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

[The Duck Ladie]

Hello everyone,
Can I start incubating an egg laid that day? I'd like to know since if I can I will be able to have 16 eggs in the bator...

 

[chickendreams24]

Hello everyone I plan to join too!

We currently have our first hatch of the season in the bator. Quail eggs and bantam or bantam mixes. Basically we lost our favorite roo and our only technical roo that we raised from a chick (over a year old) in January to a suspected fox(a fox killed a salmon favorelles cockeral later that week and I shot at it- hasn't been back yet hopefully I got it) We also lost a hen both were OEGB so we lost our black roo Mickey and our silver duckwing hen Ducky. So we are trying to hatch any eggs that could be OEGB to try and get some of Mickey's babies. Unfortunately our flock hadn't been separated for breeding yet so we could have OEGB eggs or silkie eggs in the bator and they could have been fathered by Mickey or one of our cockerals(lf or silkies) or our silver duckwing OEGB roo Draco(Draco and his girls were adopted BC their original family discovered that their coop wasn't warm enough for them and they had problems with frostbite). So it's going to be a mystery what hatches except the quail lol.

Mickey was an amazing roo and show quality to boot. We are looking to replace him if anyone knows of any breeders. They don't have to be show quality temperament is more important to us at this point. Mickey's mate Minnie misses him terribly. We do have two of Mickey's daughters mothered by our self blue OEGB hen Crocket but never got a son from him.

If all goes well for the rest of our breeding programs this spring/year we will be hatching eggs from our project birds, English and partial English orpingtons, silkies, cream legbars, SLW, and possibly some EE.

Of course there's always a chance this list will grow or shrink depending if we buy some eggs or not. Also only one of our cream legbar pullets is laying for sure. We do have some buckeye chicks on order for March sometime as well. Plus we will be getting some chicks from the feed store too. Can you imagine this is gunna be nuts.

First we must process some cockerals out to free up breeding pens.

 

[ronott1]

Hello everyone,
Can I start incubating an egg laid that day? I'd like to know since if I can I will be able to have 16 eggs in the bator...

Yes you can!

They do not need to rest.

 

[The Duck Ladie]

Yes you can!

They do not need to rest.

Yeah! 16!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Just read the first page...so we have over a month before we set...correct?

Somehow Valentine's snuck up on me...I'm still in January apparently.

I don't want to miss the set date...lol.

 

[frenchiegirl21]

I will be setting this year!!!!! I plan to set barnyard mutts from my mixed flock and maybe some frizzle cochin bantams from my frizzle pen.

 

[FreedomFarm13]

I had 17 eggs in the bator and today is Day 7. 7 were fertile (my SLW X Wheaten Am eggs), but none of my blue ameraucana girls' eggs were fertile. I tossed all but the 7 fertile ones tonight. Got pics:

Sorry if these don't show up very well...my best camera is my phone, but it hates low light situations. Hope you can see! These are due on the 28th!! I love watching them grow!!!!

ETA: I didn't take pics of the 7th one...it's still kinda up in the air. I saw a couple tiny, poorly defined veins but no embryo and no significant growth. Does this mean it died or is it just a slow developer? I'm keeping til Day 10 either way, just wanted some opinions. I could barely see the veins with the naked eye, so I didn't bother trying to take pics.

 

[Chickens4lifee]

I had 17 eggs in the bator and today is Day 7. 7 were fertile (my SLW X Wheaten Am eggs), but none of my blue ameraucana girls' eggs were fertile. I tossed all but the 7 fertile ones tonight. Got pics:

Sorry if these don't show up very well...my best camera is my phone, but it hates low light situations. Hope you can see! These are due on the 28th!! I love watching them grow!!!!

ETA: I didn't take pics of the 7th one...it's still kinda up in the air. I saw a couple tiny, poorly defined veins but no embryo and no significant growth. Does this mean it died or is it just a slow developer? I'm keeping til Day 10 either way, just wanted some opinions. I could barely see the veins with the naked eye, so I didn't bother trying to take pics.

I had a few eggs that were poorly veind but i left them till say 15 and they ended up hatching last night so if I'd say leave them a few more days they might just be late bloomers

 

[FreedomFarm13]

I had a few eggs that were poorly veind but i left them till say 15 and they ended up hatching last night so if I'd say leave them a few more days they might just be late bloomers

Thank you for sharing your experience! I think I am going to keep that one until it either stinks or hatches. Thanks again for the advice!!

 

[CuzChickens]

So excited to hatch again on Easter. at our Assisted Living buildings. Here in Wisconsin! It is always such fun! here are a couple of pictures from last year, and one of my favorite "Stink Eye" shots....

How kind of you! I bet they love them.