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

[yinepu]

x2, I calculate this way too so I can see if the roosters are on the job, if handling hurt them, etc. I want to know the WHOLE picture. And clears don't necessarily mean not fertile in my book; I need to see a lack of bulls eye on some samples to verify that.

especially with shipped eggs.. since the postal service can trash them pretty easily...

but for my own home grown eggs.. if I have a clear (no blood ring .. no growth) I can be 99% sure it's fertility ... then all I have to do is pull a half dozen eggs from that pen for my husband and myself for breakfast and check bulls eyes!



I pulled the shipped goose eggs that were from Texas (all 6 were clear) and checked for fertility.. 0 bulls eyes... so yeah.. that's pretty much the definitive test for fertility in unhatched eggs if you get them pulled and checked before the protein of the yolk starts to degrade too much

 

[chicks4fun]

Just love seeing all the pics---I sure hope I can send some this week too!!!

 

[mayberrygirl]

The way I figure my hatch rate is

#set minus #clears = #viable eggs

#hatched divided by #viable eggs = hatch rate %

To me the ones that are clear are beyond my control, but ones that at the very least get a blood ring are prooven viable and something caused it to not develop.

Pics will be up in a bit of my 11 little chicklets!

 

[mayberrygirl]

One of the stars of the hatch: my olive egger

another star: the first Minorca Easter Egger cross egg I have gotten to hatch

and cause they are cute:
this one is an Ancona Easter Egger cross, looks like eyebrows, LOL

and the only naked necked Turken Easter Egger cross:

 

[Arielle]

The way I figure my hatch rate is

#set minus #clears = #viable eggs

#hatched divided by #viable eggs = hatch rate %

To me the ones that are clear are beyond my control, but ones that at the very least get a blood ring are prooven viable and something caused it to not develop.

Pics will be up in a bit of my 11 little chicklets!

How shipped eggs are handled from the time handled until day 7 of incubation I see as with in my responsibility to handle well and increase the hatchability of the eggs. I have changed my methods on hatched eggs and seem to be improving the hatch rate. ( THe numbers are not enough to be definitive yet). I used to put he eggs in immediately and on their sides; NOw, I let the eggs sit in an egg carton at room temp, then set the cartons in the incubator, and not move them much for about 7 days; then start turning by tipping the carton slightly, always keeping the air cell up like in a turner which is less severe than laying them on their sides.

I'm having a better hatch this way for the number of eggs purchased.

 

[mayberrygirl]

I have only been using my own eggs. I do want some silkies, and those will have to be shipped. I may have to figure differently then, but for now this method works. I also have just been getting 25-33% hatches, so all hatching this time is wonderful.

 

[yinepu]

The way I figure my hatch rate is
#set minus #clears = #viable eggs
#hatched divided by #viable eggs = hatch rate %
To me the ones that are clear are beyond my control, but ones that at the very least get a blood ring are prooven viable and something caused it to not develop.
Pics will be up in a bit of my 11 little chicklets!

well.. actually clears aren't really beyond your control if they are from your eggs.. fertility would usually be the main reason.. which you can control by trading out roos or changing the ratio between roos and hens
If the fertility tests out good then you know the clears would have been from some sort of mishandling on your part

on shipped eggs clears can be from mishandling by the postal service (which would be beyond your control)
fertility issues with the seller's birds (also beyond your control)
or mishandling on your part once you receive them (which you can control)

if you set some of your eggs along with the shipped ones to use as a control.. then you can dismiss mishandling on your part of all of your eggs hatch and the shipped ones do not

 

[mayberrygirl]

I am not trying to argue on this. Looks like we all have our own way of figuring and I am not telling (or insisting) that any of you are wrong. 9 times out of 10, the clears are all from one hen, so clears may not be the fault of my roo, but an issue with the hen. I will not be getting rid of her any time soon. She is my Minorca, and officially broody. She has 7 eggs from the other girls to play with, and moved into a broody pen.

 

[yinepu]

How shipped eggs are handled from the time handled until day 7 of incubation I see as with in my responsibility to handle well and increase the hatchability of the eggs. I have changed my methods on hatched eggs and seem to be improving the hatch rate. ( THe numbers are not enough to be definitive yet). I used to put he eggs in immediately and on their sides; NOw, I let the eggs sit in an egg carton at room temp, then set the cartons in the incubator, and not move them much for about 7 days; then start turning by tipping the carton slightly, always keeping the air cell up like in a turner which is less severe than laying them on their sides.

I'm having a better hatch this way for the number of eggs purchased.

I agree.. I always add some of my home grown eggs to every hatch of shipped eggs if I have any available (for the goose eggs I don't since I don't have any adult geese atm.. and for the shipped muscovy eggs I didn't include any of ours yet because the darn muscovys haven't started laying yet... )
I use my eggs as a control group.. if all the eggs fail I know it was something other than the eggs that caused it.. however if all of my eggs hatch.. and the shipped ones do not.. i can rule out anything I did so long as all the eggs were handled in exactly the same way... However you're right .. shipped eggs do require different handling.. so when I set them I do use different methods than I would use on a normal batch of our eggs

lol.. I'm experimenting with different methods with the next shipped eggs as well.. since the "usual way" I hatch them was giving decent results until this last batch of eggs... Normally i could expect anywhere from a 30 to 80% hatch rate on shipped chicken eggs .. and 90% hatch rate on shipped muscovy eggs. I have been using different methods for the muscovy eggs.. so I am incorporating some of those same methods in the next few batches of chicken eggs to see if the hatch rates go up. the
last batch of chicken eggs SHOULD have yielded at least a 50% hatch rate since I know for a fact that the seller has good fertility in their birds.. so the 15% that I got was rather pitiful to say the least.. which points to postal service mishandling... I'm hoping to counter some of that by changing my methods.. which I would never do if I went by the number of "good eggs that hatch" making the hatch rate... (15% of eggs hatched when I figure it my way.. but it would be 100% if i only count the eggs that showed life)
since I'm aiming for a 90 to 100% hatch rate on shipped chicken eggs every time.. I have to see what I can do to improve ... and using the info I get from my hatch rates helps with fixing what I can

 

[yinepu]

I am not trying to argue on this. Looks like we all have our own way of figuring and I am not telling (or insisting) that any of you are wrong. 9 times out of 10, the clears are all from one hen, so clears may not be the fault of my roo, but an issue with the hen. I will not be getting rid of her any time soon. She is my Minorca, and officially broody. She has 7 eggs from the other girls to play with, and moved into a broody pen.

I'm not arguing either.. and sorry if you took it that way
I'm just explaining how I do things so I can improve every single hatch.. if you are happy with your results then fine.. and I'm happy for you..



However I feel I would be misleading everyone if I said I got a 100% hatch rate on those BLRW when only 2 eggs hatched out of 13 that were set.. even though only those 2 eggs ever showed any life

for me 15% isn't good enough.. so it tells me I need to change how I handle shipped eggs