Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Sallysec]

Hi! Olive here, reporting 10 eggs for today! first time for double digits that didn't involve a hidden nest!!! this weeks eggs!

Great report olive that blue one on the right is huge! I need more chickens.....I had four requests for eggs today. I food swap once a month now and they wanted eggs too. i just went this tuesday and I brought 20 eggs thinking no one would want them, first two people to walk up to me took them. One dozen got me a bottle of wine and 8 got me a pint of local maple syrup . There was another lady there with eggs but we both only brought maybe five dozen total. Neither of us left with any lol. Maybe if I share the food with the girls I could get a double digit day.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote: Hehe! Townhomes! Now that's a great idea. Or condos. Yeah...

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Cheeka, Olive is lookin' good and that's a beautiful egg basket. Too bad you don't have any of those rare and exotic white eggs!

Only 4 eggs today. Slackers.
The weather has been up and down, though. Couple of days over 80* and last two days cool and foggy until well after noon.
The girls are confused. Bird brains!

jchny, how are the babies??!!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Cheeka, Olive is lookin' good and that's a beautiful egg basket. Too bad you don't have any of those rare and exotic white eggs!

Only 4 eggs today. Slackers.
The weather has been up and down, though. Couple of days over 80* and last two days cool and foggy until well after noon.
The girls are confused. Bird brains!

jchny, how are the babies??!!

X2 cheeka, She is a beautiful girl!

love your egg basket!

Babies are wonderful, 5 i don't think are going to hatch. the other 8 are already zipping like lil windup toys!
I have 3 geese coming out now, can't tell on one yet, the other 2 will be whites like Paddy. If all make the hatch, we will be up to 7 hatched, and 4 adult geese.
Still waiting for my first muscovy duck hatch.... 35 days is a lonnnnnng time.
No guinea eggs.... still....

Going to try turkey eggs next, a local member of the Indiana thread is saving eggs for me from her royal palms! cant wait, my lil meat turkeys are really sweet birds, so I want some heritage to get attached to before I wimp out and want to keep some of the BBW..

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I need to make a decision. Eggs been under broody BO for two weeks. Due to hatch next Saturday. BR Roger is broody and wants to be a mommy. If I give her a couple of the eggs to hatch whats going to happen when these chicks start mixing together. Is there going to be mommy fights? Will I have to have separate quarters for two broodys and each ones chicks? Can they tell the chicks apart and who is who? Would the mommys team up to protect the chicks from the rest of the flock? I really don't have room to separate three groups of birds. If they need to be separated I probably won't let Roger hatch eggs this time. Then I fully expect to be paid back in full by her BIG TIME. Any ideas?

 

[cheeka]

good morning OK, you should not have to separate the two broodies and their chicks. the chicks will imprint and know who their mommy is, and both will raise all the chicks well together. SHOULD anyway... kind of have to watch and wait... with my gangs... Peach defends her chick extremely well from everyone, and now that Pebble is 7 weeks old today, (even tho' Pebble is still quite small) I could move them in the dome. yesterday's free range had many of them together for a dust bath and Pebble was walking all over everybody...

thanks for the compliments, a frontal pic of Olive is still so lovely, a profile shows the big dip in her skull where her crown feathers are missing...kinda yucky still but healing well

the big blue egg on the right is Isis', the rest are pullet eggs which is why it looks soooo big
.

 

[BullChick]

I need to make a decision. Eggs been under broody BO for two weeks. Due to hatch next Saturday. BR Roger is broody and wants to be a mommy. If I give her a couple of the eggs to hatch whats going to happen when these chicks start mixing together. Is there going to be mommy fights? Will I have to have separate quarters for two broodys and each ones chicks? Can they tell the chicks apart and who is who? Would the mommys team up to protect the chicks from the rest of the flock? I really don't have room to separate three groups of birds. If they need to be separated I probably won't let Roger hatch eggs this time. Then I fully expect to be paid back in full by her BIG TIME. Any ideas?

I agree with Cheeka. Give Roger some eggs. It should all work out.
Question for incubator people. My still air was holding fine at 102. The cold weather had it going down to 100, but would go to 102 again throughout the day. I pulled the plugs (air holes) last night, and now I am getting 99 with an occasional 100. I know I am still "okay" temperature wise, but should I bump it up, and risk a temperature spike, or leave it knowing it will take longer for the eggs to hatch?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I also agree with Cheeka. Roger may actually be more trouble if she doesn't have chicks. Some determined broodies will try to steal chicks from their mommas. Separate nests in the same brooding area should work fine. Also, wouldn't try to move a nest until all chicks have hatched. Someone tried it because 2 chicks had hatched early and she was worried about them having food/water. Once moved, the hen was more interested in showing her chicks the ropes and stopped sitting on the unhatched eggs.

MC, no personal experience with incubators, but from what I've read on my incubator-a-holic riddled local thread, 102* is high, especially during the first week or so. The occasional low temp will slow the hatch, but a temp spike can kill. Also, in the still airs the temps vary depending on where the thermometer is placed. Higher temps at the top and lower at the bottom. It all sounds very nerve wracking. Good luck!

 

[BullChick]

I also agree with Cheeka. Roger may actually be more trouble if she doesn't have chicks. Some determined broodies will try to steal chicks from their mommas. Separate nests in the same brooding area should work fine. Also, wouldn't try to move a nest until all chicks have hatched. Someone tried it because 2 chicks had hatched early and she was worried about them having food/water. Once moved, the hen was more interested in showing her chicks the ropes and stopped sitting on the unhatched eggs.

MC, no personal experience with incubators, but from what I've read on my incubator-a-holic riddled local thread, 102* is high, especially during the first week or so. The occasional low temp will slow the hatch, but a temp spike can kill. It all sounds very nerve wracking.

With a still air, the temp is supposed to be 102. I checked and rechecked. That is what the directions say, and SallySunshine (and others). Then 104 can kill them. THAT is nerve racking!
The fan allows uniform temps. Still air has hot spots and cool spots. I will not allow temps to get below 99, but I can only hope (and I have been praying) that the temps are okay on the bottom of the eggs. I saw veigning in one, and what looked like a blood ring to me in another. Supposedly, you can't see a blood ring at one week. Tonight I will candle all. If I think I see a blood ring again, I will decide whether or not to take it out.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

With a still air, the temp is supposed to be 102. I checked and rechecked. That is what the directions say, and SallySunshine (and others). Then 104 can kill them. THAT is nerve racking!
The fan allows uniform temps. Still air has hot spots and cool spots. I will not allow temps to get below 99, but I can only hope (and I have been praying) that the temps are okay on the bottom of the eggs. I saw veigning in one, and what looked like a blood ring to me in another. Supposedly, you can't see a blood ring at one week. Tonight I will candle all. If I think I see a blood ring again, I will decide whether or not to take it out.

I was editing my post as you wrote this, because I noticed you had said still air. If you're following SallySunshine, you are probably getting the best info out there- waaay more than I know, for sure! Someone posted an egg that had both veining and what looked like a blood ring. She was told that the veining is more important and to wait until day 10 to candle and make decisions. I'd be pulling my hair and loosing sleep!

What type of chicks are you hatching?