle my eggs every chance i get!!! i just can't wait for lockdown!!!

 

[hokankai]

You're allowed to candle! I candle eggs under my hens everyday once they start developing. Mama hens take breaks from their eggs each day and I'll be doing a 10 minute "lid off" period everyday to simulate that. That's when I'll do my candling after Day 3

 

[Sphinx]

I have some serious candling issues too. I candle most days until day 12-13, and then it's not nearly as interesting anymore.


In that vein, I candled this morning. I saw heartbeats in 5 of the eggs. My brown egg I couldn't see much, but I think that's because it's early and it's so tiny. Nothing in my egg that's 12 hours behind everyone. Some veining in my crack baby egg and the start of something in the egg I grabbed from the fridge; it's definitely not as far along. But, considering it's less than 72 hours in, it's exciting to see anything!

Laseterlass, I can't believe it's that warm in Anchorage. When I went to the gym this morning, it was 12. ugh.

My husband and kids are pretty sure it doesn't get much worse than me when it comes to chickens, and I only have 16. I need to take them to some of my really crazy chicken friends' houses I think.

 

[DraigAthar]

You're allowed to candle!

Absolutely! I generally candle about every other day, because right now that's about how often I have to refill the water reservoirs (it's super dry in the house because of the heater). Since I am going to take the lid off to fill the water, I may as well give the eggs a little cooling period and candle while I'm at it. I probably won't weigh them again until day 6, but that will be a nice opportunity for a cooling period too. Yesterday was my day 2 (or 2 and a bit), so I filled the water and candled all 16 eggs. Very hard to see much through brown shells on day 2, but I'm pretty sure I saw little bitty blood islands on some of the lighter ones, yay! Tomorrow (day 4) I ought to be able to tell better which ones are developing. It's exciting!