The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[Blarneyeggs]

Congratulations on the hatch! You want to share how many and what you set for the hatch a long?




[COLOR=0000FF]For the HAL I set 12 GS line HBRs from Fred's Hens, 11 BRs from my breeding pair, and 4 MW turkey last week. 25 total.


I have 12 Salmon Faverolles, 5 BYMs, and 4 BRs in the hatcher now.[/COLOR]


 

Great, I kind of wish I would have kept a breeding pair of MW! Do you mean 27 ?

Cracking up that you caught that math error! Lol. I had a friend give me MW turkey eggs a few weeks ago, they are in the bator now and due to hatch next week.

I have a first time broody Wyandotte in my main coop. I wanted to give her eggs for this hatch along, got a brooder set up, waited till it was dark enough outside and....promptly fell asleep. Arrrrgh! Will have to try again tonight.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

MontanaDolphin - I have also successfully hatched a repaired egg. Mine cracked at the seven day candling - my fault - I was so upset, because it was a roo/hen combination that I really wanted. I sealed it with candle wax, making sure I covered the whole crack. The egg hatched and the chick didn't need any help at all. So give it a try - you have nothing to lose (well, a little time and a little space in your bator, but that's all). Good Luck.

I used new skin liquid bandage...we'll see how it goes

I have repaired broken macaw eggs and they hatched. I used fingernail polish. These eggs were pretty fresh though. I think the biggest problem with repairs is if bacteria has had a chance to enter.

That's what I'm worried about...the bacteria. I have no idea how old the two silkie eggs are...she didn't write dates on them.

 

[PAchickenlover]

Well, good morning all! My cat only had three kittens. Not a one look like a Siamese. The kittens are still cute though.

Aww. Sorry you didn't get another siamese. At least they're all happy and healthy! Good job Mommy!

I'm happy all are healthy. I am going to have some disappointed Ppl that wanted a Siamese. They will just have to wait for another litter.. The kittens are really adorable and have some unique markings.

 

[coopsbyty]

Can we get a broody roll call?

I have two of them  Who else??:cd

Four here,
Two silkies in one pen, another frizzle silkies in a different pen and a Cochin in another pen so far only have eggs under one. I am going to try and get some under others today.

 

[LBKS]

First hatch for me and I have managed to come up with a couple of questions. more to follow im sure however I'm trying to stay current on the threads and soak up the knowledge. Lets start with humidity. I have a little giant still air that I added a fan to. I plan to use a automatic turner also. So I set everything up and had it running tues after a decent amount of tinkering I got the temp to stabilize at 99.4 for about 24hrs. Humidity however was around 10% and that had me a worried so I added water to 2 of the channels in the bottom and allowed it to stabilize. 12 hours later temp was down to 88 and humidity was 81%. decided that was way too high and read on here to not use the channels so I dumped the water back out. Bring it around full circle and I'm back to a dry incubator sitting at 99.5 degrees with 19% humidity for the past 20ish hours. Am I ready to set tmrw morning or do I need to bring the humidity up a bit more. 2nd questions is candling prior to incubation I shouldn't see anything but a clear egg correct? I'm sure its something that comes with practice but not really sure what I should see. I have 12 splash orpington, 12 partridge plymouth rock, and 12 mystery eggs that were purchased local a week ago. All of these appear to have aircells and based on pictures and information posted earlier appear to be normal. I have 5 eggs from my bantam easter eggers that don't appear to have aircells at all? Thank You In Advance and have a good day.

I'm no hatching expert, and my humidity is controlled by my local environment, so hopefully those lovely folks will chime in for you soon with something helpful on that front

If you don't see an air cell on an egg, then it may be very, very fresh. That's what is really behind the old sink-or-float test for determining if an egg has gone "bad" -- the older the egg is the more moisture has evaporated out of it. Additionally, some eggs are just plain harder to candle due to their color. If those eggs are different colored than those you can see air cells on, they just might have them but be too hard to see with the strength of your light. Sometimes if you move your light around a couple different spots on the egg you can find an angle that works better at showing you what is going on. This is handy if you haven't seen it before, so you know what to expect!

