The 8th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!!!!

[BantyChooks]

Got my ducks set today. Managed to drop one in the process. It doesn't look good but I doctored it with finger nail polish. We'll see what happens.
Been collecting eggs from my favorite chickens for a couple weeks now. I plan to try to fit all the chicken and quail eggs I get this week in there too. Not sure if I'll have to pull out the 3rd bator or not.

How many duck eggs did you set?

 

[Glaseria]

Well, this last hatch went a lot better than the one before it...out of 18 fertile eggs, 17 made it to lockdown, and 11 hatched. All 6 of my SLW X Wheaten Am eggs hatched, and 5 of my Blue Am X Wheaten Am eggs hatched. I'm pretty sure 2 of the Blue Am chicks are pure BBS Ams...one is the correct blue chick down color, and the other appears to be a splash, which would have been impossible with a Wheaten father...so, I'm definitely keeping those two to grow out and see if I'm right. All 3 of the other Am X chicks are black with streaks of brown (not chipmunk, just random brown feathers...they're super cute!). I also think my SLW X chicks may be auto-sexing??? 4 of them have very well defined chipmunk markings and eyeliner, and two have ill-defined black smudges on their backs and no eyeliner...does that mean that I got 4 girls and 2 boys? I wish I didn't have to sell all of these so I could keep one of each to find out if they are in fact auto-sexing, because that would be cool to know. Anyone else hatch out this cross and get a similar result? I'll post pics tomorrow when I can use some natural light.

I set 35 more eggs last night   There are 14 BBS Ameraucana eggs (these ones will definitely be pure!!! Sooo excited!!!) 6 Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana eggs (my first time hatching eggs from my own birds of this variety!!!), 7 BLRW eggs, 6 Black Copper Maran eggs fertilized by my Blue Am cockerel (Yay, OEs!!!), and 2 double yolkers that my Speckled Sussex girl laid in the last week (Tessa- she's amazing!!) that were also fertilized by my Blue Am cockerel, just to see if I can hatch out some twins. It's gonna be super exciting to see if I'm able to get the double yolkers to hatch!!! I was able to fix the temp and humidity problems I was experiencing with my hatcher, and even ordered (and just received today) a 3rd temp/humidity gauge from incubator warehouse, so hopefully everything will go well this hatch and I'll get an even better hatch rate than this last one (which was 61%- better, but still not where I would like to be).   for all my "googies"!!! I'll be candling tonight to make my early fertility predictions...last time I candled at day one and was able to accurately identify every fertile and infertile egg!! It's actually really easy, and a fun experiment. Gonna see if I can reliably do the same thing for this hatch...I had to order a new candler too so I could see the Marans eggs...they're sooo dark!!! Wish me luck!!

What candler did you order? I'm curious.

As for us the old Hovabator from the DI has been having temperature spikes from 78 all the way to 102 degrees depending on the time of day and door opening, you name it! We've been shaking at first and now rolling our hand over the eggs to roll them 3-6 times a day. I've candled and I've not seen anything but floating air bubble or yolks so I thought the temp had cooked them all. I had sadly written them off for all 104 quail eggs being dead but my hubby candled them with me. The first egg same as I have to fore seen. The second however had a head, eye, body and feet!!!! THERE'S AT LEAST ONE ALIVE AT THE MOMENT!!!!!!! I went from 0-100 in about 3 seconds! Now I know what you guys mean by the highs and lows and for all you "serious hatchers" who do Emu! BLESS YOU!!! Cause I've got Japanese Quail and this is crazy!!! Granted first time doing any of this but still!

We just put a full batch of duck eggs for the EHAL in our new Incuview Incubator from Incubator Wearhouse with a new IncuTherm that's been dialed in. It's set to auto turn 6x per day. We will be doing dry hatch for the first 10 days and then add the humidity. I'm SUPER STOKED!!!! Here's hoping!

This was right after we placed all the eggs in for the first time ever!

Sincerely,
Your Fellow Homesteader,
Glaseria

...

 

[The Duck Ladie]

What candler did you order? I'm curious.

As for us the old Hovabator from the DI has been having temperature spikes from 78 all the way to 102 degrees depending on the time of day and door opening, you name it! We've been shaking at first and now rolling our hand over the eggs to roll them 3-6 times a day. I've candled and I've not seen anything but floating air bubble or yolks so I thought the temp had cooked them all. I had sadly written them off for all 104 quail eggs being dead but my hubby candled them with me. The first egg same as I have to fore seen. The second however had a head, eye, body and feet!!!! THERE'S AT LEAST ONE ALIVE AT THE MOMENT!!!!!!! I went from 0-100 in about 3 seconds! Now I know what you guys mean by the highs and lows and for all you "serious hatchers" who do Emu! BLESS YOU!!! Cause I've got Japanese Quail and this is crazy!!! Granted first time doing any of this but still!

We just put a full batch of duck eggs for the EHAL in our new Incuview Incubator from Incubator Wearhouse with a new IncuTherm that's been dialed in. It's set to auto turn 6x per day. We will be doing dry hatch for the first 10 days and then add the humidity. I'm SUPER STOKED!!!! Here's hoping!

This was right after we placed all the eggs in for the first time ever!

Sincerely,
Your Fellow Homesteader,
Glaseria

...

How is the incuview doing? I am considering getting one. How do you add water and how does it hold the temp?

 

[katsdar]

Final count 16 chicks hatched out of 19 and now to clean up the bator to get ready for the HAL

 

[CuzChickens]

The incubator is on my dresser next to the bed. I'm waking hubby up every time I hear a peep and jump up with my iPhone flashlight.

Haha, that's gonna be me one day.

2 more magpies out within 31 seconds of each other!

Oh, I love it when that happens! Is this your first hatch?

How is the incuview doing? I am considering getting one. How do you add water and how does it hold the temp?

I have an IncuView and have had two very successful hatches with it, 92% and 93%. There are water reservoirs in the bottom, so you lift out the eggs and mesh screen and add the water, and put it back together. It held temp good for me.

 

[Sueg4332]

Does anyone know of anyone that has pure black naked necks?

I have black hens and pullet But I am in California

 

[Cynthia12]

Hello everyone! My name is Emily, and I'm new to BYC. I have 12 chickens and bought an incubator to finally hatch my own!

I'm trying to join the hatch-a-long, but I can't seem to find out how to add my name to Sheet 2. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks!

 

[deserteggs22]

I have black hens and pullet   But I am in California

Do you have a pure black Rooster??

 

[Cynthia12]

Does he have a BYC?

draye does..sent me a photo of his pretty black NN boy. Yes, on BYC..go to the NN thread.

 

[Bantambird]

I set 21 turkey eggs today, from our five turkeys. The Tom is a bourbon red, there are two burbon red hens, a royal Palm hen, and one bronze hen. Lovin' my modified 1202!