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

[MandyMW]

How did they look??  

2 looked fine, think I all ready need new batteries for my light. I'm going to risk it and monitor for weeping eggs. Wednesday I'll candle again before lockdown!!

 

[BridgetBarger]

Threw out an egg last night have 5 that look to be doing great.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Guess who just got 9 guinea eggs given to her??? This girl right here!

My son's teacher killed a fox this morning, unfortunately a week too late (lost 2 guineas and a few chickens to the fox). He posted on a local facebook chicken page (pet chickens of virginia) asking if anyone wanted the fox, and since I know how to braintan hides, I told him I'd take it. He knew I'd been wanting guinea eggs to hatch (I mentioned it a month or two ago), so when I went to his house to pick up the fox, he gave me an egg carton with 9 guinea eggs in it! Of course I had told him I didn't have any room for them in my bator, but I ended up bringing them home anyway

So I stuffed 'em in there...it's a very tight fit, but they're in!

Sigh. I wish I had a hatcher. Can I make one???? The first few chicks that hatch are going to be stepping all over eggs...there's not an inch of free space in the incubator!

That's great! Good luck building a hatcher.

I'm so disappointed! Checked my bator and it was up over 104!!! Not sure for how long, impatiently waiting for night fall to candle.

They will be fine. Mother Nature is stronger than you think.

Today is taking all the relaxation out of my stay-at-home vacation. Going to have to spend it tracking down whatever defective thing caused a 500 electric bill. It's insane. Ruled out the meter being broken, trying to figure out which breaker the culprit is on. With my luck it will be some wiring on the fritz. Hoping it is something I can fix or live without for a while.

50cc's of someone elses's good news stat?

Ouch! Water heater possibly? That is the only thing that has ever spiked our bill.

I have some cool news. I got my lavender LF frizzle cochin eggs today from MI. The breeder dropped them off in my town on the way by. I paid for 6 eggs and she brought me 18!

Nice!

I have some baby kittens that were born yesterday. They could make anyone smile. I should snap some pics to put on here. Their mama is our barn kitty. She is the only one we haven't got fixed yet. She surprised us with these little angels. They are in the garage next to our chick brooder.

More kittens, congrats!

My hatch day is coming up on Thursday. I gave my remaining two eggs to my broody hen, and she's sitting in the community nest box. My concern is that it's a couple feet off the ground, and that the chicks might fall off the side. What should I do?

After they hatch you can move her to a better location at night. Don't move her now.

Well, it seems I will be a first time grandma this December. So looking for to spoiling the little one!

Congratulations!

I feel your pain. When we lived in Alaska a few years ago, I got hit with over $1000 power bills 4 months in a row! It was faulty wiring in the driveway heater that the landlord made us use but he refused to fix it. It was cheaper for me to pay to fix it than keep paying the power bill.

Now that is a HIGH bill! And I've never heard of a driveway heater.

Today has been a hard day. After breakfast I went to check on the one remaining chick I had (originally it was one I really wanted to keep and then it developed wry neck so I did not feel comfortable offering it to anyone for sale or free really). Found she ( I kept calling it a she in hopes it would pull through and be a girl) had had a nervous freak out (as she had been having with the wry neck) and had fallen backwards into the waterer and it seemed she could not get up having gotten herself wedged between the waterer and the side of the brooder and could not get up given her condition and had drowned. Pretty sad. I was really hoping for a recovery by this chick. She had seemed to be doing better the past couple days with selenium and grogel added to her vitamin E regimen. She really was the most beautiful chick I'd ever seen. I have 5 eggs from the same parentage in the 'bator right now set for a April 30 hatch. It won't be the same, but I'm hoping for some similar coloring (the mother is a bantam hen with tufted cheeks and the most adorable personality and the father is the most beautiful Belgian d'Uccle mille fleur roo - their union is one of necessity, given that the cold weather was making most of my d'Uccle eggs were freezing before collection and this particular hen is an excellent broody to keep them from freezing before collection and she had laid very few eggs while performing this duty only one of which was fertile in the last hatch.)

RIP baby Diva.

I'm so sorry.

