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

[BantyChooks]

Maybe my drakes need to spend some time with chickens then.. they don't give me no respect!

Mebbe I just got lucky... I had the sweetest drake ever

 

[maddysmamaw]

Duck Duck roosts with the chickens.

 

[sjturner79]

  So many of the same people in the hatch a long. A big hello from my house to yours.
Thought I'd give you a big laugh.   I am being real good and only using my Brinsea 24 egg bator.   I get a call from my daughter ( who thinks I am crazy)   Mom I have eggs I want to hatch !!!!!!!!LOL   Can I bring them over?  
So I'll hold her off until the hatch a long and hatch hers too.  She has a cochin bantam rooster.  So they ar crosses but she loves them.....
I thought it was so funny
The Dickie may have to get fired up.  Than I am in trouble.   olive eggers, marans , rhode island red, crested cream legbars, icebars, salmon favoroles cochin bantams.  See what she started.   NO will power!!!!!
I don't think they have been separated long enough to be pure.
Happy Hatching to everyone.  Sue

I don't know how many eggs your Dickie holds , but why not fire it up? It's always good to set more eggs.

 

[frenchiegirl21]

This is exactly what I did before I got my second bator. I don't think I was the one that set that many, but I do know I've gotten close. It works for me since I can't add water during the first 18 days. I've had some pretty great hatches like this.

Gosh, you guys are a horrible influence on me!

How did hatch day work with that many eggs? I only have the one incubator, but I may be able to borrow a homemade "hatcher" from someone.....

 

[sjturner79]

So I'm setting pure breed eggs for the hatch-a-long, however, I have a mixed breed flock, so I had to separate the hens of the breeds I want to get them away from other roosters. How long until the semen from other roosters is out of their systems?

You get a good 4 weeks of more than 90% fertitlity after taking all the roosters away, drops quickly during week 5 and by week 6 it is below 5%. Varies a bit with how well mated then hen has been and the individual hens. Either way it's 6 weeks to guarantee no trace after a stray rooster gets in with the hens. Having said that you start getting some eggs fertitlized by the new rooster within 3 days if you just swap them, but for over a month it's pot luck as to who the eggs were fertitlize by.

 

[Razadia]

Quote: Usually, enough eggs are removed by then to move some of the stacked eggs down into the bottom.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Gosh, you guys are a horrible influence on me!

How did hatch day work with that many eggs? I only have the one incubator, but I may be able to borrow a homemade "hatcher" from someone.....

Having 2 incubators is very useful, especially for staggered hatches. One for incubating and one for hatching.

Also, you would be removing dud eggs, blood rings, and quitters- so by the time you reach hatch there aren't as many in there. I took the "they all won't hatch" perspective once, and every last one of them hatched.

 

[LeeRoadPoultry]

I will be hatching jumbo Perkins and some speckled Sussex! What fun.

 

[dotknott]

Yeah I think I'm going to join in and hatch some ducklings (I mean, I was going to hatch 'em anyway, I might as well join in the Hatch-a-long.)

 

[ChickAsThieves]

That will be fine. Collecting up to a week will work fine. Store them on the counter in an egg carton, wide end up. Prop one corner and then change to the other corner a few times a day.

I have heard it may increase fertility if you store the eggs in a cool place such as the basement. Do you think that is true?