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

[Hazelrah]

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

Puppies are soooo cute, are they Labs?

 

[blueberrychickens]

Count me in too! I just got some salmon fav eggs today & will be picking up some barnevelder eggs tmrw, so my bator should be pretty close to full!! Yay!!

 

[ChestnutRidge]

Hello, Hatchers!

I'm not exactly joining your hatch (because I set the day after the Easter Hatch and they are due next week!), but Java Girl asked me to re-post the candling pictures that I took during the Easter Hatch.

I usually only candle my eggs on days 7 and 14. Last month, I thought it would be fun to take a picture each day just as a project for myself. I'll post the pictures here every day at Java Girl's request, but I do not want to cause any panic. If your eggs don't look like the pictures, please don't toss them. You only need to remove eggs that are "weeping" liquid or stink. If in doubt, leave it in!

By day 14, it should be very clear which eggs have a developed chick and which do not, so hold off until then if you are not sure what you are looking at.

Yesterday, your eggs reached 24 hours of incubation, or Day 1:


Today, they will reach 48 hours, Day 2:


Since I'll be reading along, I thought it would be fun to do a contest!
The Chicks 'N Kids contest will be for pictures of chickens or chicks with children, since this is a Mother's Day Hatch!

• Those who do not want to post pictures of their children on the internet or can't find a child to photograph can do pictures of chickens with another type of animal, such as a dog, cat, horse, etc. instead.
• The prize is two children's books: a little children's book, Chick to Hen, and an old copy of the out-of-print Window Into An Egg which is also cool for kids, but more educational.
• It will be during Week Three, so start looking through your pictures and get ready! (Limit of 3 pictures per participant)

 

[Cynthia12]

I have several broody stinkeye shots, but chose the one above because of where she is:


I thought I had a missing hen. When I went to get fresh shavings I found a surprise with several eggs under her. I am still curious how she got the bag open as I use clips to keep them closed. Don't know what she did with the clip. Probably trying to get it to hatch too. (Needless to say, I won't be using those shavings any time soon.)

That is so cute! I love stink eye, or mama looks. Some look worried. Some, onery, some have that, bet they can't see me look. They are all different..love it! This is cute.

 

[vmdanielsen]

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!

humidity sounds right. Good luck!

 

[mothrhen]

Chestnutridge! Thank you so much for reposting your candling pics for us. Even though I've looked at LOTS of candling pics, I always looked forward to your post every day during the Easter Hatch and will enjoy them just as much for the Mom's Day Hatchalong.

 

[TexasLady]

Oh THIS IS SO FUN TO HAVE PICTURES OF OUR DEVELOPING EGGS!

Unfortunately, I might have nothing at all. I was to receive shipped eggs last week, but unfortunately the post office left them at the neighbors (who were renting), and they moved out. They were delivered Wednesday afternoon. I didn't realize they were actually sent because I was not contacted by email. That tells me that a shipper should probably always email the person receiving it so they are looking for it. Had I known that they were coming, I could have looked for it, asked where it was delivered, and maybe it would have set out only 24 hours. That would have given me a lot more change to save them. This way, .....(?)

Thursday was a mild day--50-80 during course.
Friday was about the same.
Saturday it went down to 50 but up to 90.
Sunday was another 50 to 80 day.
Monday was not quite so bad--50 to 70.

I got them on Monday at 5 p.m. They delivery confirmation was Wednesday around 3, so that means that they sat on their sides in the box for five days without being moved.

*sigh*

The shipper and I decided that I would put them in anyway. Sadly, I don't hope for great results as they were collected Friday through Monday, April 13-16. I got them ten days later.

But like the shipper told me, he keeps eggs for two weeks sometimes, and the hatch isn't that bad. So maybe, just maybe I will have some babies with you all.

He was kind enough to agree to ship me more eggs for just the price of postage--$20. I thought it was a real shame that happened, so I contacted the postmaster today (having just gotten the eggs yesterday after 5). She said she was going to look into it, and this was the first she heard of it. So maybe they won't do that trick again. New route carrier I guess. *sigh* Postmaster said, "trainer" needed to train better. Guess that's it, but it doesn't help me for having those eggs alive.

 

[Coop de Grille]

I set my 12 Marans eggs on Sunday, and tomorrow I am adding 12 Olive Egger eggs that I just picked up tonight. Lord help me, I still have spots left in the egg turner tray for more eggs.

 

[yinepu]

I set my 12 Marans eggs on Sunday, and tomorrow I am adding 12 Olive Egger eggs that I just picked up tonight. Lord help me, I still have spots left in the egg turner tray for more eggs.

oh you're fine then...

wait til you start stacking eggs in the bator .....

 

[java girl 2]

Quote: YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote:

RIGHT HERE ON THIS HATCH-A-LONG!!!

Count me in too! I just got some salmon fav eggs today & will be picking up some barnevelder eggs tmrw, so my bator should be pretty close to full!! Yay!!

i WILL PUT YOU ON THE LIST!!