In general for humidity - what you are looking for there is an amount of weight loss and humidity is your tool to get that. Sally made an excellent post here about it in this thread. From what I remember reading that 19% is probably going to be too low - your eggs will be on a "crash diet" and lose weight too fast. If it is too high they won't lose any weight and the chick just won't have enough air for when they pip internally, not good either.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Quick question:

I saw the guidelines for setting on the first page...

seramas: 19 days to hatch; set March 31st
other bantam and LF: 21 days to hatch; set March 29th


In the batch of bantam eggs I'm setting, some are Seramas BUT may have been fertilized by an Old English Game bantam. So does it still apply that I don't set those Serama eggs until the 31st if I don't know if they are pure?

 

[mlm Mike]

Ooops - I posted a pic, but did not post a total number: Total of 6 eggs set for Whoops

Thank You!

I guess if my other eggs don't get here by tomorrow, I will go ahead and just count the ones that I set this morning. Will get photos tomorrow, after my mail has come. :/

I hope they arrive today.

This thread is just leaping ahead and I've only got a few minutes here and there to read. NO WAY I can keep up with you all!

Going to finish setting on Monday so I won't enter my final count until then. I'm obviously not counting the eggs I had to farm out either. I kind of hate doing that now. I like to see them all hatch! I simply did not have room.

Someone is making their 90 ct incubator available to me though, so I just tetris stacked all the shipped eggs in one bator for now. They won't get turned for a while anyway. Then I can run the 90 ct for a day or so and get it stabilized. Then I'll move them and start the turners then.

We have the little farm but my mother wishes she could have chickens so she helps. Or enables...

My poor mother, I was having her set her eggs and she dropped a Brabanter egg on and Orp egg. She felt so bad. I told her it was just an egg! I keep telling my kids that people are more important than chickens. I don't know who I'm trying to convince, them or me?

Luckily the egg was only dented, so I waxed it. We'll see if anything comes of it.

The Brabanter eggs were in pretty bad shape after their shipment. Two were badly broken and one was kind of cracked all around. I waxed the cracked one. Might as well. Hoping for a pullet. Just one Brabanter pullet and my mom will be SOOOO happy!

Expensive way to get one pullet!

Set so far,
25 Turkey eggs
10 GLW LF
10 EE LF
12 BBS Orp
12 Cuckoo Orp
20 SFH
10 Cream Brabanter
2 MF Leghorn

Good luck! I hope your mother gets the Brabanter pullet she wants.

Well, good morning all! My cat only had three kittens. Not a one look like a Siamese.

The kittens are still cute though.

Cute! Looks like she is being a good mom.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Busy, Busy! Today we're going to the Inner Harbor and having a family day starting at The Science Center /w/ Imax. Gonna Be Fun! Have a Terrific Day everyone! And CONGRATS to everyone for FINALLY MAKING IT TO SET DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[mlm Mike]

Quick question:

I saw the guidelines for setting on the first page...

seramas: 19 days to hatch; set March 31st
other bantam and LF: 21 days to hatch; set March 29th


In the batch of bantam eggs I'm setting, some are Seramas BUT may have been fertilized by an Old English Game bantam. So does it still apply that I don't set those Serama eggs until the 31st if I don't know if they are pure?

As far as counting for the hatch a long either day is fine. I don't know how the cross would impact incubation time.

 

[chickenlisa]

She's pretty! Don't think I'm being a know it all..please...! We used to raise Persian Cats..and a dilute Tortoiseshell has no white. White on the dilute orange and black..cream and blue..is a calico. You have a Dilute Calico there.

We tried so hard to have our Tortoi to have a dilute calico, but no luck..we ended up buying one. Maybe you can post photos of your babies when they come? That would be great.

Thanks Cynthia12- I called her that first (Dilute Calico)then saw pics somewhere that looked like the other color..Dilute Tortie. Whatever, she is so sweet, and belongs to someone who let her out and they didn't want to deal with her being prego- so our local shelter is responsible now for her and her babies, will spay her when she's done nursing them and get her caught up on her shots and then I guess they get her back. The kittens will be adopted out. bI'm out of all that- we just get to lover her and help her out...and her babies!