Starting a batch tomorrow 1/25 anyone want to join me? Valentine hatch-along!

[DraigAthar]

so cute what kind is this one?

It's a crossbreed. I have 14 Dominique eggs and 6 barnyard crosses in this hatch, and of course it's all the crossbreed that are hatching first, haha. That particular one came from an Australorp hen and a Dominique X Buff Orpington roo (a Dominorp! heh). The first one I posted is an even bigger mish-mash, it came from the same Dominique X Buff Orp roo over a Dominique X Gold Laced Wyandotte hen. I threw the crossbreed eggs in the incubator to fill it up after setting all the full Dominique eggs I had. Sometimes you get good layers out of the cross breeds, and that roo is huge so I was hoping for a couple of good meat roos out of those eggs, too.

 

[DraigAthar]

Chick #3 just graduated to the brooder!



This one came from a buff orpington hen and my dominique X buff orp roo. The down is so light, she might even be a silver hen. I think the genetics allow for it, I'll have to fire up the chicken calculator to check.

 

[McPhersonFarm]

Chick #3 just graduated to the brooder!



This one came from a buff orpington hen and my dominique X buff orp roo. The down is so light, she might even be a silver hen. I think the genetics allow for it, I'll have to fire up the chicken calculator to check.

Awe adorable! The only two that hatched today were the two RIR that had pipped last night, they're cute little suckers. One of my ducks pipped the wrong end and drowned in the egg I took the eggs out to candle and saw the pip on the wrong end (they were in egg cartons) I have 11 eggs left of chicks and 3 eggs left of Rouen Ducks, no pips yet that I see. I'm crossing my fingers but I'm happy with my adorable babies I have. I have someone coming to get 4 of my silkies tomorrow. The silkies were local eggs and the best hatch rate. The RIR are some expensive chicks because I didn't look local and paid a TON for those eggs to get two chicks and the AMericauna even worse I only have ONE! Those 3 chicks and the 2 Rouens aren't going anywhere LOL!!!

 

[DraigAthar]

Awe adorable! The only two that hatched today were the two RIR that had pipped last night, they're cute little suckers. One of my ducks pipped the wrong end and drowned in the egg I took the eggs out to candle and saw the pip on the wrong end (they were in egg cartons) I have 11 eggs left of chicks and 3 eggs left of Rouen Ducks, no pips yet that I see. I'm crossing my fingers but I'm happy with my adorable babies I have. I have someone coming to get 4 of my silkies tomorrow. The silkies were local eggs and the best hatch rate. The RIR are some expensive chicks because I didn't look local and paid a TON for those eggs to get two chicks and the AMericauna even worse I only have ONE! Those 3 chicks and the 2 Rouens aren't going anywhere LOL!!!

LOL I totally understand, I'd be keeping the expensive ones, too! Where did you buy your RIR eggs? I have never hatched from shipped eggs, it's really not hard to find local eggs in most any breed so I've never bothered with shipped ones. But then I live in a fairly rural area with lots of folks who keep chickens, heh! And NH has a pretty good program of regular chickens swaps through the spring and summer, so there are lots of resources for chicken lovers.

Well, the total when I went to bed last night was 10 chicks out of 20 eggs! I woke up to three more chicks in the hatcher, and three other eggs have pipped. So that's only four left that haven't pipped. Go, little chickies, go! Here are some photos.

Dominique, I'm guessing female:


Dominique, another female:


Dominique, this time a male I think, and he popped out with a straight comb so not to breed standard:


Dominique, this was a tough guess but I think male:


Dominique, another female:


Dominique:


Crossbreed, 3/4 buff orpington and 1/4 dominique:


And here's a pic of the two light colored ones next to each other, chick #3 and chick #10, same parents, but one looks white and the other yellow/buff, so cute:


Haven't got photos yet of the three that hatched overnight, I'll do that later.

 

[DraigAthar]

One more hatched, so my total is 14 chicks, six eggs left in the 'bator, four of which have pipped.

 

[DraigAthar]

18 out of 20 eggs have hatched! The last two are still in the 'bator, but no movement. No pips, no peeps. They may be late quitters, but I'll give them a day or two more just to be safe.

 

[Blingaling1]

Well that's all for me. First run in the incubator for more since I was a kid and didn't get the results I was hoping for but again I did use shipped eggs. I got 3/12 BLRW 1/1 German New Hampshires, and 0/3 EE. So if you add it all up I got 4/16, 25% hatch rate. Hopefully I will do better with some locally acquired eggs. It was great having you guys for support though. Hopefully you all did better than me.

 

[McPhersonFarm]

I think I"m about done too which sucks I still have 12 more in there, but when candled I see no internal pips but the eggs are dark like they should be? I'm just leaving them in there and hoping. Guess it can't hurt anything. I had 6/8 silkies (these were local) only 2/16 RIR (Shipped) 1/12 EE (shipped) and 2/8 Rouen (shipped)- 1 of these pipped upside down and drowned, 2 weren't fertile and 3 are still sitting there :/... I have a new batch started maybe I'll make a new thread. These are all local. Right now I have

29 Quail (mostly cotournix, but a few bobwhite)
2 Pheasant (it was 3 and my dumb butt dropped the only one that I saw developing while candling last night :/)
6 Barnyard Mix (free from a friend)
12 Buff Orpington (local)
4 Bantam (mine
2 African Geese (local)- both have veins and are developing nicely
4 eggs from the local store LOL figured what the heck!

So NONE of these were shipped... I want to see how I do this time!

 

[DraigAthar]

Good luck with your next hatch, McPherson! Blingaling, 25% is not unusual with shipped eggs, sad but true. I think 18 chicks is the end of this hatch for me. There are two eggs still in the incubator, but not a pip or peep from them so I think they are done. I'll give them until morning. I did the math, so 24 eggs set, 21 fertile makes 87.5% fertility. Of the 21 that developed, 18 hatched, or 85.7% hatch rate. Flat out, it would be a 75% hatch rate, but I tend to separate fertility from hatchability. Oh and these were all eggs from my own hens, set within a week of being laid.

In about two weeks, I'll set another batch, probably another 24 eggs. Whee! Oh, and I have two hens that went broody at the same time, so I've put them both in separate broody coops and given them 6 or 7 eggs each. It's a pretty cold time of the year to be a broody outdoors, but I trust momma hens to know what to do. We'll see how things go for them!

 

[Blingaling1]

I too will also be starting another batch probably at the beginning of next week or this weekend. Let me know what thread you jump on or create so I can join along again. Here are the pictures of the chicks that did hatch.

BLRW:



BLRW:



BLRW:



German New Hampshire: