The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[chicken pickin]

So I got my box of eggs from the PO and the box corners are smashed in and 2 holes poked thru the box. Thank goodness ladycat packs her eggs well. I ordered 18 she sent 20. After seeing the box I thought for sure most were broken but only 3 were. Later today I'll candle them to check out the air cells.

That's a little bit of a bummer. No one wants to see boxes like that arrive. I hope you get a good hatch from them.

 

[chicken pickin]

My mail lady just came to the door to deliver mail and she asked if its almost time for eggs to start coming through the mail for me lol. I didn't think I was memorable but maybe she doesn't deliver many boxes of eggs to people on her route. It was nice that she asked so she could be ready for them.

 

[DUCKOBSESSED]

Yes, plus or minus 2 days from set day.

Oh good, Thank you.

 

[Junibutt]

Me, too!!

Hi Juni!

Hi, What are you hatching?
I have more eggs coming

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

So I got my box of eggs from the PO and the box corners are smashed in and 2 holes poked thru the box. Thank goodness ladycat packs her eggs well. I ordered 18 she sent 20. After seeing the box I thought for sure most were broken but only 3 were. Later today I'll candle them to check out the air cells.

Dang postal service, I hope you have success despite their efforts to foil your plan. I have ladycats eggs in right now. Due to hatch for St Patty's day. I had some pretty funky air cells in ones I could see....but it is really hard to see in these, so I am hoping the no see-ums are perfect Optimism....

 

[JekkaLynn]

Me, hubby, and both kids are going on an egg gathering road trip tonight. Then the eggs will be set at noon on Friday for the hatch along. I won't know how many I have to set until I load them into my Hova Bator and count them.

We are also picking up a Pair of Silver Laced Wyndotte Roosters. One for me and one for my friend who let me borrow his homemade incubator. I filled it on Tuesday with cheap quail eggs and some Black Australorp eggs. The quail will hopefully hatch on my daughter birthday.

 

[calientepocket]

I still haven't gotten any eggs from the Cream Legbars I added to the flock two weeks ago. I was hoping to be able to put some of them in the incubator, as we got rid of the roo over the weekend, but still no luck. Hopefully over the next three days I will get lucky!

 

[cree57i]

Oh yes!

The tricky part on the humidity pump is to get the tubing going the correct way around the motor...

It can be frustrating but it is likely my fault for not getting it twisted correctly.

As always you are correct about that. I think I got everything correct though. This Brinsea advanced is SO easy. I love it already. Rock solid on the temperature.
I have 26 eggs (stacked and packed) in my Brinsea eco right now and the temp fluctuates from 98.3-99.7 for no apparent reason . Even the 2 spot check thermometers don't agree and the glass thermometer is at least 1 degree lower than either of the spot checks. I had 50% hatch the last time with the eco, which was the first time. I know I've learned a lot since then and know this hatch will be better as I get better. I also have a broody with 10 eggs under her.
For the EHAL I will be setting 24 eggs. 10 CCL, 3 Lav. orp, the rest a combination of Marans, OE and EE depending on what I get today. I've got some Lav. AM ordered, but they won't get here in time for this hatch. I have lost my mind! BTW, I am in middle Tennessee, about 30 miles from Nashville.

 

[Cynthia12]

Im in! im hatching Buff Orphingtons and Americonas.

 

[TJChickens]

I just got two shipped boxes of Ameraucana bantam eggs from two different states. One box was okay and the other was smashed. All eggs were unbroken, but all eggs have damaged air cells.

My postmaster has told me that it matters not at all what's written on the box, other than maybe to the last po worker to handle it when it gets to the destination po. She told me that after being received by the shipper's po, the box is put into a large bin with other boxes weighing up to 70 pounds which is then DUMPED automatically onto a truck, taken to the next stop, an airport or another po, dumped again onto a conveyor belt and on and on.... Most of the way it's all machine sorting, very little handling/reading by a person.

I've shipped thousands of eggs and I buy them too. Something I always recommend, because other than a good packing job, it's the only thing sort of in our control, is to have the destination PO hold the box and call for it to be picked up. Sometimes they won't even do that. But if they do, at least it keeps the eggs out of that final delivery truck and out of any last temperature extremes.

I have also had better luck with eggs air cells if they have come from far enough away that they were in the air most of the time. When they are shipped from just a few hours away, they spend all the time on trucks and get dumped out and sorted repeatedly. I think the vibration of being on a truck is perhaps the most damaging aspect of the whole trip.

I will continue to buy shipped eggs and take my chances. It is still the easiest and often cheapest way to get new bloodlines etc. even if only a few hatch....