The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

[GitaBooks]

Did I break the thread?!?

Certainly not, I think everyone just needed to give their eyes a break after catching up on all the posts. LOL.

Welcome back.

 

[caeti21]

Those awesome prizes






Back reading - will PM, too.

 

[caeti21]

I have bad news but my Dominique hen just got killed by the stupid pigs... I had one have this happen to it before, but we fuxed the problem, until they dug down 3 ft and grabbed her from under.... This is why I like my birds... No pigs, goats, sheep, or cows. Even though we have them...

Awe im so sorry

 

[shahtir101]

I have bad news but my Dominique hen just got killed by the stupid pigs... I had one have this happen to it before, but we fuxed the problem, until they dug down 3 ft and grabbed her from under.... This is why I like my birds... No pigs, goats, sheep, or cows. Even though we have them...

 

[NotAFarm]

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Good for her!

I don't know about the broodiness. She is the only one that I hatched from @coldupnorth Maybe she just likes to let the others do all the work so she can spend time with Audun.

That is fine with me!

I'd rather hatch her eggs than have her sitting. I usually have plenty of others willing to sit!

 

[nate1the1great1]

@LocalYokel. I am going to antagonize you with my shakers...

 

[Wickedchicken6]

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He doesn't need the oysters - he has plenty of desire. I think he is just shooting blanks!

Walli, I read something about roosters needing the right amount of light....like hens do to lay...for max fertility. I will see if I can find it.

Since this is a pretty active thread and yall are experienced hatchets can anyone tell me if I can set eggs that are cold when collected. It's like 20 here and when I collect eggs they're usually cold. Not frozen but cold. Would I be able to hatch them if they get cold?

Candle them to make sure there are no cracks. You may not think they have frozen but it could be they did. Ditto on bringing them to room temp before putting in the incubator.

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I am SO late getting on here. I've been trying to get on throughout the day and I keep getting interrupted.

I've had some very cold eggs. When it was -29 C here (-20 F) I was checking for eggs twice a day. We also had temps like yours where I was gone all day and was collecting eggs at 2am. Some of those were pretty cold.

I put all collected eggs in cartons in our porch which is independently heated. It's kept 16 C-19 C. Somewhere on here I read that the eggs are supposed to be kept at cooler temps before setting. It also helps prevent condensation from warming up too quickly in the case of cold eggs. I only bring the eggs in the house about 6-12 hours before I set them to acclimatize. That's my method.

Now I currently have 5 eggs set that are due to hatch on Sunday. (There was a whole dozen but I dropped the carton and broke the rest.

Frustrating to say the least. On a positive note, I got to check fertility and every egg broken was fertile.)

I had two rolling air cells and a wonky air cell from the 5 eggs. I've never had this before. I've looked and I've asked but I haven't come across information that confirms or denies that these eggs may have been damaged by the cold. I have read on here somewhere that eggs can be viable to -2 degrees (I'm assuming Celsius) I set these 5 eggs upright to help correct the air cells. I did end up with two saddle cell air cells that look a bit extreme to me in size but I'm not used to setting upright. The one egg has a side that pulls away from the shell. The three eggs have movement and the two saddle cell eggs appear to have viable looking blood vessels...but I can't see anything else. Fortunately I get to find out in a couple of days if it's thumbs up...or thumbs down.


Egg with the side that pulls away.

I also have 34 eggs I set Monday. One of the green eggs appears to be cracked half way around and IT has a rolling air cell. Possibly froze? I'm thinking a possible pattern?? I also notice striations from the point of some eggs...but I'll have to note which ones.

I'm can't tell if the cracked egg is developing or the one I dropped and smashed the end is developing (I'm curious and gonna keep 'em in until further notice...lol)

But all of the rest show definite development except for 3 that I can't see clearly because things are behind the X!!

(My phone will not focus on the green eggs, sorry 'bout that!)

Two eggs set Monday with definite development.




Personally, I set all the eggs because I have nothing to lose...and everything to gain, knowledge-wise)

I'd like to buy a digital temp reader to check the egg temps in case I have concerns...lol. .

 

[FridayYet]

Those shakers are pretty cool, Nate! Hope everyone is having a good night so far.

 

[Hurley]

I'm off to bed, tomorrow is FRIDAY! Woot!

 

[shahtir101]

I'm off to bed, tomorrow is FRIDAY! Woot!

night!