THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[Arielle]

Count me in! I am doing an old fashioned broody hatch and need all the help I can get. I have a lot of questions!
1. How long does a hatch take?
2. How long do the chicks have to stay with the hen after they hatch? (I am hatching them to give them away)
3. If I am not getting the eggs for a week, will then hen stay broody until I set the eggs under her?
4. Is there anything important I should know before setting eggs? I know NOTHING about this!

We are glad to help and share our knowledge.

21days to hatch
I pull my chicks immediately to put in a brooder; momma hen went right back to the flock and started laying again in a short time. Sorry, I don't remember how long, I wasn't paying attention!
Is hen in a safe and secure area? Give her clean eggs and be ready with a back up plan for the eggs if she quits.

ANd as always, good luck.

 

[Arielle]

I am in, This will be Great. I also have puppies due on the 15th! I will post pictures of the eggs later.

Puppy pictures!!

here's my 24 future cute fuzzy chicks

More eggs to gaze at . . .

sorry to bug you all, I have another question. What is the mortality rate in an old fashioned broody hatch?

THis varies, but so does an incubator. You can candle these just as if they were in an incubator. With my broody, I went out late at night to bug her. Lots of growls and squeals, all half hearted as she was a BO--

I would like to join. I didn't know their was a hatch-a-long. My daughters and I just set our very first batch of eggs last Saturday (4-21-12). We have 24 mixed eggs which are RIR and SLW hens with BCM rooster, and 17 barnyard mix and 1 mystery duck egg for a total of 42. We bought a Hovabator 1588 and it just seems to simple thus far. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop so to say. Maybe I have read to many horror stories of things going wrong. We are so excited for this project, I hope it all goes well. Our humidity has been around 46%-50% is this acceptable for days 1-18? With this being our first try I read as much as I could and kind of took all the advice and averaged it out. There are so many different ways people incubate!

The key to finding the right humidity is air cell development. I candle on days 7, 14 and 18 just so I can compare to diagrams!! I'll try to find good a good diagram for you.

 

[java girl 2]

I've never done one of these hatch-a-long things and don't really know how they work but....I just picked up some Royal Palm and Muscovy eggs last night and set them this morning so I'm wondering if its too late for me to join? Since these will take 28 days and people setting chicken eggs will only need 21 days, I'm not sure how the coordination works. Anyway, if its not too late to join, count me in!

you are on the list!!!!

Quote:
I am doing my first muscovy eggs today! so you both can set what ever you please!!!!!!!!!

 

[java girl 2]

EVERYONE!!!!!! PLEASE REMEMBER TO POST YOUR PICS OF YOUR EGGS!!!! AND TO POST PICS FOR THE CONTEST OF THE BROODY HEN. THIS CONTEST WILL CLOSE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 11:59pm ET TIME!!

 

[Arielle]

I like this source, easy to read and thorough. Has a air cell diagram , too.

http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/procedures.html

 

[TheOutcast]

# 1. the hatch takes 21 days for chicken eggs. # 2. the chicks can stay with the mother hen for as long or as short as you want, they don't need to stay with her if you have a heat lamp to put them under. # 3. as long as she has something to sit on, like golf balls, plastic eggs or even your eggs. anything round will keep her there! # 4. if you keep the chicks with the mother hen for a time, then they need to have chick starter feed. up until the chicks hatch the mother can have what ever feed she eat.
too many ifs to say!

Thank you Java!

 

[TheOutcast]

We are glad to help and share our knowledge.

21days to hatch
I pull my chicks immediately to put in a brooder; momma hen went right back to the flock and started laying again in a short time. Sorry, I don't remember how long, I wasn't paying attention!
Is hen in a safe and secure area? Give her clean eggs and be ready with a back up plan for the eggs if she quits.

ANd as always, good luck.

Thank you!

 

[yinepu]

EVERYONE!!!!!! PLEASE REMEMBER TO POST YOUR PICS OF YOUR EGGS!!!! AND TO POST PICS FOR THE CONTEST OF THE BROODY HEN. THIS CONTEST WILL CLOSE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 11:59pm ET TIME!!

even my goosey and muscovy eggs?... cause it's gonna be a while before they hatch!
(not as long as my emu eggs... but still... lol)

 

[TheOutcast]

EVERYONE!!!!!! PLEASE REMEMBER TO POST YOUR PICS OF YOUR EGGS!!!! AND TO POST PICS FOR THE CONTEST OF THE BROODY HEN. THIS CONTEST WILL CLOSE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 11:59pm ET TIME!!

where do I post my pictures of my broody hen?

 

[yinepu]

I would like to join. I didn't know their was a hatch-a-long. My daughters and I just set our very first batch of eggs last Saturday (4-21-12). We have 24 mixed eggs which are RIR and SLW hens with BCM rooster, and 17 barnyard mix and 1 mystery duck egg for a total of 42. We bought a Hovabator 1588 and it just seems to simple thus far. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop so to say. Maybe I have read to many horror stories of things going wrong. We are so excited for this project, I hope it all goes well. Our humidity has been around 46%-50% is this acceptable for days 1-18? With this being our first try I read as much as I could and kind of took all the advice and averaged it out. There are so many different ways people incubate!

I'm not sure where you live.. but the humidity might be a wee bit high if it's a nice wet green spring out there and you have windows open...