Setting eggs August 2 -- anyone else?

[Poetical Peeps]

I candled all the eggs tonight... little disappointed. Out of 36 eggs I think that only 15 are good. A couple more are questionable...but over all =(

4 - Ameraucana ( This is the second time I have put a few Ameraucana eggs in and they are all good..maybe they are easier to hatch out?)
7 - Speckled Sussex
2 - Salmon Faverolle
1 - Blue Orpington
1 - Mix ( Lemon Cuckoo Orpington over a Sicilian Buttercup) My roo Lenny has chosen one of my Buttercups as his favorite girl. Now I know he is fertile =)

Now more waiting..........

Wishing everyone luck!

I forget -- were these shipped eggs?

My hatch from last month went like that, too. I ordered three dozen "surprise me" eggs from My Pet Chicken and was THRILLED with some of the cool eggs I got -- some birds I never would've thought to order for myself, but once I read up on them I couldn't wait to have them. They even sent me an extra dozen (and I had a dozen silkie eggs from eBay). I ended up just pulling a few that were lower priority (gave my Buff Orpington a chance to sit on them, but she was still huffy about my interrupting her previous efforts). From all those eggs, sixteen made it -- and four of those were just our mutts. So, neither Partridge Penendesenca hatched. Four Welsummer eggs... not a one made it. I did get one vorkwerk.

Still, I am thinking of going that route again. Hoping a few lessons learned will give me better results.

Thanks for the advice about counting day 1! So I am only at day 2.5 but I had to take a quick peek since I am leaving town tomorrow morning for a week (My BF has agreed to check on them a few times a day while Im gone). I candled and I definitely saw some promising signs of life

. Even a few of the eggs with detached air cells have what looks like the beginning of an embryo in them.

I noticed the motor for the automatic egg turner is really hot to the touch. Im concerned about the eggs closest to it overheating. has anyone had problems with this? I do however have a thermometer near that edge of the bator and the readings have been stable in the 99 degree range.

I've been wondering the same thing -- and have altogether avoided putting any eggs I'm particularly excited about in the immediate area of the motor. Last time I hatched, I kept a row of eggs off the turner and turned them manually (there's that little spare space for filling the water tray on one end), but even then I gave the eggs a pretty good clearance. I do think the fan does a pretty decent job of minimizing hot (or cold) spots -- your thermometer readings is encouraging. Do you have a memory style thermometer there -- or are you relying on spot checks?

One of my two bad air cell eggs died, but the other seems to have stabilized pretty well and is still developing.

 

[DeannaOR]

The Speckled Sussex were shipped. (24 of them) One was from my own coop...just for fun. The rest were from a neighbor. Shipped eggs are tough!

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

It is really hard to keep track of how many eggs there are with a broody in a cat carrier! This is like the third time I've mixed up the amount of eggs she has (I thought she had 5 and she had 6). Anyways, today is day 14. Just candled them all and they are all doing great. One week left

 

[dennarahl]

I'm joining a bit late! My broody girl Lucy decided to sit on some eggs and golf balls on the 31st or 1st, can't remember exactly. We candled her 3 eggs night before last and everything was going great.

 

[Hoosierchickens]

Candled the 17 eggs left from the seventh day cull. Of the seventeen, I had three that I left after day 7 that I thought were questionable. I was right initially about those three so I now have 14 that look really good. I'm happy with those results; especially considering they were shipped eggs and one was broken on arrival despite being well packed.

 

[Poetical Peeps]

It looks like I'll be going into lockdown on Monday with 1/6 of my Cream Legbars (argh!!), 5/11 Wheaten Marans, 8/12 Black Copper Marans, and 2 of my own eggs (all but a couple were thriving, but I knew for sure which hens laid these two and wanted to keep them).

 

[BrahmaBanter]

Day 18, 16 of the 23 eggs are left. Can't wait for Monday

Still need to collect the brooder though :L

 

[cubbysan]

Well, I got the chicken bug last week and purchased a bunch of babies - 2 Ameracaunas, 2 black sex links, 2 RI reds, 2 Polish crested and 2 Blue swedish ducklings.

Now I will have to purchase the supplies to set up another brooder for whoever hatches next week.

Sunday night we will go into lockdown with the 7 out of the 18 Silkies eggs.

 

[Poetical Peeps]

Well, I got the chicken bug last week and purchased a bunch of babies - 2 Ameracaunas, 2 black sex links, 2 RI reds, 2 Polish crested and 2 Blue swedish ducklings.

Now I will have to purchase the supplies to set up another brooder for whoever hatches next week.

Sunday night we will go into lockdown with the 7 out of the 18 Silkies eggs.

Especially jealous of the ducks and Polish. Have you had black sex links before? My red sex links are awesome -- huge eggs every day and very friendly.

I ordered 17 girls from MPC to arrive during my hatch. I didn't even want to confess to that here (not that y'all aren't the best co-dependants ever when it comes to the chicken addiction...) I am going for as many egg colors as possible (and want at least one of every breed I see!), so I ordered two Leghorns (white and light brown), because I don't have any white egg layers. All the rest will be mystery chicks -- five from their "brown egg layer" mix and ten from their "rare breeds" mix. Hoping I get some punky ones!

Now that I am looking at pictures of the possible chicks I might get, I realize I am going to have trouble telling some of them apart even when they're grown -- will probably be asking for help here.

So excited!

I used a giant Rubbermaid container with a modified lid for brooding last time, but had sixteen chicks -- may have twice that number this time. May just make a second brooder. Rubbermaid container is ugly, but worked wonderfully.

 

[cubbysan]

Especially jealous of the ducks and Polish. Have you had black sex links before? My red sex links are awesome -- huge eggs every day and very friendly.

I ordered 17 girls from MPC to arrive during my hatch. I didn't even want to confess to that here (not that y'all aren't the best co-dependants ever when it comes to the chicken addiction...) I am going for as many egg colors as possible (and want at least one of every breed I see!), so I ordered two Leghorns (white and light brown), because I don't have any white egg layers. All the rest will be mystery chicks -- five from their "brown egg layer" mix and ten from their "rare breeds" mix. Hoping I get some punky ones!

Now that I am looking at pictures of the possible chicks I might get, I realize I am going to have trouble telling some of them apart even when they're grown -- will probably be asking for help here.

So excited!

I used a giant Rubbermaid container with a modified lid for brooding last time, but had sixteen chicks -- may have twice that number this time. May just make a second brooder. Rubbermaid container is ugly, but worked wonderfully.

I am new to chickens. I do have 4 adult ducks ( 2 Pekins and 2 Cayugas ). I went to the farm store on chick day to see if they had silkies, just in case my eggs did not hatch. Well, they were all sold out, but their were about at least 10 other breeds. So a farmer helped me out, he said his wife gets the pretty chickens, and he gets the good layers. He recommended the Black Sex Links, the Ameracaunas and the RI Reds. Then I saw that he was buying the Polish crested for his wife, and I had to have two! As I was paying, I found the ducklings! So yes, two of them too! I guess that is what chicken math is, huh! My husband was in the car waiting, He just wanted the RI Reds, I think he still thinks we only got six......

I wish I had gotten more of the Ameracaunas. They are the cutest chicks, and very calm. They fall asleep in my kids hands.

Right now we are just using cardboard boxes. For my last set of ducks, I used a kiddie wading pool, but I think the chickens would be able to fly out of those. The rubbermaid containers I was looking at yesterday at Walmart did not seem like they would be big enough, but if you had 16 in, then my 8 chicks should be fine.

How do you modify the lid? Do you cut a hole and then cover with chicken wire?