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

[austinbndr28]

Congratulations austinbnder28!!!! My what soaking wet birds you have lol.

Congrats!

Congratulations! This was a great one all right. That poor chicken. Looks to me as though he's doing some pretty serious complaining!

Thanks!! They fluffed back up.

 

[Book]

LOL your cute! I pray your feeling better?

trouble is most dont want to read and then try to fix issues when its too late, thats the bummer

The trouble is most have a lot going on, read and read and read, and sometimes certain balls get dropped!

Thank you to all those who have been helpful in this. They are definitely stuck little chicks. First time we have let this happen (5 other hatchings) and I think because they are shipped eggs I got the notion that less was more when it came to turning them at first because of the air sacks. I was clearly wrong and focused on the wrong issue! We can just wait and see now what happens to them!

 

[Cynthia12]

Thanks!! They fluffed back up.

Ahh, that's better..

 

[Cynthia12]

So this little girl hatched late last night:




Here's hoping the other egg hatches too!

Is this a baby goose? A gosling?

Like I said before, I've never seen one. How cute is this?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

My first 2 BLRW chicks, more to come.

Quote: Lovely Penedesenca!

Quote: I am not sure what to tell you, but if they dont stink keep them in and candle in a few days. Its very hard to judge with images, I dont see veining, but sometimes inside the egg its very faint depending on candler and so forth. If you cannot see veins or movement upon candle you will have to decide later on if your not sure. Were these your own eggs or shipped eggs? do you see blood rings in any of them? you will need to look up candle images and sometimes they have bad eggs posted as well. There are links in the hatching 101 article that may have these images to compare, but sometimes you can just google bad egg candle in images and you will see there and go to the sites specific to what your looking at. or if you have help you can try candling and uploading an video to youtube and then putting it here, that may help us see what your seeing better? I am sorry I cant be of much more help with these images

Random Posting #1 was 4/4 at 4:59AM (Pacific time)

The closest poster to that time was LBKS! Congratulations! You have won a 6 month GFM membership!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...byc-easter-hatch-a-long/7650_50#post_13179121​

CONGRATS LBKS!!

Fertility looks fantastic in my Welsummer and Barnevelder flocks. Not one clear egg!

YAY!!!! GOOD NEWS!!

Quote: oh man, well that is good news at least!

I live at 5505ft altitude. I set 28 eggs from somewhere in Texas (I forget where) my humidity has been around 45 and I didn't use the plug at all. I candled a few eggs and saw life, but didn't do all of them yet. Now after all this talk about altitude I'm nervous.

Dont be nervous you are aware of it now!

Quote: agree!

Quote:

awesome pics as always!!

I didn't aim to hatch on date with this hatch-a-long but I set my 40 eggs on March 29'th! You can add me to the list! So far, I'm seeing nice veins in my eggs and looking for a great hatch. This is the first time I've set more than one breed in my incubator (And filled it to it's limit). I've set a dozen Lavender Orpington, two dozen Barred Rock, and 4 random mixes. Can't wait to see how everyone's eggs hatch! I'm aiming for a dry incubation, with my humidity around 26%. Dry hatches always turn out the best for me, what humidity gives you the best hatch? Happy hatching BYC!

WELCOME!!!!

I just went outside a moment ago to bring some extra water out to my chickens and as I walked out the door A hawk swooped into my front yard and tackled my duck bluebell. I ran at them screaming and the hawk flew away. Thankfully my little bluebell seems unharmed though I cant catch her to check for any puncture wounds. Agh! This is my first hawk scare. They fly around often but have yet to swoop down on any of my animals.

OH NO!!!!! what breed is bluebell? that was close!!!!

I cracked open that funky egg!! Everything normal on inside. Had like 3-4 layers of egg shell .

eeeewwwwwww

I had a zero hatch today I opened one just to see almost 3 days late....I didn"t expect many but not zero but wasn't too suprised..about half way through i had my turner motor die..so the went a couple days before i realized i did eggtopsies...2 were green inside (lucky they didn't explode)..3 quit fairly early day 11 to 13, 1 late quitter, and 3 had fully formed malpostioned chicks no yolk sac at all...

thats a bummer!

