Tis Time for a March 2020 Hatch-a-long!

[FortCluck]

I went out to pick eggs up a few minutes ago and I'm pretty sure I have a broody buff orpington. It's 39 degrees here and raining like crazy. I have never had one to set this early.


I think they know when I turn my incubator on because someone sets every time.

You are doing duck eggs right? I was just wondering if you could give me a few pointers about incubating duck eggs because I am getting 34 of them tonight from someone we met that is local. He doesn't know how to incubate so he would like me to incubate his eggs for him, and I want to make sure that I do my best.

They were asking me so many questions today about how many will hatch and when I'll know how many will hatch and I had to explain to them that up until the point of lockdown anything can happen and even after lockdown anything can happen.

I told them to expect no more than half to hatch since this is the first time I'm doing duck eggs and it is the first time that his duck eggs are being incubated.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Hello all! New member here! I've been keeping chickens for a while now and this year I am going to attempt hatching my own eggs for the first time ever!

Mind if I join in your March hatch-a-long? My first batch of eggs will be going in the 'bator this Sunday! Blue Ameraucana, Black Copper Marans, Blue Splash Marans, Lavender Orpington, and Salmon Faverolles all from a regional NPIP certified breeder .

Ooh so many good breeds! Yes, please join!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Hello all! New member here! I've been keeping chickens for a while now and this year I am going to attempt hatching my own eggs for the first time ever!

Mind if I join in your March hatch-a-long? My first batch of eggs will be going in the 'bator this Sunday! Blue Ameraucana, Black Copper Marans, Blue Splash Marans, Lavender Orpington, and Salmon Faverolles all from a regional NPIP certified breeder .

First hatches are always exciting! Good luck on your hatch and feel free to ask questions! There are many of us that have lots of experience and are happy to help.

 

[gmjarvi]

Ooh so many good breeds! Yes, please join!!

I probably should have just collected eggs from my own flock before attempting the more expensive breeds but I just couldn't resist! Just 'cause it's my first hatch so I feel like I'm probably gonna screw it up at least a little bit we shall see!

I will be getting cream legbar and partridge cochin eggs later this year, too!

 

[gmjarvi]

First hatches are always exciting! Good luck on your hatch and feel free to ask questions! There are many of us that have lots of experience and are happy to help.

Thanks a million! I'm sure I will have questions, especially as I get closer to hatch day. I'm very excited but also telling myself to keep my expectations reasonable since it is my first go!

 

[Alaskaliz]

Emu eggs have arrived and go into the incubator tonight or tomorrow morning. This puts hatch around March 21st.

Hi That is exciting Emu eggs! I spent time in school in Australia, can't imagine having them in my yard-lol

I am hatching my first eggs from my salmon faverolle flock. Also trying a fee of the Amercauna cross to see how cute they might come out. I am testing my incubator now and will be setting eggs in the next day or 2. I have hatched a few times but it's been a couple of years. I am excited and am happy to have found a dedicated place to post, brag, share, about the experience. My family so gets tired of me talking chickens. Alaskaliz

 

[aliciaplus3]

You are doing duck eggs right? I was just wondering if you could give me a few pointers about incubating duck eggs because I am getting 34 of them tonight from someone we met that is local. He doesn't know how to incubate so he would like me to incubate his eggs for him, and I want to make sure that I do my best.

They were asking me so many questions today about how many will hatch and when I'll know how many will hatch and I had to explain to them that up until the point of lockdown anything can happen and even after lockdown anything can happen.

I told them to expect no more than half to hatch since this is the first time I'm doing duck eggs and it is the first time that his duck eggs are being incubated.

I incubate my duck, turkey and chicken eggs the same, as in all in the same incubator at the same time. that being said I have not had the best luck with turkey or chicken recently. But the FFA just hatched out a batch of eggs that came from my house and at last count... lets see, we started with 7 turkey and 13 duck, one turkey and 2 duck were early quitters or clears, had 2 duck eggs and a turkey that were late quitters and 2 turkeys passed after hatching( what the ???) so they have 3 live turkey and there should be 9 ducks running around the brooder.

ok this pic includes the some of the chicks and a few ducks were still in the incubator drying off.
All in all I think they did well with the ducks!

 

[FortCluck]

I incubate my duck, turkey and chicken eggs the same, as in all in the same incubator at the same time. that being said I have not had the best luck with turkey or chicken recently. But the FFA just hatched out a batch of eggs that came from my house and at last count... lets see, we started with 7 turkey and 13 duck, one turkey and 2 duck were early quitters or clears, had 2 duck eggs and a turkey that were late quitters and 2 turkeys passed after hatching( what the ???) so they have 3 live turkey and there should be 9 ducks running around the brooder.View attachment 2025443ok this pic includes the some of the chicks and a few ducks were still in the incubator drying off.
All in all I think they did well with the ducks!

Do you have a certain humidity that you aim for because usually with my chickens I do dry hatch?

I don't know if dry hatching works for ducks. This will be the first time that I'm doing duck eggs and I'm putting some from my flock as well. I have two Polish eggs that I was hoping to be able to put in with those just to see if I can get Polish chicks. I have three duck eggs too that I was going to hatch because I was hoping that they'll be Muscovy and Pekin cross.

I just want to be able to at least get him a 50% hatch rate with these eggs. And that is aiming very low for me and it hurts my heart to say that I'm aiming for 50%. Usually with my flocks eggs I aim for 90% or better.

 

[aliciaplus3]

Do you have a certain humidity that you aim for because usually with my chickens I do dry hatch?

I don't know if dry hatching works for ducks. This will be the first time that I'm doing duck eggs and I'm putting some from my flock as well. I have two Polish eggs that I was hoping to be able to put in with those just to see if I can get Polish chicks. I have three duck eggs too that I was going to hatch because I was hoping that they'll be Muscovy and Pekin cross.

I just want to be able to at least get him a 50% hatch rate with these eggs. And that is aiming very low for me and it hurts my heart to say that I'm aiming for 50%. Usually with my flocks eggs I aim for 90% or better.

watch the air cells, I can't run completely dry here because our climate is SO DRY, I usually aim for 25-35% the FFA kids were keeping track of the last batch and there were times they let it get dry and others they remembered to add water so I would say they were between 35-45% average??? with times at a lower humidity and times at a higher humidity. I have to admit that I do not keep close track of hatch rates.

 

[FortCluck]

watch the air cells, I can't run completely dry here because our climate is SO DRY, I usually aim for 25-35% the FFA kids were keeping track of the last batch and there were times they let it get dry and others they remembered to add water so I would say they were between 35-45% average??? with times at a lower humidity and times at a higher humidity. I have to admit that I do not keep close track of hatch rates.

Usually when I do dry where I live it's at 30-40% I did add a little bit of distilled water to the incubator just a little bit like 20 ml of water nothing big. Just to get it started up. But I will let that water evaporate and I won't put anymore unless it gets too low.

My last chicken hatch I had it at 18% the entire time and I had a 90% hatch rate.