Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

Hooray Alpine and MB - hope you both get mostly girls!

 

[Melabella]

Hooray Alpine and MB - hope you both get mostly girls!

Your chickens' eggs have kick _ss fertility Leigh!

 

[Bulldogma]

Your chickens' eggs have kick _ss fertility Leigh!

LOL - I have busy boys!

 

[Alpine Chicken]

Starting to get worried- Day 22 and can´t hear any chirping, and can´t see any pipping (although my bator does have very small windows). Haven´t got too much hope at this point- those shipped hatching eggs often go through a lot. Will probably risk opening the bator and taking a look tonight... How long do you guys usually wait before risking a look or opening an egg?

 

[KYTinpusher]

Starting to get worried- Day 22 and can´t hear any chirping, and can´t see any pipping (although my bator does have very small windows). Haven´t got too much hope at this point- those shipped hatching eggs often go through a lot. Will probably risk opening the bator and taking a look tonight... How long do you guys usually wait before risking a look or opening an egg?

Pulling for your chicks! For SFH, I usually wait until the end of day 22, or 24 hours after the last chick hatched, to take them out and candle. If I don't see any movement, I will make a small crack in the shell at the aircell and check to see if there is any movement. If any are pipped or you open any open, but sure to spray some water in the incubator to raise the humidity backup when you replace the eggs.

 

[TxFlowers]

Starting to get worried- Day 22 and can´t hear any chirping, and can´t see any pipping (although my bator does have very small windows). Haven´t got too much hope at this point- those shipped hatching eggs often go through a lot. Will probably risk opening the bator and taking a look tonight... How long do you guys usually wait before risking a look or opening an egg?

Since the exact incubation time is determined by the average temperature you maintained, 21 days is not written in stone but if you don't see any pipping at this point on day 22, I would candle to see if you see any movement and beaks showing in the open end of the egg. There is no risk in opening the incubator for a short time if there are none actually starting to break the shell. Fingers crossed they are just taking a little extra time to introduce themselves to you!

 

[Alpine Chicken]

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses.
Candled the remaining 6 eggs. I saw movement in one, so I put that one back in and didn´t open it. Will open it tomorrow if it hasn´t hatched on its own by then.
The remaining 5 weren´t moving, so I opened them. They had all died at different stages, I´d guess at around 14-20 days. Not sure what happened there. Have had good experiences with this bator. Even had a 100% hatch rate once with my own eggs. The only thing I did differently was use the dry incubation method, and I followed the instructions exactly. I think they must have somehow just been damaged by the shipping (the remaining 9 that didn´t develop all had loose air cells that didn´t reattach). That was the last time I order hatching eggs by mail. What a disappointment.
Who knows? We´re thinking of visiting Sweden in the Spring; maybe I could find a good breeder and take some eggs back home with me!
Hoping the last one will hatch, haven´t had many hatch on day 23 before, though. I´ve got a Brahma Girl who has chicks right now, she´d probably adopt it so it wouldn´t be alone (she even adopted a duckling once).
Wishing Melabella more luck!

 

[CackleJoy]

Starting to get worried- Day 22 and can´t hear any chirping, and can´t see any pipping (although my bator does have very small windows). Haven´t got too much hope at this point- those shipped hatching eggs often go through a lot. Will probably risk opening the bator and taking a look tonight... How long do you guys usually wait before risking a look or opening an egg?

We've had some hatch at day 24. They are so much slower than the other breeds that I've decided from here on out to set them a full day EARLIER then the rest of the tray.

Hoping your hatch is going well. It's so much anxiety! Sometimes we end up helping the really stuck ones and sometimes they even live! This last time one hatched and rolled into a bigger egg and stuck to that membrane, kind of upside down. It was comical but I thought I was going to drown it while softening the hardened tissue. It's running around fine now. Probably a boy. They are all boys. Must be why they were mostly extinct

What ends up happening is that after 24hrs of the first hatch I have to remove all the fluff-butts. Opening the incubator to get the others out inevitably causes shrink wrapping on some of the Swedes because once again they were late to ball game.

I've been using a pretty dry incubation and hatch. This last time a couple of the EE's pipped, almost zipped, stuck and died. That was unusual. I wonder if it's too dry. I usually bump it up to 50% for hatch. Anyone bump theirs to 60% and still have SFH hatch?

 

[CackleJoy]

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses.
Candled the remaining 6 eggs. I saw movement in one, so I put that one back in and didn´t open it. Will open it tomorrow if it hasn´t hatched on its own by then.
The remaining 5 weren´t moving, so I opened them. They had all died at different stages, I´d guess at around 14-20 days. Not sure what happened there. Have had good experiences with this bator. Even had a 100% hatch rate once with my own eggs. The only thing I did differently was use the dry incubation method, and I followed the instructions exactly. I think they must have somehow just been damaged by the shipping (the remaining 9 that didn´t develop all had loose air cells that didn´t reattach). That was the last time I order hatching eggs by mail. What a disappointment.
Who knows? We´re thinking of visiting Sweden in the Spring; maybe I could find a good breeder and take some eggs back home with me!
Hoping the last one will hatch, haven´t had many hatch on day 23 before, though. I´ve got a Brahma Girl who has chicks right now, she´d probably adopt it so it wouldn´t be alone (she even adopted a duckling once).
Wishing Melabella more luck!

I just saw your update post. So sorry

In my experience shipped eggs are rarely successful. Such a gamble. When the hatch goes well it causes the worst gambling addiction!

 

[KYTinpusher]

I just saw your update post. So sorry

In my experience shipped eggs are rarely successful. Such a gamble. When the hatch goes well it causes the worst gambling addiction!

You got that right!