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

[lcammack]

Thank you all for the replies. My youngest daughter is in bed a good hour before it is dark enough to just turn off of the lights and candle where it is, and the reason we have taken on this project is so that the girls can see where all those cute fluffy chicks come from. I like the idea of just taking the whole thing into the bathroom, but the plugs (it has a turner) are hard to get to ( I chose this spot so that the plugs wouldn't get accidentally unplugged by a child or pet!) But it sounds like just filling a carton or two will be fine. Thank you all for being so helpful, this is the best forum

. Oh and were not giving up on the duck egg quite yet, I thought maybe since they take longer that maybe that was why we couldn't see anything yet.

 

[java girl 2]

Darn it!! I was a day late!! I set 27 eggs on the 29th!

Can I still join in but be a day late? I dont have to do be able to be in the contests I just would like to have someone to share the hatching experience with!!!

yes you may join in the fun!!!! and you can do the contests too!!! I WILL PUT YOUR NAME ON THE LIST!!

Do I need to post a pic of the eggs I set in order to be eligible for the best hatch rate or worst hatch rate?

YES!!!!

 

[Ryan Moorefield]

Okay so saw this post and wondered if there has to be a mom with the babies and if they have to be chickens. This is only my second hatch ever and the second one this month. I am only fifteen so I am pretty excited after the first hatch. I hatch Ameracuna chicks and only had 15 hatch out of 20 and the others died in the shell.

 

[Cynthia12]

I love all of the broody pics!

I don't have a room without windows either, so I wait until after nightfall and turn off all of the lights in the house and the TV. I set up a clean dish towel in front of the incubator in case I drop an egg on the table, and I candle right there. It makes for quite a dramatic show after going around and turning off all of the lights.


I think you can. I recall being asked to go to websites to vote for people's pictures, Christmas ornaments, and other stuff over the last year. No reason why you can't do the same, especially because DIY Network is not a chicken forum, so there is not much overlap/competition there.

Today is Day 8 for most of you:



It is Day 21 for me!

Here is my first chick out - a little German New Hampshire.

Oh man, you got a German NH! I want one, or two, really bad. I have a little muttsky out there, well, it's a NH, but not the German..love the lacing around the neck on the Germans!

 

[rarely bored]

Candled my eggs... Was surprised to see veins, since I've not ever tried to candle on day 4 before. The shipped serama eggs look awesome!!! Out of 8 eggs, 6 are growing, one looks clear and the other one has a denser shell so

. All of my home grown eggs look pretty good, not that I stared intently at them, just looked darker than the clear ones if that makes sense. I did crunch one egg in my bad stacking attempt, so it got flingged, and I won't toss any thing else until day 10, unless I break another one.

 

[AmyLou1782]

OK, freaking out a little...I came home today and went to check my chickens and my broody to find a HUGE black snake in the coop! To make it even worse, my super hero husband and I battled it outside but couldn't get it on hard enough ground to kill it with the shovel. (He did get some good blows in on it so it has to have one heck of a headache.) I know it will be back since it did eat some eggs...we put snake repellant out but what else can I do other than put them in a fortress?? Any suggestions anyone?!? Ugh, I hate snakes! FYI, all of the eggs under my broody are fine! WHEW.

 

[silkiemelon]

I love all of the broody pics!

I don't have a room without windows either, so I wait until after nightfall and turn off all of the lights in the house and the TV. I set up a clean dish towel in front of the incubator in case I drop an egg on the table, and I candle right there. It makes for quite a dramatic show after going around and turning off all of the lights.


I think you can. I recall being asked to go to websites to vote for people's pictures, Christmas ornaments, and other stuff over the last year. No reason why you can't do the same, especially because DIY Network is not a chicken forum, so there is not much overlap/competition there.

Today is Day 8 for most of you:



It is Day 21 for me!

Here is my first chick out - a little German New Hampshire.

I am so jealous of you... I used to have a German NH roo and he was the best! This pic makes me want to hatch some again, they are so cute!

 

[yinepu]

OK, freaking out a little...I came home today and went to check my chickens and my broody to find a HUGE black snake in the coop! To make it even worse, my super hero husband and I battled it outside but couldn't get it on hard enough ground to kill it with the shovel. (He did get some good blows in on it so it has to have one heck of a headache.) I know it will be back since it did eat some eggs...we put snake repellant out but what else can I do other than put them in a fortress?? Any suggestions anyone?!? Ugh, I hate snakes! FYI, all of the eggs under my broody are fine! WHEW.

I like snakes.. so I'm of no help on how to kill one....

though if I lived closer I would be happy to come get them if they were alive!

 

[KeeperOfChicken]

Our coop-a-date:

So far in incubator one (the silkie, poland, cochin, buckeye group) we have 2 non fertile eggs (awww), so they were removed. The other 14 looks like 13 nice growing embryos with 1 questionable little booger.

Incubator 2 (the lavender oprhs group) is only at day 4 with dark brown eggs so it is a bit harder to tell, I'll let it go a few more days before I peek again. (these are my first attempt at shipped eggs so who knows)

So exciting to see positive results so far.... long way to go!

 

[vickifiveoh]

As you can see, I have a incubator full of eggs, but I think you can tell which ones are marked 4/28. It is a dozen Silkie Eggs.