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

[mlm Mike]

Amywilliams, drott3, Jessshan8, and sbarab

Welcome to the 2015 Easter Hatch A Long.

Particpant list is up to date to post 2090.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Happy, how are your bees?

They are doing great, thanks for asking. I just checked on them last week and they were bringing in lots of pollen. (everything is in bloom here in CA) Their top box was full and the bottom empty, so I swapped them to give them more room to raise brood/store honey. I hope they fill it up before the blackberries bloom, then I can have all the honey from the blackberries!

OK, I have a question. All of you guys that hatch at around 60-65% humidity at hatch, are you guys of the strict no opening the bator from lockdown on? I've been formulating this thought for a while, when asked opinions we all give what works for us, but we focus on just one aspect of hatching. Person "a" says I have great hatches at 60-65% humidity at hatch. person "b" lives right next door and has like conditions inside for hatching, but says, "I need mine at 70-75% humidity at hatch". What we are not seeing is person "a" has strict no opening bators during hatch so that humidty is sufficient for them. Person "b" is a meddler and opens to add water, or fix something that in his mind just isn't right, so at 60-65% he is loosing more humidity when "meddling". Or Person "a" will not assist a hatch or remove chicks until the end of the hatch, and person "b" will jump in and assist if they feel neccessary and can't stand having 8 chicks running around in the bator so removes them.
So I started wondering if the ones that have the successful hatches at lower humidity are in the hands off after lockdown group. Because when we offer someone an opinion, we use our own idiosyncrasies as a guidline to why it should be done that way.
When we make our suggestions we have no clue if they are a bator meddler or not...lol

I will chick grab when my humidity is too high. It gets the hatched chicks out and lowers the humidity at the same time. If you see condensation on your window, your humidity is too high.

Hatching is learning to work with your equipment and what works for you. I will not help a chick hatch unless they have zipped and got stuck due to my fault maintaining humidity. Every time I have helped a chick, I've had to put it down. I've even had several wrong way pippers hatch totally on their own.

We both use Brinsea incubators with auto humidity pumps(Kelly may not use hers as much--she said the noise bothered the husband)

They are very stable for humidity and temps.

I have a Brinsea and a Hovabator. I don't have the humidity pump for the Brinsea because the DH doesn't like the noise. He already complains about the fan sound. The Brinsea is so easy to incubate in. The hovabator you have to watch more carefully and adjust occasionally.

Just had my test hatch. 14 out of 15 eggs hatched. I am so proud.

If you are new to incubation, like i am, i highly recommend "Permaculture Chicken: Incubation Handbook". It was so, so helpful and only 99 cents on my kindle.

Great job, congrats!

Do y'all prefer hatching eggs upright in cartons or laying on sides? My first hatch I did in a carton. I'm day 12 on my current hatch and I'm considering putting a towel over the screen, and laying the eggs on that. BUT this hatch is already going so much better than the last, so I guess I'm hesitant to change anything.

I hatch in cartons. It makes cleanup a ton easier and I get much better hatch rates. I've lost chicks in shells due to egg soccer.

A few interesting things I've noticed with hatching. I never had breech chicks until I had a self turner that rolled the eggs. Maybe they were point up too often, I don't know. The ones that I had propped up always hatched well.

I had a chick once that was just started to pip and a newly hatched chick bumped it and the hole was turned underneath and the chick suffocated. So I make sure that no chicks can play soccer with the unhatched eggs.

I do stay close to 28% day 1-18, and then to 68%-72% the last 3 days. I've always hatched at 99.5 degrees, no lower and stay below 100. My chicks usually have a hatch marathon, usually a day early. I had a bator that kept excellent temperature and would recover immediately after being opened. So I think that temp consistency is top important. I now just have a styrofoam with a fan, and with them I lay bubble wrap over the window. That window has no insulation and the temp gets too unsteady. When I turn the eggs, I always move them from outside to inside position as well so they all get equal microclimate. I love turning by hand, it makes me feel involved.

I do usually have 2-3 thermometers in with the eggs trying to get them level with the top of the eggs. One of them is a good ole glass thermometer. I might end up having to buy another humidity gauge.

If you'll notice , all chicks should pip in the same place. Usually on the side, slightly towards the fat end. It's really funny how those pips seem to be in the same location on the egg.

I'm sure all you know this stuff already. But I always like sharing what works for me.
I'm getting a dozen Bargain silkie eggs this week. I will have to set them early, but I'll just pretend I'm part of the hatch a long.

Don't set them early, hatch with us!

Ok, I can now see a semi-reliable forecast up to Wednesday of next week (March 11th), and up here in Michigan's Thumb it is looking like we will be in the mid to high 30's, possibly hit 40º F, with 20's or teens at night.

Do you think it would be safe or wise to go ahead and have my Ameraucana hatching eggs shipped up from Georgia, or should I wait a week or two until warmer weather? I would LOVE to be able to hatch my new Ameraucana babies for the Hatch-along, but I don't want to unnecessarily endanger them by a too cold trip up here!

What do you all think?

I say go for it, but you have to be comfortable with it.

 

[ozexpat]

We are saving guinea eggs for set day

 

[chicken pickin]

We are saving guinea eggs for set day

Very exciting! What color guinea?

 

[chicken pickin]

I started collecting eggs today for the hatch a long, got 2 so far today

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I woke up to am incubator filled with babies this morning! I set 14, 1 didn't develope and I tossed it at day 14. All the rest hatched out

this was the first time I tried "dry" incubation. I kept my humidity between 20-30% for the first 17 days then bumped it up to 70-75% for hatch. I'm VERY happy

pictures to come later when I move them all to the brooder.

Excellent!! That's great! You do about the same method I do!

I will chick grab when my humidity is too high. It gets the hatched chicks out and lowers the humidity at the same time. If you see condensation on your window, your humidity is too high.

Hatching is learning to work with your equipment and what works for you. I will not help a chick hatch unless they have zipped and got stuck due to my fault maintaining humidity. Every time I have helped a chick, I've had to put it down. I've even had several wrong way pippers hatch totally on their own.

Thank you for stating that. I am of the same opinion that condensation is not what you strive for. I watched a new member about a week ago tell someone that if they had condensation their humidity was high enough, if they didn't have condensation it needed to be highered until they did. I had to respectfully disagree. I do not get condensation even at 75% (what I run for hatch). If at any point it shoots up causing condensation, I lower it a bit.

I'm not afraid to do an assited hatch, but only if I truely feel it is neccessary. One of my 4 month old pullets I assisted from a malepostion problem. Her positioning in the egg would in no way have allowed her to get out. But when I start to think there's a problem, I just widen the pip hole to see what's going on. If nothing seems amiss, I'll return it to let it go at it's own. If there's a obvious problem, then I will start a lengthy slow assist. My pullet is great. Healthy. I also had one go the other way. Stuck in shell, assisted, but there was more going on than just the egg problems. It had digestive problems and died about 9 days later. So it's a gamble.

 

[ozexpat]

Very exciting! What color guinea?

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Mottled Houdans arrived this morning

 

[LPeaslee]

Amywilliams, drott3, Jessshan8, and sbarab

[COLOR=0000FF]Welcome to the 2015 Easter Hatch A Long.[/COLOR]

Particpant list is up to date to post 2090.

Only 243 participants in this HAL? Ahh Oh, I hope a lot more join or my total eggs set guess is out the window.

 

[chicken pickin]

Mottled Houdans arrived this morning

So much adorable going on there!!!