Haven't been on this thread for 1 week and 1/2, and had over 2,000 unread posts!
Decided to NOT catch up on all the unread posts, as I'd rather use the time to built another Cooler Bator for a hatcher, etc!
I did set eggs for the Easter Hatch-a-long on 3/12 around 1:30pm, but later at 2:45 switched out some of the eggs, so they "cooled off" while doing that.
I don't know how many eggs I collected for the hatch, but probably somewhere around 9 - 10 dozen!
Unfortunately, I only have a Genesis 1588 incubater and one Cooler Bator that was already full of eggs in lockdown.
So, I double-stacked the auto-turner again, plus added a few to hand turn along the two of the edges.
So far the auto-turner is doing better than the last double-stack hatch, as the rubber band around the motor/turner arm is keeping everything in place!
I honestly don't know exactly how many eggs I have in there, but it's really full!
I originally counted 93 eggs, but when I swapped out eggs, I'm not sure if it was an "equal exchange".
Candling is going to be interesting, though the Cooler Bator is almost empty, just a few late hatchers who are gaining strength.
Perhaps after I clean it out, I can put the extra eggs after candling them in there, if I can quickly make a manual "quick" turner for the eggs.
What breeds did I set?
11 Bielefelder
7 Swedish Flower Hen
6 Bielefelder x "Susan" - Catskill Homesteader (only one who lays green eggs in that group)
5 Bielefelder x CH (brown eggs)
4 SFH x CH (green eggs)
4 SFH x CH (khaki eggs)
9 CH - laid by 2014 SFH x CH pullet (cream egg)
6 CH - sm/med light brown eggs from the same hen in the PA Coop, but not sure "who it is"
The rest are Catskill Homesteader green or brown eggs, from either the "PA Coop" and "Dad's Coop", and those are the ones I've "lost count" with.
I will post of photo (sometime), as I haven't downloaded photos from the camera recently.
It'll be fun to see how this hatch does.
My 2nd "test" hatch that was staggered over 4 days did really well.
Out of the 50 eggs that went into lockdown:
36 hatched "on time" and are doing well in the brooder
3 "late" chicks I assisted, due to being "stuck" after starting to zip. One was very sticky & had "gunk" all over it. It can't stand up or even get on its feet. I'm going to cull it.
The two other "assists" are doing well, so they'll be going to the brooder soon.
I'm pretty sure it was due to opening hatcher to remove the already hatched chicks after the oldest ones were 3 days old.
The 1 and only SFH chick hatched by itself AFTER I assisted the 3 other chicks and had opened the hatcher many times! And it came from a porous egg & I had almost given up on it.
1 chick hatched (w/o help), but was bloody, didn't look to have fully absorbed its yolk; it died a few hrs later
2 hadn't developed at all (but somehow they looked formed when I candled??)
2 looked to have quit developing along the way
5 were fully formed, but died in the shell, no external pips, and only 2 of those had internally pipped. This included two Bielefelder eggs
.
Monday evening, I took 10 chicks out of the hatcher & put them with their older "siblings" from the 3/7 hatch. The bigger chicks thought the new chicks' legs were "earthworms"!
The "bullies" took one of the chicks, grabbed its foot and dragged it across the brooder! I've put chicks together that are one week apart before and never had this happen!
So I quickly put all the young chicks in a box to keep them separate, and yesterday I put up a hardware cloth divider between them.
Hopefully, they'll get used to each other & I can put them all together & the older ones will mind their manners.
While I have buyers coming Saturday for many of them, I'm keeping some of them for myself and to grow out for started pullets for others.
( the young boy's still not doing his job