So the one egg (clear.. i think) that looks like just a yolk has a aircell almost one half of the egg. We lost eight others to blood rings, and the others dont seem to be developing.. im so confused. This is driving me nuts. Also the air cell has gotten bigger since then.

Looks clear to me.

One of my Calls quit probably yesterday. I eggtopsied, which really ticked me off that it was soo cute.Teensy, black with a solid white neck ring and belly. Quite intimidating that it was so tiny and lockdown is on Tuesday for them. Very scary!

Bummer.

Good luck with the rest of them.

I'm out of the hatchalong.

I started out with two broodies, so I gave each one 4 eggs. Less 24 hours into it, the one quit, and sometime in that time frame, the remaining broody switched clutches. So all 8 eggs were started. I stuck all 8 under her, but I think that was too much for a silkie. I candled a few days ago, and it looked like 3 were good, and the rest were questionable. I should've gone with my gut and tossed all but those three confirmed good ones. It was a tough judgment call because they are fbcm, and are hard to candle even under the best of circumstances.

I candled everything tonight and they're all dead.

I figure I'll go to a feed store on Monday and buy her a couple chicks.

So, my tally is 0/8.

I'm sorry.

Oh dear...I'm in the same boat with my call eggs 2 of mine died yesterday at 19 days. The last one of the original 4 looks bad....I didn't feel like opening them, but they were very small also. They were snowy calls that I badly wanted.
Now I'm very sad that the other 12 that I have in the incubator will follow the same path. I'm now afraid to candle...They will reach 19 days in 3 days. Everyone is a shipped egg with bad cells. Yours looked better than mine, so I'm really hoping that you will get something to hatch even if I don't.

Sorry you lost 2, hope the rest hatch!

This is one of our blue eyed bunny babies



Morning all, hope everyone has a wonderful blessed day!!

Gorgeous bunny! Great............now I want ducklings AND bunnies!

hEy bycers ive 8 goose eggs on lockdown today and 4 are already wiggling! So early!

As hatch day approaches, please remember to post your total number hatched in this thread. Also, if you could include the breed(s) that would be great!

Thank You and happy hatching!

Yes, please post your totals when they are finished hatching! We need to record how many chicks hatch!

hey i have a little giant 9200 still air incubator and i have questions about when i am supposed to pull the second plug to increase oxygen in the incubator?

I already pulled mine.

 

[Happy Chooks]

 

[Whoops]

Congratulations!

 

[luvmypets]

I luv it

 

[Whoops]

So, I am hatching in a mini brinsea advanced. I have had two previous hatches, both times shipped marans eggs. The eggs came from CA, and I am at 5300 ft elevation. I followed the instructions on the 'bator got one live chick out of twelve eggs. Most appeared to die fully formed, just didn't hatch. This time I have local CCL eggs. I have kept the humidity lower, this time, about 35%, and I have what appear to be all five eggs in the 'bator with wiggling chicks inside and loosing weight according to the schedule.

My questions are:

Should I sort of prop the incubator slightly open at lockdown to increase air circulation?
Or spritz the eggs once or twice a day during lockdown to get the air moving through them?
I am going to hatch them in egg carton cut - outs, big end up.
I plan to intervene and make a small external pip in the aircell end of the egg at the end of the 22nd day.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

I am really hoping for better results. I believe the fact that these are local eggs is a big plus. The dry incubation seems to have kept the aircells growing on track.

 

[JennaLynn122]

Excited today, Get to try out my new Ruger 380 at the range.

Wish me luck!

I'm jealous. I need to go mess with all my guns. They need shot bad. I can hear them calling me now. Just don't have time between hatching, housework, building the new coops, new chicks and our 4 boys. I'ma busy busy mommy.

 

[SilkieSensation]

hey i have a little giant 9200 still air incubator and i have questions about when i am supposed to pull the second plug to increase oxygen in the incubator?

You're in PA...pull both plugs out & LOSE THEM PERMANENTLY. No need for plugs at all. You will have much better hatches without them.

 

[JerseyHen]

Candled last night... 25/42 looking good. Considering that 10 of the eggs I pulled were clears from the same hen (she must have something wrong with her since I know she is being mated) it is not too bad.