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

[Cynthia12]

 

[Kaylish]

so im almost done collecting eggs....I was aiming to have 3 from each of my birds that I want to hatch from, and im not telling how many birds that will be! LOL
I started collecting Monday, but if we set on the 14th ill either have EXTRA eggs to set, or ill replace my oldest....HMMM what should I do?!

Just in case

I just joined BYC and I'm so excited to participate. This will be my first time hatching eggs in an incubator and i'm so nervous. WIsh me luck!

And ask LOTS of questions. We all love to enable, er, I mean help!

My wife is so sneaky!!! She told me to get the incubator (LG still air) out and get it ready for the HAL. I went to my man cave where I keep my stuff and she had got me a brand new FI 4200 she had it setting on top of my Lg. Gotta love surprises.

Awesome!

She's a keeper!

I'm in! I'm a new member, but I'll be hatching Crevecoeur, Large Fowl Cochins and Buff Orpingtons. So excited to join!

I had never heard of Crevecoeur before; I had to look them up. Very cool!

My daughter broke more than half of the eggs I had on the counter to set tomorrow.

So I guess the rest of the eggs in my bator will be 'hens choice' tomorrow. I just rearranged some birds so I am thinking some of them will be off laying. Bah.

Oh no! That sucks.

We would like to join the Easter hatch a long. This is our first time trying to hatch eggs. We have some eggs ready to put in the incubator so add us to your list.

Check out the Hatching 101 article https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 Lots of good info there. And don't be afraid to ask questions.

Washington State. I don't see too many of my kind on these forums!

Howdy neighbor! (Northern California here)

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 bummer

Hoping for a decent hatch from the remaining eggs

 

[RedIII]

I am excited to find out how your Icelandics do!! I was quite tempted to order some hatching eggs, but decided to pass for now.

Thanks, me too! They are fun to have around. You never know what colors you'll get, hehe

 

[Jessorr2]

Hi,

Congrats on your new emdeavor!
After inspection I put mine, pointy end down, in a clean cardboard egg carton and let them rest for 24-36 hours in my cool basement.
I then bring them up to room temp for 12-24 before putting them in the incubator. All the while I will gently rotate the eggs 2-3 times a day and letting my incubator prove it is rock steady for temps.
Read the Hatching 101 in the education center, as well as any other relevant articles or forums. Brinsea.com has a few excellent articles on hatching parameters, etc.
BYC is here to help.
Best wishes for a happy hatching.

I agree 100% !! The only consideration is the age of the eggs -because after 10 days your hatch rate will go down significantly! So you might have to weigh the odds between shaken eggs and old eggs -I candle and inspect the air cell on arrival to make sure its not detached -if it's intact I let them sit overnight and then get them into the incubator. But if it's detatched I let them sit longer

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote:

Yay, for more eggs!!

Not sure of totals yet but Icelandics, of course, silkies, maybe some Trader Joe's fertile eggs if they have them when I am there on Saturday and possibly a few from a couple of neighbors....total will be posted on Sunday.

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....

Totally agree that eggs traveling by air arrive in better condition and that bouncing in a truck or delivery vehicle is a problem!!

I am seriously getting a hankering for a chocolate egger. DH would probably croak, though

Pooh.



19 Icelandic chicken eggs set today!

Yum, on the chocolate eggs............oh, chocolate egger.......yeah..those too!

Hooray for Icelandic eggs!!!

 

[ocap]

time to go check the nest boxes

 

[Peep-Chicken]

They are here! I wish they where ladycats though. I will be giving most of these to friend- she ordered them.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

The countdown is getting so exciting! My gamefowl will be a day late to the party because they aren't due to arrive until the set day. Maybe they will surprise me and hatch a day early and right on time for the day before Easter festivities! My geese also went in a little late, but they were not planned and were rescued when their nest flooded in the sudden thaw. I candled them out to be at about 4 - 5 days along, so even though I got them late, they should be right on time for the HAL!!

Hopefully they survived the flooding...

 

[gevshiba]

Texas here. North central, or as I like to call it, Pre Oklahoma.

That cold spell we had last week has really messed up my plans. I only have 8 hens and they all but stopped laying. My friend, who I hatch for, has had the same problem. Luckily, I saw the weather was coming and started collecting earlier than I originally was going to. But, that means the eggs are older. I can't set all eggs laid because I have criteria for my hatching eggs. But, maybe it's for the best. I should have shipped SS eggs coming sometime and turkey eggs to pick up, hopefully this month, so I need to keep one bator empty for those. Right?

 

[SoManyHats]

I have peeping going on in my bator on Day 20! I guess I need to set up the brooder.

In other news, I'm scheduled to pick up BLRW eggs tomorrow and have two dozen mixed and pure (Delaware) eggs ready to be set on Saturday. So probably 3 doz total, but we'll see.

And I'm from Virginia.