Setting eggs today 5-3-12...anyone with me?

[mbleily]

Thank you. I went and check out Murray's site. The 4th born looks like the dark chicks on the site. And the "2nd born" looks like the buff chicks. Should have added a front shot cause the darkest one has a reddish face.

Wow they are going to be pretty!!

 

[mbleily]

So here are some pictures I promised.


I think this little thing is going to be pretty, whatever it is, but it is one that is missing the toenail on the middle toe, on both feet.


I also like this one, I think it will be a pretty blue or splash chicken.



This is the runt so to speak, the last to hatch and one we helped, it is also missing the toenails on the middle toes.


Love this little chipmunk one.


And here is a group shot of all 17. We are having very unseasonably cold and wet weather here these past few days, so we moved them from the brooder in our garage to my tub with the Brinsea EcoGlow heater...they are loving it much better than the garage. See how little that red one is compared to the others...wow, such a difference.

They are so cute. Mine have mostly been black in the last few hatches. I was really wanting some color this time and got two black chicks. LOL The little one is cute. Wonder why the missing toe nail. I guess if something has to be missing a toenail is a good thing to have missing. You don't miss it as much as a beak or an eye.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I have been trying to research the toenail thing, as two of the chicks from this hatch are missing the the toenail from the middle toe of each foot. From what I can tell it is a genetic thing. These eggs came from my neighbors mixed barnyard flock. Both chickens that are missing the toenail are yellow. The other one is the one that looks like a chipmunk. So perhaps the roo or the hen that is the parent of these has that trait. I think you are right though...if they are to miss something a toenail is better than an eye or beak. LOL

They are cute, and I am enjoying watching them run around. I will have them until Tuesday at the latest and then they are headed across the road back to my neighbors. It is going to be a long three weeks until the next hatch...that I didn't plan, but will be Father's Day weekend. YAY for dads!!!

 

[mbleily]

I have been trying to research the toenail thing, as two of the chicks from this hatch are missing the the toenail from the middle toe of each foot. From what I can tell it is a genetic thing. These eggs came from my neighbors mixed barnyard flock. Both chickens that are missing the toenail are yellow. The other one is the one that looks like a chipmunk. So perhaps the roo or the hen that is the parent of these has that trait. I think you are right though...if they are to miss something a toenail is better than an eye or beak. LOL

They are cute, and I am enjoying watching them run around. I will have them until Tuesday at the latest and then they are headed across the road back to my neighbors. It is going to be a long three weeks until the next hatch...that I didn't plan, but will be Father's Day weekend. YAY for dads!!!

Are the chicks from the next batch going to be yours or someone elses? I have ha hard time hatching for someone else. First two hatches this year where half my eggs and half my sister in laws.She had a lot more hatch out because mine were not fertile. I have too many hens for my single roo. So when I went to give them to her it was like giving my babies away. LOL I had only 4 hatch. two roos and two hens. One of the roos crowed this morning when I was out feeding. He came out of the pop hole and saw me and crowed. It wasn't the usual screachy chocking type crow but a reg. crow. Makes me think he has been practicing in the corner to get it right. LOL He is a pretty blue with red EE. The other roo is red and white. He has been giving me that sideways evil eye thing that makes me think he will not last long here. I have had too many mean roos. I just don't tolerate them. If they are not mean to the hens they were mean to us. Wooster now is a really nice roo that just takes care of the hens and leaves us humans alone. I like him. But he needs help and I don't know how he will tolerate that.
This is Wooster.

he has two sets of spears. The first one is soo long but he doesn't use them so I have left them.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

Wooster is gorgeous!

This next batch is for me! She had done a batch of her own eggs in her incubator, not sure what kind she has, but it didn't work out so great. She set 34 and I think she had 5 hatch and one died. So my husband bought me the incubator and we decided to follow some good advice and run local eggs in it before trying shipped eggs. Just so we could get a feel for how it worked and what not. So while I am super excited about the 100% hatch with it the first go around, I am hoping for at least 50% with the shipped eggs. I have been reading about high elevation hatches and am concerned about that too, as all the eggs I bought that are shipped are coming from no higher than about 300 feet...I think we are at about 6500 here. I decided to just keep it set at 45% RH and 99.5 for the incubation and then bump the humidity up to 65% for lockdown.

So now I am doing the sad job of deciding who must go to make room for the new ones. We are already planning a freezer camp day for later in the summer for the extra roos that hatch and for a few free loading hens. This will be our first time to slaughter for the intent of eating. We have only ever put down sick ones...oh yeah and one SL Wyandotte that was eating eggs. That old hen, she was eating several day. I tried everything to break her of it, the day I caught her having a party and showing the other hens, she got the ax!

Well we can keep this thread going so we can all keep in touch with each others next hatches, even if they are all not on the same schedule. It has been really fun to chat with you all!!!!

 

[mbleily]

So what kind of bator do you have? I didn't realize you got 100 percent. That is great! My Sister in Laws eggs are all very fertile because she has about a zillion roos running around out there. LOL I just don't want her chickens because they are already all mixed up. ;] But they really hatched good. Not 100 percent though. But I did it in the home made bator too. Now I am hoping with the genesis I can do better. The tem holds well but the humdiity is about 10 low according to my calibrated thingy. So I have been running a dry hatch anyway and keeping it between 30 and 45. It goes down and I add water so it goes up to 35 or 45 and then I let it go down until it is around 28 or 30 then back up. At lock down I will run it around 70. That should do it.

