Spitzhaubens

[homeschoolin momma]

My son did an experiment last year on egg viability and time. It was fairly successful, although I wish we had used spitzies eggs instead of orps ones. (My spitzies always have 100% fertility while orps are more....finicky) However, I think he set 5 at 1 day. 5 at 3 day, 5 at 1 week, 5 at 2 week, and 5 at 3 week. 1 day, 3 day, 1 week all had development and two week had 3 I think. My 3 week eggs had two develop, but one quit. I cannot remember if the other quit or hatched. So the day 10 rule does seem best and viability does seem to drop after a week to 10 days. I believe Faradays DS is doing a similar experiment this year for his 4h project.

I set 24 spitz eggs for the Easter hatchalong. My 5 girls are laying everyday, so it was fairly easy for me to collect enough under the 1 week boundary. Yesterday was day 14 and all except 1 are doing well. The one looks like it quit at around day 10-11 and possibly deformed. It was from a pullet egg. I tried to set eggs from my older girls, but still had 2 or 3 pullet eggs in there.

Hope this helps.

 

[SueT]

My son did an experiment last year on egg viability and time. It was fairly successful, although I wish we had used spitzies eggs instead of orps ones. (My spitzies always have 100% fertility while orps are more....finicky) However, I think he set 5 at 1 day. 5 at 3 day, 5 at 1 week, 5 at 2 week, and 5 at 3 week. 1 day, 3 day, 1 week all had development and two week had 3 I think. My 3 week eggs had two develop, but one quit. I cannot remember if the other quit or hatched. So the day 10 rule does seem best and viability does seem to drop after a week to 10 days. I believe Faradays DS is doing a similar experiment this year for his 4h project.

I set 24 spitz eggs for the Easter hatchalong. My 5 girls are laying everyday, so it was fairly easy for me to collect enough under the 1 week boundary. Yesterday was day 14 and all except 1 are doing well. The one looks like it quit at around day 10-11 and possibly deformed. It was from a pullet egg. I tried to set eggs from my older girls, but still had 2 or 3 pullet eggs in there.

Hope this helps.

thank you!!! I'll try to stick to 1 week or less. I only hatched w broody, 4 last year. All were 1 week and less, all hatched. I've never done it before. I ordered a little incubator, arriving tomorrow, may just wait for broody again because I don't know what to do w all the chicks.
Another question regarding broodies. My Amish friend said her banty hen hatched 12 of her own eggs last year. Isn't this too many?? What is the recommendation for hens and their own size eggs? For Moonshine, my little Sebright, I was thinking 3 Spitz and 3 of her own. Dare I add more?

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I would think 5-6 would be ok for moonshine. My little seramas can only do 3 successfully.

@Faraday40 has a seabright and she could probably tell you how much Trouble can brood better than I.

 

[SueT]

I would think 5-6 would be ok for moonshine. My little seramas can only do 3 successfully.

@Faraday40 has a seabright and she could probably tell you how much Trouble can brood better than I.

Let us know here too when your eggs hatch!

 

[Faraday40]

My post is not Spitzhauben related..... but I wanted to answer your ?s and share:

DS only did one trial so far.
2 eggs 1 day old, 2 eggs 2 days old, 2 eggs 3 days old.... up to 14 days old.

The eggs 1 week and younger - all but 2 developed and hatched. 12/14 = almost 86%. One of those had a blood ring when candled and the other pipped but died during hatching.

The eggs 8-14 days old only had 4 hatch (eggs were 8, 10, 11, and 14 days old) Two more developed fully but died during hatching.

These eggs were incubated using our oldest styrofoam incubator (temp fluctuations + hot/cold spots) Plus the eggs were just stored on the kitchen counter. Nothing was done like keeping them cool or turning them while being stored.

He saved up another 28 eggs but we thought Covid19 would make chick sales impossible. We decided against hatching and ate the eggs instead. I now realize that was a mistake. I can't believe the number of people who responded to my CL post. I'm making a wait list and decided to add a few chicken eggs to my current turkey hatch - just to have a few available to sell. I guess people have decided having a backyard source of food is a good idea. Plus something for kids to do while home from school.




As far as Moonshine, I think she could easily hatch 3 Spitz eggs. I'd then try to slip one of her own eggs under her. Once she's settled, try to see if any eggs are exposed. If not, offer her another and see what it looks like. I'm surprised how many they can fit, but each hen has a different size "spread." My bantam orp has a lot of fluff and can really flatten out, so I can give her 7-8 Jumbo Orp eggs. Trouble is lean and can handle about 4 jumbo eggs. If the weather is cold/ below freezing, I always give less eggs.

Another tip is to put a smaller box inside the nest box. This allows a small hen to make a smaller custom nest and put extra bedding/insulation around herself and the eggs. Keeps the eggs from rolling and spreading out.

