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

[gmjarvi]

I was wondering: what are you cooking for it to be that effective at changing the incubator temp

It doesn’t get that cold every day. It just happens to be in the 20s tomorrow, the rest of the week will be 30s, 40s and 50s but not 20s anymore

Hahaha! Sometimes if I roast something in the oven for an extended period of time it gets a little bit warmer in the kitchen, but yeah probably not enough to raise the temp in the incubators. @CluckNDoodle has me wanting to turn our spare room into a chick room now, though! Lol.

 

[hysop]

How cold is it getting in the house? We keep it at 67-68 in the winter and it hasn't had any negative effects on the incubators.

Around that, I set my heater at 67 to 68.

Okay, if that’s good enough then I’m relieved.

We have an open floor plan so it takes longer to heat that area up.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Candled my shipped Black Copper Marans eggs this evening. I didn’t love the way they were shipped, but couldn’t see in them upon arrival, so I had suspected the air cells would be horrible. Today was day 7 and I got a much better look at the air cells now that some of them are developing. They could be worse! There are many saddled ones, but they aren’t like completely detached or scrambled. Out of 14, 7 are developing, 5 seem clear, and 2 I couldn’t tell either way. I’m glad any are developing at all. I have low expectations for shipped eggs.

 

[hysop]

Candled my shipped Black Copper Marans eggs this evening. I didn’t love the way they were shipped, but couldn’t see in them upon arrival, so I had suspected the air cells would be horrible. Today was day 7 and I got a much better look at the air cells now that some of them are developing. They could be worse! There are many saddled ones, but they aren’t like completely detached or scrambled. Out of 14, 7 are developing, 5 seem clear, and 2 I couldn’t tell either way. I’m glad any are developing at all. I have low expectations for shipped eggs.

Yay! I keep wanting to candle my eggs. Just for fun because I think it’s pretty neat how they move, but I have to keep telling myself that over handling them may disturb them. Tomorrow is Day 10 for me!! The days are going by slowly but surely.

 

[hysop]

I’m headed off to bed, but I do want to ask a question that I’ll read answers to tomorrow at some point.

When do you see blood rings? Can you find them even on Day 18? Or are they usually only toward the beginning?

 

[FortCluck]

So I have 4 brown eggs I’m incubating. I started with 5 but one wasn’t fertilized.

My brown layers are Black Jersey Giants and Red Sex Links. I read that BJG lay brown eggs while RSL lay light brown eggs. Unfortunately I never paid attention to egg color shade and now I’m wondering who laid these eggs. They’re on Day 9 so it doesn’t matter who laid them but I’d like to know if they’ll be 100% BJG (my rooster is a BJG) or if they’ll be half and half.

Here is a picture of the four brown eggs. Any guesses will be fine, it’s just for fun.
View attachment 2031548

My RSL lay dark brown eggs

 

[FortCluck]

I’m headed off to bed, but I do want to ask a question that I’ll read answers to tomorrow at some point.

When do you see blood rings? Can you find them even on Day 18? Or are they usually only toward the beginning?

I've only seen them the first 10 days. After that I usually have early quitters but no blood rings. By day 18 I'd just see no movement and no blood rings.

 

[AusHen]

I just stuck 4 Araucana eggs (Australian/British standard) under a broody. If all goes well I should also be finally collecting some Marans eggs next week for the incubator

 

[Mvan42]

On the floor by the guinea pig cage in my living room. It's out of the way and near a plug. My cats like to look at them when they start peeping. My kids aren't that interested.

My cat runs, i keep the chicks in a kennel in the house for a day or two before moving to the coop brooder. and he runs.. it’s funny...

 

[Mvan42]

I’m headed off to bed, but I do want to ask a question that I’ll read answers to tomorrow at some point.

When do you see blood rings? Can you find them even on Day 18? Or are they usually only toward the beginning?

Normally you could see them up until the chick has grown to a decent size. Then you look for movement instead.. I have seen them on day 14 of candleing. But mostly at the beginning