What breeds do you have this time for you?

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I have the Brinsea Octogon 20 Advance EX. It is basically a set it and forget it.

I have never hatched and was given a budget to work within for my birthday and Mother's day gifts. I decided to go big and and just go for it. It was expensive, but I think worth it. It has a pump that adds water as necessary and cradle that turns the whole incubator. It also has a cool down feature that you can start on day 7 that mimics the hen getting off the eggs for a bit to eat and what not. So our anniversary is also in May and I ended up getting the next one up bigger, the 40...it is on its way.

So I have 8 Cream Legbars back in the 20 now and on Tuesday I have FBCM's and Showgirl eggs headed my way. So now I can incubate in one and hatch in another. That is my only complaint about the Brinsea incubators, there is not much space for hatching, but the fan, heating element and what not are covered so they can't hurt themselves in it.

I agree...I don't want a bunch of mixes either. I do have the seven 5-6 week olds that my broodies hatched...they were also my neighbors eggs. She has quite a few roos and hens...all mixed together. I don't really want to do that....I want pens for certain breeds. I am really hoping the nearest town passes their backyard chicken law this month, then I can sell some of my pullets to folks who would like hens in town. If that is the case I can also start hatching more and selling day olds. Our feed stores are done with chick days, so if they pass this at the next reading...mid June, I am sure people will not want to wait until next spring.

 

[Bangarang64]

I'm back from my two day trip and nothing new from the eggs. Looks like they haven't moved at all. There were a few times the power went out in the 21 day period and the temp did dip quite a bit. I have maintained 100 degrees at all other times.
I'll give them till Tuesday at 4pm before I give up on them.

 

[WyoChickenMamma]

I'm back from my two day trip and nothing new from the eggs. Looks like they haven't moved at all. There were a few times the power went out in the 21 day period and the temp did dip quite a bit. I have maintained 100 degrees at all other times.
I'll give them till Tuesday at 4pm before I give up on them.

What day was your day 21 again? I hope you end up with something. Are you going to try again if not?

 

[mbleily]

I have the Brinsea Octogon 20 Advance EX. It is basically a set it and forget it.

I have never hatched and was given a budget to work within for my birthday and Mother's day gifts. I decided to go big and and just go for it. It was expensive, but I think worth it. It has a pump that adds water as necessary and cradle that turns the whole incubator. It also has a cool down feature that you can start on day 7 that mimics the hen getting off the eggs for a bit to eat and what not. So our anniversary is also in May and I ended up getting the next one up bigger, the 40...it is on its way.

So I have 8 Cream Legbars back in the 20 now and on Tuesday I have FBCM's and Showgirl eggs headed my way. So now I can incubate in one and hatch in another. That is my only complaint about the Brinsea incubators, there is not much space for hatching, but the fan, heating element and what not are covered so they can't hurt themselves in it.

I agree...I don't want a bunch of mixes either. I do have the seven 5-6 week olds that my broodies hatched...they were also my neighbors eggs. She has quite a few roos and hens...all mixed together. I don't really want to do that....I want pens for certain breeds. I am really hoping the nearest town passes their backyard chicken law this month, then I can sell some of my pullets to folks who would like hens in town. If that is the case I can also start hatching more and selling day olds. Our feed stores are done with chick days, so if they pass this at the next reading...mid June, I am sure people will not want to wait until next spring.

I wish mine was a set it and forget it. I really only have to keep track of the water in it. It come right back to the temp. after I put water in. I have to just crack the lid. I have a LG turner in it so it doesn't have the same opening in it for the water at the turner for the Genesis. I am thinking of putting a hole it for my tubing but haven't totally decided yet to do that. LOL Takes me a while to make up my mind. I never do anything fast.

I like those cream legbars. I just can't have everything I guess.

But there is always another year........

I think next I need Marans to add the dark dark eggs to my lot. But right now I ordered 30 eggs that will be mostly ees and some Ameracaunas. I don't have any straight Ameracaunas yet. It should add a lot of color to my flock and different colored eggs. Some are brown leg horns so I am hoping for some white eggs too. I can get them locally though.

I will only have three pens. two for hens and one for the meat birds. That is really pushing it for my husband. He knows I love chickens and it willing to support them but it only goes so far. LOL My son helps me with them also, and he keeps telling me we don't need any more. But the only thing that made him ok with this is the fact that we will have some extras to eat. He will do that part. I just have to decide who has to go and that is hard for me. I have some old hens that I need to let go of but it is hard. Those were the ones I named when I didn't have so many. I have to do it though. It has gotten harder as I have gotten older. We had lots of animals they they were all for food one way or another for many years. Now I just have chickens and they have all my attention and affection. LOL

I would love to be able to hatch and sell too. I don't know how to go about doing it. We live close to very small towns. Several in different directions. I would like to get orders before I hatch so I can know they are going to be sold and I don't have to keep them. I thought about graigs list and the papers and the notice boards but don't know if it would work. Of course first I need to get enough roos so the eggs are fertile. LOL I have 4 more coming up for my EEs. And am sure I have enough of these other ones for the other pen. So we will see about next year.

I sell all my eggs to one person right now. I will need more customers for them too. I have some work to do.