Of course we also use an incubator, so when our serama hatched her 1 orp egg this week, we also added all of DS's science project results. They happened to hatch March 31-April 1. What a funny April Fools Day prank!

Here she is with all 16 chicks under her. (I posted them for sale yesterday, so only 2 left now.) I'm debating if I should sell or let her keep the last 2.

To keep ourselves safe, I ask people to use hand sanitizer or wipes before & after touching chicks. I bring the tub of chicks outside & stand back so they may select chicks. They must bring their own box & bedding for transport and have everything set up at home. Lots of talking on phone, email, pics, etc. to limit face time. Conversations kept short while here and no one came inside. No one had cold symptoms.... and neither do we, but now we're learning people can have coronavirus without symptoms. Hard to protect against that, but hopefully staying outside at a distance helps.

 

[SueT]

My post is not Spitzhauben related..... but I wanted to answer your ?s and share:

DS only did one trial so far.
2 eggs 1 day old, 2 eggs 2 days old, 2 eggs 3 days old.... up to 14 days old.

The eggs 1 week and younger - all but 2 developed and hatched. 12/14 = almost 86%. One of those had a blood ring when candled and the other pipped but died during hatching.

The eggs 8-14 days old only had 4 hatch (eggs were 8, 10, 11, and 14 days old) Two more developed fully but died during hatching.

These eggs were incubated using our oldest styrofoam incubator (temp fluctuations + hot/cold spots) Plus the eggs were just stored on the kitchen counter. Nothing was done like keeping them cool or turning them while being stored.

He saved up another 28 eggs but we thought Covid19 would make chick sales impossible. We decided against hatching and ate the eggs instead. I now realize that was a mistake. I can't believe the number of people who responded to my CL post. I'm making a wait list and decided to add a few chicken eggs to my current turkey hatch - just to have a few available to sell. I guess people have decided having a backyard source of food is a good idea. Plus something for kids to do while home from school.




As far as Moonshine, I think she could easily hatch 3 Spitz eggs. I'd then try to slip one of her own eggs under her. Once she's settled, try to see if any eggs are exposed. If not, offer her another and see what it looks like. I'm surprised how many they can fit, but each hen has a different size "spread." My bantam orp has a lot of fluff and can really flatten out, so I can give her 7-8 Jumbo Orp eggs. Trouble is lean and can handle about 4 jumbo eggs. If the weather is cold/ below freezing, I always give less eggs.

Another tip is to put a smaller box inside the nest box. This allows a small hen to make a smaller custom nest and put extra bedding/insulation around herself and the eggs. Keeps the eggs from rolling and spreading out.

Of course we also use an incubator, so when our serama hatched her 1 orp egg this week, we also added all of DS's science project results. They happened to hatch March 31-April 1. What a funny April Fools Day prank!

Here she is with all 16 chicks under her. (I posted them for sale yesterday, so only 2 left now.) I'm debating if I should sell or let her keep the last 2.

View attachment 2076379


To keep ourselves safe, I ask people to use hand sanitizer or wipes before & after touching chicks. I bring the tub of chicks outside & stand back so they may select chicks. They must bring their own box & bedding for transport and have everything set up at home. Lots of talking on phone, email, pics, etc. to limit face time. Conversations kept short while here and no one came inside. No one had cold symptoms.... and neither do we, but now we're learning people can have coronavirus without symptoms. Hard to protect against that, but hopefully staying outside at a distance helps.

That photo is priceless!

 

[Alaskan]

I find that I can hatch eggs between 1 and 2 weeks of age.. but I rotate eggs at least twice a day, keep them between 40 and 50F, and I dont even try those over 14 days.

I have found that refrigerated eggs hatch too...

 

[Faraday40]

I have found that refrigerated eggs hatch too...

x2
When my DD was in 3rd grade she insisted on putting a big egg from the fridge into the incubator. She was hoping for twins. LOL I didn't think it would work, so we let it warm to room temp & put it in. 3 weeks later a large odd-looking chick, named Omelet, hatched. Omelet laid big dark green eggs (often double yolks at the start), so even that was odd.

Since then, I will occasionally use fridge eggs to fill up empty spaces in my incubator. But usually we store them in a cool area of the house - like the crawl space - and turn them a few xs per day by slightly slanting the cartons .

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I set 24 spitzhauben eggs. 23 have made it to hatch. Not too shabby. Tomorrow night is 21 days. I took them off turning and increased humidity Wednesday evening. Tonight I went to quickly check to make sure they were more or less facing the correct way so i could see pips. I could already see internal pips and hear cheeping. Second from the last egg to check, I turn it toward me to find a little beak poking through! An early arrival! I added some more water and closed her up. Oh how I wish I had a broody right now!

 

[Faraday40]

Your rooster's doing a great job!

Don't forget to share chick pics!!!!