Test Hatch with PaulaJoAnne's eggs!! PIP!!

[BirdBrain]

Well the eggs have been in the bator for 4 full days. Every afternoon I change the position of the eggs in the bator. I have them in four cartons and I move the one that is farthest from the light to the front. When I did this I took the carton out and candled it. Nine out of the twelve showed development. Paula, that includes the single australorp egg. The two EEs that I checked were really hard to see, but I did see something red up near the air cell, so I am going to assume that meant development. So, if we extrapolate from there Paula, only 1/4 of them may be infertile. Not bad! I will candle again at 7 days and see where we are.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
Awsome!!!
I really want the Australorp egg to make it

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Quote:
Pictures are pretty easy.
Get them uploaded onto your computer first.
Open up a post page.
Then, at the top of this page, you will see a button/word for uploads.
Just follow the prompts, then copy paste the picture link into the post you started.

 

[BirdBrain]

Paula,

Today I candled the bunch and found great results. There are still 38 eggs in the bator. 3 were either to dark to see through or I questioned what I saw, so the verdict is still out on them. Of the other ten, one was a blood ring, 4 were infertile, one other definately quitter (blastoderm was the size of a dime), one although viable got cracked when it slipped from my fingers in the bator, and the other three were either infertile or quit within the first day. None of those eggs were CM or Australorp, unfortunately the bloodring was that beautiful EE egg. I was so disappointed.

The Australorp and the one CM that I could see clearly showed great development. When I weighed each egg they had lost from 1.75% to 4.92%. They have all lost 1-3 grams each. They should lose 11-14% before hatch which looks like Thursday the 18th.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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Awsome! I really hope the Austrulorp makes it, cause I really want to see what that mix will end up looking like.

Sorry I could not stay on the phone long last night. We had our raw milk farmer and his family out to dinner, and we had littles running all over the place

 

[PandoraTaylor]

Doing good, keep up the reports.

 

[BirdBrain]

Thanks Pandora! How are your new babies?

 

[BirdBrain]

I have been running around like a mad woman today. Thank God we homeschool and the kids could bring their books along with us. We got home just in time to turn and weigh eggs and get the kids off to skiing. While the kids were changing I ran the weights through the excell spread sheet and see that at 14 days I have four that have lost 9-10%. Most have lost 7-8 % with a handful in the sixes and two outliers in the 4-5% range. Humidity has been between 30-40%. I finally got smart and added blue food coloring to the water in my white water tray. Now I can tell how low I am getting. I didn't have time tonight to candle but will plan to tomorrow. I marked the air cells of about eggs to see how they progressed and it is interesting that some of them did not dry down evenly. Wonder if that has to do with position in the bator or some other factor.

Paula, I am praying for a synchronized hatch so I can get away to the ladies retreat as planned. Otherwise my DH and sons will chick sit for us.

 

[BirdBrain]

Today I candled again and found that four had quit. They were early quitters and a couple of them have been difficult to tell what I was looking at. One had a blood ring and the other three looked clear. An EE egg that I was having a terrible time candling at start and day 7 gave me a surprise. It was marked on the small end and that was the end I was looking for the air cell on. I guess I never looked down the side far enough before today. Today was the day that chicksyurn and orient themselves toward the larger end of the egg. I am always amazed at this point to see how much they have left to grow and yet by this time next week there should be lots of chicks around.

Well here we are finishing up day 14 and heading into 15. I thought these three weeks were going to be an eternity, but with school and skiing and zillion other things we have going, it hasn't been to bad. Next week is crunch time. On Monday I will candle and weight them one last time and then tape the top shut, add water and sit on my hands. If I can figure out how to separate the breeds for hatch I will. I would like to have some way of marking them. I am thinking about dropping a drop of food coloring on the backs or feet of the birds. I have four colors and four breeds so that should be good. Paula, please remind me what breed your too is.

Paula, I don't know if you saw my other thread where I stated I had ordered some chicks from SandHill Preservation. I asked for 4 Rosecomb RIR, four Delaware, and four Buckeyes. To fill up the rest of theorder I asked for Assorted Heavy chickens. It will be interesting to see what I get. It is a bit like a grab bag--don't know what I'll get but I hope I like it. I was thinking today that if I get the right combinations I could produce a sex-linked layer with a RIR roo and a Delaware hen. I guess it will be 2011 before that happens though.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

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Our roo is a cochin.
With the ones our broody hatched out, we could tell what most of them were on day one. Now that they are a 5-6 days old, it is very obvious which is which.
The chicks that will come out of the maran eggs, will be black and white, and the cochins will be either yellow or silver.
the Astrolorp, should be black.
EE's, could be any color combo.

There are pics on the Febuary Alaska hatch thread