So this little girl hatched late last night:




Here's hoping the other egg hatches too!

 

[austinbndr28]

Ahh, that's better..

Yeah! They look better dry than wet.

 

[Pyxis]

So this little girl hatched late last night: Here's hoping the other egg hatches too!

Is this a baby goose? A gosling? Like I said before, I've never seen one. How cute is this?

She is! A little baby sebastopol, possibly a blue saddleback.

 

[Reyvaughn]

I have had to skip over 1000 posts in the last couple days. I don't have the time needed to read this thread and I'm a stay at home mom. How do you guys/ladies do it?!
I wanted to report I had 70 eggs quit in the first week or were clear. I said my project eggs are horrible in the fertility area. I wish they had as good of fertility as my Ameraucanas. One cockerel over 15 pullets and I set 27 of their eggs for the Easter HAL. All 27 are fertile and bouncing!

 

[ozexpat]

The trouble is most have a lot going on, read and read and read, and sometimes certain balls get dropped!

Thank you to all those who have been helpful in this. They are definitely stuck little chicks. First time we have let this happen (5 other hatchings) and I think because they are shipped eggs I got the notion that less was more when it came to turning them at first because of the air sacks. I was clearly wrong and focused on the wrong issue! We can just wait and see now what happens to them!

I have been only hatching eggs for about 17 months so I could be called a newbie.

Because I wanted to get the best hatches possible in the Philippines, I hatches more than 20 shipped egg sets in SoCal and either sold or gave away the chicks (my rental apartment does not permit chickens lol). I followed all the guidelines of the times and found myself with dead in shell chicks. I also spent many a night on Sally's thread working with people to get their stuck chicks out.

All the research I was reading said that turning was critical, yet we were all letting our precious shipped eggs rest for days and up to a week. Something was wrong. I changed my practice and studied the results. After more than two thousand shipped eggs I can say that it is clear how critical it is to get eggs turning within 48 hours. Any longer than that and my dead in shell or need to assist rate climbs.

I turn all eggs at 12 hours. When I am hatching in the usa with a nice controlled dry hatch, those with really bad air cells hatch at the same rate - from zero for rolling cells to about 20% for jiggly cells. My assist rate is zero and my dead in shell id about 5% on shipped eggs. Calculating success in shipped eggs is different than with local eggs. If you are doing everything right on local eggs you should be at 88-95% of eggs you set. While I record my percentages of eggs set versus hatched with shipped eggs to evaluate vendors and shipping methods, what happens to an egg before I set it is out of my control. An egg that is non viable could look perfect but candle clear. Everything from hen nutrition, to age of eggs when shipped to travel vibrations can cause a clear at 7-10 day candling. All my research is based on improving hatch percentages of viable eggs. The most significant improvement came from turning eggs early. Now temperature, humidity and ventilation control are critical and without them, you will fail catastophically but if delayed turning causes a dead in shell improvemnt as signigicant as 10-15% - I will take three more chicks in a clutch of twenty.

Sally has been on board with this thinking through her own research and modified her hatching 101 article probably 6 months ago. The concept is new on BYC. Lots of people giving advice are following the age old procedures and it will take a while for the culture to change. Hatchalongs like this are a great time to get everybody together and discuss new methods, and share our results.

Good luck with your hatch.

 

[chicken pickin]

I have had to skip over 1000 posts in the last couple days. I don't have the time needed to read this thread and I'm a stay at home mom. How do you guys/ladies do it?!
I wanted to report I had 70 eggs quit in the first week or were clear. I said my project eggs are horrible in the fertility area. I wish they had as good of fertility as my Ameraucanas. One cockerel over 15 pullets and I set 27 of their eggs for the Easter HAL. All 27 are fertile and bouncing!

What are your project eggs?