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

[Tuhmu]

I have a dilemma......I have both incubators full, can probably move everything I have into my Coolerbator for lockdown freeing up my brinsea but I also have around 30ish eggs coming in the mail next week....going to be hard to squeeze them into the brinsea AND I found this: !!!!

My two call ducks' stash! Neither apparently seem interested in actually sitting on them...so I was going to stuff them into the bator but then I remembered I have all these other eggs coming! What a tragedy! I can't just let them go to waste! What to do what to do.....

Update ~ So I was able to score a Styrofoam incubator for the pile of duck eggs I found, VERY curious to see what will happen in the next 6 days haha. I only have two females so...their stash has been in the works for a couple weeks. Give me these kind of eggs any day, they are soooo easy to see through. So easy that the two eggs on day 17 in my cooler are starting to turn a darkish color, assuming from the ducklings down color? (they are alive, not rotting or anything haha, they move quite a bit when I put the light up to them) Hoping for a big batch of little quakers! This is my first year with duck eggs, have done chickens, quail, and geese so far.

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote:

The Cinco De Mayo thread has started, I better find something to hatch!

 

[Junibutt]

Good luck and God bless your chickens. I know stress is very destructive to chickens but I know little about how to handle the situation. Maybe vitamins in the water and your presence will help sustain your chickens through the stressful period. Give them treats, maybe. God bless.

Maybe the noise won't affect your unhatched chicks since they are inside the house and still inside the egg shells. I hope they be okay. When is your hatch day?

My hatch day starts Saturday at 6:00 PM. The whole house shakes when they drill into the floor to rip it. I am hoping this part will be over in a day or two and stay that way through my hatch day.
BTW while I was searching for noise issues with hatching, I found an experiment done for California State Fair where eggs that were exposed to chicken clucking sounds or even ambient music had a higher hatch rate than chicks kept in a quiet environment. The experiment was done by high schoolers so may not have followed all scientific methods. However, its worth trying to replicate.

 

[Happy Chooks]

HappyChooks I do love your bee pics they are just amazing!

Thank you, they are hard to photograph!

That is some camera. I really like the pictures. What kind of camera is that?

It's a Canon Rebel T3i.

I love bees. I want to get a few hives so bad. We've been researching it for years, but haven't taken that final step yet.

There is a lot to learn, but they are so fascinating. And the honey is the best!

Does construction noise affect hatching eggs? The house behind our home was demolished on Friday and today they started digging the ground. The equipment is heavy and noisy and so are the dumpster trucks that are picking up the debris. Because of the noise none of my hens laid today and are huddling in the coop. I am worried it will have a detrimental effect on the hatching eggs in the incubator. Has anyone read anything about it?

P.S. When they dig, even my floor shakes so its pretty heavy and noisy equipment.

I've never thought about it, but I wouldn't think it would be an issue. Your hens should relax and start laying again in a week or so.

Ha Ha!

Lockdown! I have broodies and they have been "locked down" since they got their eggs.

It is amazing how strong their little legs and wings can be when they don't want you to look at the eggs.

And beaks. My BR is the sweetest hen, but when she's broody, she's mean as heck. My hands battle wounds from checking on her eggs:

I am putting my eggs in lockdown tomorrow evening, which will be the middle of Day 18 for me. I can't WAIT for that first little peep, and pip...

Aaand... I now have TWO broodies that just started out in the flocks that I will be giving the babies to once they hatch so they can be raised by real chicken mommas!

I am THRILLED - I was really hoping for broodies in time for the hatch. One is a Buff Orpington (they are my BEST mommas), and the other is a Barred Rock. I am not surprised about either, because they are both almost year old pullets that I hatched last year, and their mothers were both broody last year also.

Oh, and my Silkie is thinking about going broody too!

So I have 1/2 dozen of her eggs saved to give her once she settles down for good.

Funny thing, I was telling some people at our church that I will have chicks hatching this week, and several families want me to call them when they start hatching so they can come and watch! We will have a chick hatching party! LOL!

Counting down to Hatch Day......

Lucky you! I've got a few "thinking" about it, but nobody has committed yet.

Quote: Yep, condensation is bad. You can also drown the chicks in the shell.

Quote: And we look forward to duckling pictures!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedIII

Whew, went out of town and am 500+ posts behind! Sorry if I missed anything. I can't read through all of that.

So I have decided that with my hatch for the HAL having bombed, I am going to try yet again. I'm calibrating the snot out of that thermometer before I set any eggs, too. I must find the problem!

There's always the Cinco De Mayo Turkey Hatch. The threads been started already.

The Cinco De Mayo thread has started, I better find something to hatch!

Sure, hatch with them and not with us.

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedIII

Whew, went out of town and am 500+ posts behind! Sorry if I missed anything. I can't read through all of that.

So I have decided that with my hatch for the HAL having bombed, I am going to try yet again. I'm calibrating the snot out of that thermometer before I set any eggs, too. I must find the problem!

There's always the Cinco De Mayo Turkey Hatch. The threads been started already.

The Cinco De Mayo thread has started, I better find something to hatch!

Sure, hatch with them and not with us.

It was just to early this year, and the quail I over wintered just started laying.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

And beaks. My BR is the sweetest hen, but when she's broody, she's mean as heck. My hands battle wounds from checking on her eggs:

Ouch! My two girls are the strong silent type. The third girl who wanted to brood was pecky and loud and didn't really take. Hope something hatches! They are being so good. I also saw another hen in the nest sitting while one of the broodies took a break today. I did not isolate my girls. I wanted to watch the flock dynamics. Plus I have discovered I can check their crop to see if they have eaten when I lift them to check for extra eggs.

 

[Sherri Dowey]

So how do you get the extra humidity out of the incubator?

 

[vandamma72]

So, I have an update on my possibly fried eggs. I tossed a quitter last night. Veins were completely gone and it was an EE. I checked for veins in the rest of them and all seems well.

I'm going through the same thing with my EEs. Had a couple quitters recently and now I think I have 19 out of the original 27 doing good.

 

[vandamma72]

Hey everyone,

So I've got a question. I'm new to incubating eggs and need to know exactly what I should do. My incubator started at a good temp of about 101-97 and it started getting a little colder in their second week staying between 92-100. And a couple days ago I found it had an average of 94. I'm not terribly worried, since my last attempt at incubating failed due to too high of temperatures. But I'm not sure exactly when I should stop turning them and when to raise the humidity BC it almost looks like these eggs are developing a little slower due to the low heat. Does anyone have any advice?