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

[Eps32]

Update: Still 8 of the orust eggs I candled today are doing great. Great air cells and great veins even little guys moving around. The humidity was down to 20% so I added a little water to the tray and humidity has jumped to 45% now. I'm a little worried about the humidity being to high now. My other 9 barnyard mixes I set for the hatch along with the Orust are all developing. Not to long left to wait but these orust eggs got me like a cat on a hot tin roof. I want them to hatch so bad. And now I'm worried about humidity checking it every ten min jeez.

 

[jaide]

do you have more than one rooster with your hens?
If you have only one, he is fertile since some eggs are developing. If you have more than one rooster, you may have one infertile, and he may be the dominate one, which would explain the lower fertility, as the less dominant male would breed only when he was being sneaky behind the dominant males back.

If the hens are all young and just coming into laying age, that could be a culprit too.

I have 3 roosters over 20 hens. They are all right at a year old (10-14 months). I'm not really sure which one is dominate. I have one that I see do the majority of mating (well the first time) but a different one will run the other 2 off on a regularly. I may have to spend some time watching them closely

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I think I have a fertility issue. I set 19 white eggs, only 6 of those are fertile. I set 15 brown eggs and 5 green eggs but I can't see inside them very well. Should I be worried? Maybe it's just early and fertility will pick up?

sorry to hear this! Not sure what is going on, I have good fertility except for our little serama. Here is the info I have to share. Many factors can get involved with this issue.



Fertility:

• IS IT FERTILE? Many images see post #43324
• Managing Fertility click HERE
• Several Reasons Why Your Hens May Stop Laying Eggs click HERE
• Winter Blues w/the Roos, why are my eggs infertile ugh starting post #1986
• Reproductive Physiology of the Hen post #40628
• HOW long does a ROO SPERM REMAIN IN HEN post #40628

• Polyspermy is typical in birds. Several sperm enter the germinal disc region post #40644

Example 57 out of 126 were declared fertile.

Hatch Rates...

Example 50 of the 57 fertile eggs hatched the % hatch=

Quote: Thats awesome!!! I think we have some info in the broodies section in our notes but other than marking them when she sets and pulling new eggs daily, candling at days 7 14 18 and pulling clears or DIS, a blown egg under a broody is NASTY so prevent that the best you can!!!!

 

[chickendreams24]

If you can keep the other chickens away for a time. When I kept mine with the others the poor hen got to confused and they were lost in the shuffle. The last batch I experimented with them keeping them in the garden without others and they all survived.

How long do you keep the broodies separate from the rest of the flock? Could multiple broodies be separated together or not?

 

[Wickedchicken6]

March 14th
Eggs laid Feb 5-12: 1-2 eggs developing 3 developing, 26 tossed
Feb13-21: 17 eggs developing 12 developing , 13 tossed
Feb 22-Mar 2: 19 eggs developing 24 developing, 3 questionable, 4 tossed
March 2-9: 31 eggs developing
March 2-7 * counting only HAL eggs 22 developing, 8 tossed


First pic is of the new plastic incubator I made that shows the trays of eggs...lol.

Second pic is of the eggs oldest eggs being tossed to newest eggs being tossed (right to left) I was surprised the percentage of large eggs being tossed in newest eggs. I had the large roosters locked away from the hens. It hasn't been that long but it must be making the difference...lol.


Full incubator before candling Oldest tossed eggs to newest >>

VERY AWESOME!!!! How is the wafer doing keeping temps stable in that container?

After damaging the thermostat

and quick fixing it to last until I'm done the hatch...it seems to hold temps pretty darn good surprisingly...lol. I was concerned about stable temps when I considered using a Sterilite container. I'm also not done building...all the parts are not in it yet, I'm missing one set of lights.
So I'm just kinda wingin' it.

I was going do a quick write-up on it...I've been documenting as I've been doing it. At the very least to show how to temporarily fix a wafer thermostat if you do the incredibly stupid thing I did to it...lol.

Maybe I'll get it done after I get back in.

 

[Chaos18]

Candled my EHAL and science project eggs tonight. Pulled another clear Ancona leaving 9 on day 17. Pulled 2 clear Chantecler Mix leaving 14 on day 10. All 16 Dom eggs that were shipped the Sally way look good on day 10. So 9 Ancona doing good on day 17 and 30 Chicken doing good on day 10.

 

[TJordan]

Day 11/12. Candled tonight and pulled 16. That leaves 47. A few are to dark to see so I left just in case but many of my shipped eggs are duds or blood ringed out.

that's life right.

 

[Razadia]

June Bug isn't allowed in that pen, even before this happened he wasn't. Tongue's good. Lot's of the swelling is gone and I can almost talk like normal. My leg hurts pretty bad though, but I do have 3 holes in it.

Quote: His new name is either gonna be BBQ Sandwich or Chicken 'n Dumplings. I want a few more eggs from that pen for meat, though. That's only reason he's still alive. He's a meaty bird.

Quote:

Thanks. I'll be ok. It hurts, but otherwise ok.

Quote: That he is. His time is going to be up this weekend. I won't have much help until then.

Sadly I too think that "Saint" will not change and will always be a bird you can not trust. What breed is he? I think processing him may be necessary. My slw cockeral has a date with the freezer before too long before he manages to stick me too.

This weekend he'll meet his end. He's a Chantecler, which is why this is so weird. Blizzard is so laid back and an all around awesome bird, but Saint screwed up big time.

 

[Dubrovnik]

Well, my dozen white eggs stopped developing. I'm leaving them alone now except for turning them, since I don't want to throw out an egg that might be viable.

I walked over the hill to Andy's market on Highway 116 in Sebastopol, and bought a carton of Rock Island fertile brown eggs to replace the ones that got baked, and a pink carton of multicolor eggs from the Chicken Girls farm in Forestville. There's a pale green egg (CCL?), a white one, a beige one and brown ones, some with speckles (Welsummers?). They're a week old.

They won't hatch in time for Easter, but at least I should get some little chickens this way.

My count is thus 36 now, but I'll cull at some point.

 

[cree57i]

June Bug isn't allowed in that pen, even before this happened he wasn't. Tongue's good. Lot's of the swelling is gone and I can almost talk like normal. My leg hurts pretty bad though, but I do have 3 holes in it.
His new name is either gonna be BBQ Sandwich or Chicken 'n Dumplings. I want a few more eggs from that pen for meat, though. That's only reason he's still alive. He's a meaty bird.

Thanks. I'll be ok. It hurts, but otherwise ok.

That he is. His time is going to be up this weekend. I won't have much help until then.

This weekend he'll meet his end. He's a Chantecler, which is why this is so weird. Blizzard is so laid back and an all around awesome bird, but Saint screwed up big time.

I had a BCM who earned the name Soup.