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

[TJordan]

7 at the moment, total of 34 eggs. I am setting every few days, but a lot of them are still infertile.   I just keep filling it up as I pull the clears. But the Isbars are fertile!   Things are looking up in the project pen, though. My project cockerel is accomplishing his duty with at least one of the girls in the pen. Unfortunately she is not part of the project. :/  Maybe I should change my project to a chocolate fibromelanistic green egg layer that may be split for woolly (silkied). Hmmm.....

Good luck. We want pictures of them all. To bad your not near me. You could toss in a Black Australorp into the mixing pot

 

[ronott1]

I just realized I will be out of town days 12-17. As long as we don't lose power (typically don't), our incubator holds temps well - but maintaining humidity is a bit more challenging. I would still like to do the hatch-a-long, but I've decided against swedish flower or frizzle/americauna eggs and think we'll try a grocery store hatch

I was thinking Trader Joes, but could also stop at Fresh Market or Publix. I am assuming I just get "organic free range eggs" - is that correct? I have not bought grocery store eggs in a couple years - but the last time I was at TJ the manager insisted to me that TJ STOPPED carrying fertile eggs - I was thinking the just stopped carrying BRANDED fertile eggs -

anyway - advice/recommendations are appreciated. Thanks

Get the eggs that have fertile on the carton.

 

[Cynthia12]

Check this out! A frizzled, or frazzled..or what ever it is..Parakeet!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

I am on day 18, 14, 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 of my test hatches.

So for those of you who do a lot of staggered hatching, how do you manage the humidity?

I am planning to do my first staggered hatching this Spring in my new (to me) Brinsea Ova-Easy 190. It has 3 automatic turning shelves, and a place for 1 hatching tray on the bottom, so my plan was to fill up one tray each week and move them down until they are on the bottom floor to hatch. In my LG styrobaters I did a dry hatch for most of the incubation, and only bumped the humidity up to 60-70% for the last 3 days, which worked fine. Can I do basically the same thing in the Ova-Easy with the staggered hatching, and assume that the 3 days of higher humidity won't hurt the eggs that are only 1 or two weeks along?

 

[Cynthia12]

In the past, humidity has not been an issue -- but I was forgetting to remove the ventilation plug. I have a batch going now, and humidity is very low and water is evaporating quickly - but I am letting the humidity run low because they are very dark eggs (mostly BCM). I'll be doing my day 14 candle today - will see how it goes.

I never, ever use the plugs. Not even in the beginning. Haven't for yrs. I have pretty good hatches. Not always on the shipped eggs, but finding out that having a rooster back there sure is nice..better hatches all the way!
Sold my latest boy, getting to crow too often, now, I'm waiting on a Blue Copper Marans boy to get old enough. A few months to go.
Will have to find eggs for the hatch a long from someone close by.

 

[aplynn]

Mostly Importantly, you need to start with pullets/hens that tend toward going broody. Some hens will not go broody no matter what you do. Hens that have been broody in past are likely candidates but after they are older, they may not want to sit. My flock consists of a few New Hampshire hens, Icelandic hens and Icelandic roosters. I received 16 New Hampshires four years ago and only one went broody the first year. I still have her but she has not gone broody again. Most of the Icelandic pullets/hens I've had, over the last almost six years, have gone broody. I have had a few that never have so even among broody breeds, you will have those that don't want to sit. I don't usually have to promote broodiness in my flock. Usually I am trying to keep them from going broody    too soon, but in the case of this hatchalong, I will encourage them so I can be an "official" participant.

Promoting broodiness:
Normally, I have a single golf ball or plastic egg (mine are white and contain some sand to give them weight) in each of my ten nest boxes and collect eggs each evening.
When I want to encourage a broody, I still take the fresh eggs out each evening but I replace each one with a golf ball/plastic egg.
As the days pass, the quantity of eggs in the nests (there are ten nests but the hens only use four or five of them) increases. This is how a hen without human interference would "build a clutch". 
A pullet or hen that is "thinking about sitting" will spend more time on the nest during the day (this is why I collect all eggs and only leave fake eggs, so that the eggs will be closer in development) but will return to the roost at night. During morning feeding time, she may puff-up and "grumble" when eating and run from the rooster "grumbling". My 6 year rooster will not even "approach" one "grumbling", he knows what is going on. He will "coax" her to the feed and encourage her to eat. The cockerel (will be a year old this spring) will learn that lesson soon, I hope!!
When one of mine shows an interest by staying on the nest at night, then I know she is serious. After dark, I will still remove the fresh egg(s) from under her and replace with a fake one. If she is back on the nest the next night, I will put together the eggs I want her to sit on.  At this point, she is "flattening down on the eggs" and refusing to let the other hens use the nest. If there are no new eggs in the nest the following evening, I will, after dark, remove the fakes and give her the eggs I want her to sit on. The eggs are marked so that if a different hen gets on the nest when she is off "doing her business" or/and eating and drinking, I can remove the unmarked, fresh egg. I check each evening for fresh eggs and if there is consistently an egg, I will consider moving the broody to her own separate place....which is another long post so I won't go into that here.

This is how I do it.....I hope others will chime in!

That is some AWSOME info. The hens I hope will go broody are young they just started laying eggs about 2-3 weeks ago and they are bantam silkies, I got them spacifically for their broody nature. I hope it works would be nice to have some mommy baby pics to add to my collection lol and no more bator

 

[KYTinpusher]

So for those of you who do a lot of staggered hatching, how do you manage the humidity?

