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

[Yorkshire Coop]

I will be setting some chicken eggs!

Hi & the thread!

What breed of chicken eggs will you be setting? Have you hatched before?

Enjoy your time here on BYC and have fun!

 

[ronott1]

Have all the snow you want, I'll send it by mail

Here's the front, back, and side of the coop.

The snow looks so much better than my muddy back yard!

We had another atmospheric river type of rain storm yesterday. Lots and lots of lovely water for California!

 

[Mudpuddle]

me to! I'll be hatching Black Copper Marans!

How dark are the eggs?

Sounds good! I'll join. It's always fun to learn and hatch in this thread. If they are cooperating in laying, I'll be hatching more gray jungle fowl from my friends small flock again this year. We got a snowstorm last night, but at least now I feel like spring is coming!

We need pictures!

 

[ronott1]

Those are very pretty eggs!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

The snow looks so much better than my muddy back yard!

We had another atmospheric river type of rain storm yesterday. Lots and lots of lovely water for California!

I too am jealous of that clean, bright and fresh looking snow! Nothing is drying out here or if it starts it rains again
I hope your not flooded there Ron?

Wow those are cool eggs! How hard are they to candle?

 

[LadyCluck77]

I'm glad California is pretty much no longer at risk of drought. If I recall correctly a year or so ago it was getting serious. A large percentage of the country's food is grown there too.

 

[myfivegirls]

Quote:
I didn't take any photos yet of candling. But, they're about 11 days along, so lots of "swimming" going on!

But, this is what I set the eggs:


I set 70 eggs and there were 13 infertile eggs. Not as bad as I expected, considering that the main winter flock has only 3 roosters & way more than 30 hens.
But, I processed one of the older roosters today in main flock, since there's plenty of younger roosters in the bachelor pad to replace them. But,now there's only 2 in the main group.
Tried to move a rooster from another coop who'd been kind of hanging out with the main flock during the day, but he wants his "girls" back.
And hopefully by the hatch-a-long, the pullets in two other coops (each with 2 roosters) will be laying big enough eggs to hatch out.
As far as what I'll be hatching, it'll be continuing my Catskill Homesteader Chickens - a breeding project I've been working on for several years now.

It's not my first Easter Hatch-A-Long, did it in 2013, 2015 & 2016. But once things get "rolling" it's so hard to keep up with all the posts. So, I just "check in" a few times.

 

[ronott1]

I too am jealous of that clean, bright and fresh looking snow! Nothing is drying out here or if it starts it rains again

I hope your not flooded there Ron?

Wow those are cool eggs! How hard are they to candle?

We will be fine with flooding but there could be other problems. The Dam at lake Oroville had a break in the spillway yesterday and there will be some light river flooding on the Sacramento River tomorrow. It will reach flood stage but is not a danger to where I live in Woodland.

Those eggs will be hard to candle. What I look for in eggs like that is increasing darkness. I would use 30% humidity too because Marans eggs do not let moisture out as well as other eggs.

If the egg glows after day 14, it is likely a dud.

I'm glad California is pretty much no longer at risk of drought. If I recall correctly a year or so ago it was getting serious. A large percentage of the country's food is grown there too.

Yes, we hat 5 years of drought. It was terrible and we lost Millions of trees.

 

[myfivegirls]

Quote:
We haven't had that much snow this year, and the temps have been up & down! A few times like yesterday & today when it's gotten warm enough to melt, then freezes into ice the next day!

 

[gamebirdsonly]

I think I will join. Should have plenty of eggs by then.