I am planning to do my first staggered hatching this Spring in my new (to me) Brinsea Ova-Easy 190. It has 3 automatic turning shelves, and a place for 1 hatching tray on the bottom, so my plan was to fill up one tray each week and move them down until they are on the bottom floor to hatch. In my LG styrobaters I did a dry hatch for most of the incubation, and only bumped the humidity up to 60-70% for the last 3 days, which worked fine. Can I do basically the same thing in the Ova-Easy with the staggered hatching, and assume that the 3 days of higher humidity won't hurt the eggs that are only 1 or two weeks along?

I use 2 incubators - one to incubate in and one to hatch - so I can't help you there. But I am interested in other's answers as I will be building a big cabinet incubator.

 

[Happy Chooks]

We just placed four Emu eggs in the incubator today! Might be late, but we'd like to still be a part of the hatch-a-long.

Quote: Nope. Towards the end, you tap on them and listen for a tap back. You also look for the egg wobbling.

Backyard Chickens has been attacked by the Koreans! They are blowing up our site!

We've been getting attacked by them for about 6 months now. We are testing other settings to try to keep them out and not have to manually deal with them. It's a HUGE pain in our rear!

To the MODERATORS there's one person posting in the raising baby chicks forum. It's in Korean and I think there trying to be funny. It's the same person. So I think this needs to be investigated.

It's probably already been taken care of, but please use the red flag and report it. This will bring it to the next available moderator's attention.

Quote: Me too!

Also, get a brinsea spot check. Most thermometers will not work well in an incubator.

X a billion on the Spot Check thermometer. Love it!

So for those of you who do a lot of staggered hatching, how do you manage the humidity?

I am planning to do my first staggered hatching this Spring in my new (to me) Brinsea Ova-Easy 190. It has 3 automatic turning shelves, and a place for 1 hatching tray on the bottom, so my plan was to fill up one tray each week and move them down until they are on the bottom floor to hatch. In my LG styrobaters I did a dry hatch for most of the incubation, and only bumped the humidity up to 60-70% for the last 3 days, which worked fine. Can I do basically the same thing in the Ova-Easy with the staggered hatching, and assume that the 3 days of higher humidity won't hurt the eggs that are only 1 or two weeks along?

Multiple incubators.

One for incubating and one for hatching.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

My first 4 babies are out on my VERY FIRST hatch ever. I have 7 more have pipped!! They are so cute! They are all mixed breeds from my own flock.

Congrats!! look at that color!!! love loveeeeee

saw this picture while looking through my phone and almost cried again. My poor baby!

awwww I am sorry

My 10 survivors from eggs cooked at 105f for 2 weeks

Day 13 on my second test hatch for the Easter hatch a long. First one 75% hatch rate. But decided to do a second you can never be to sure!!

AND very pretty in the bator!!!

Candled all 12 of the eggs in the bator last night and as far as I can tell they all have a nice looking air sac, some beautiful, vains, and movement lots of it. Keeping fingers crossed it keeps on this smooth. MUCH better than the last bunch. only 3 survivors.

on another note, anyone have any ideas on how to promote a hen to go broody and also what signs (other then the obvious laying on the eggs) do I look for to see if she is broody?

We dont have too much info in the incu thread collected yet, as most are incu in bators
but this is whats in the notes, perhaps you want to read some

BROODY HENS
Encourage Hens to Hatch Eggs http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/encourage-hens-to-hatch-eggs.aspx
SHOULD I move my BROODY mamma? discussion begins post #28264 post #28269
Broody Hens CLICK HERE
Letting Broody Hens Hatch & Raise Chicks CLICK HERE

Encouraging or Discouraging Broodiness CLICK HERE

Broody Hens versus Incubators CLICK HERE

tons more info on fowl and incubation https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/incubating-w-friends-helpful-notes-links-informational-post-links

Catching up! Welcome to everyone joining us!

 

[GitaBooks]

Candled all 12 of the eggs in the bator last night and as far as I can tell they all have a nice looking air sac, some beautiful, vains, and movement lots of it. Keeping fingers crossed it keeps on this smooth. MUCH better than the last bunch. only 3 survivors.

on another note, anyone have any ideas on how to promote a hen to go broody and also what signs (other then the obvious laying on the eggs) do I look for to see if she is broody?

Awesome!

I've got two broodies and hopefully will be getting more soon. Broodies are a lot of work, but once they have chicks they replace electrical heat lights quite nicely, which I really enjoy. How do you promote it? There is some great advice in early posts. For me, it just kind of happens when I don't expect it.

I just realized I will be out of town days 12-17. As long as we don't lose power (typically don't), our incubator holds temps well - but maintaining humidity is a bit more challenging. I would still like to do the hatch-a-long, but I've decided against swedish flower or frizzle/americauna eggs and think we'll try a grocery store hatch

I was thinking Trader Joes, but could also stop at Fresh Market or Publix. I am assuming I just get "organic free range eggs" - is that correct? I have not bought grocery store eggs in a couple years - but the last time I was at TJ the manager insisted to me that TJ STOPPED carrying fertile eggs - I was thinking the just stopped carrying BRANDED fertile eggs -

anyway - advice/recommendations are appreciated. Thanks

Do you have a farmers market near you? You might find some good hatchable eggs there as well.