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

[Mylied]

For the first 10 days I usually can’t tell. After day 10 you can usually see a contrast with the air cell in the eggs that are developing and then you candle from the bottom you can gauge the size of clear space vs. darkness (aka where the chick is). It’s not easy and I’m often unsure.

I don't candle until day 11. At that point I can see that something's going on. Then I candle again right before lockdown, at which point they just look full of darkness/chick.

It's day 13 and I candled yesterday. One looks pretty clear but I hate tossing if I'm not positive. I'll just wait until they smell and recheck before lockdown.

 

[Mylied]

Here are the 2 chicks that hatched over night. I've moved them to a brooder because they were moving the egg around that hasn't hatched yet. Fingers crossed that it will still hatch. What does the spot on the top of the head represent?

View attachment 2042846View attachment 2042846View attachment 2042846View attachment 2042848

What breed are they?

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

It's day 13 and I candled yesterday. One looks pretty clear but I hate tossing if I'm not positive. I'll just wait until they smell and recheck before lockdown.

I definitely just leave them in if I’m not sure. I’ve left some in all the way through hatch and they never smelled. Also it usually becomes pretty clear at lockdown whether the egg is just darkness or not.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I think white is female on a barred rock, yellow is male on a barred rock.

 

[julskinka]

Haha, right now I'm worrying about all the ones that haven't pipped yet, because they're the shipped eggs I'm more invested in. Everything that has pipped is a local egg I'm sort of whatever about. And of course, when I check last year's data, the spread of pips was beginning of D20 to end of D21, so I know it's normal and fine.

I had 5 total of the local eggs pip in fairly quick succession this morning, and one is actually hatched already. Still nothing other than occasional rocking from any of the shipped eggs. Last year I only had one DIS, and it was a malpo. Tryyyyyyyyyyyyying not to get nervous.

 

[julskinka]

I had 5 total of the local eggs pip in fairly quick succession this morning, and one is actually hatched already. Still nothing other than occasional rocking from any of the shipped eggs. Last year I only had one DIS, and it was a malpo. Tryyyyyyyyyyyyying not to get nervous.

In other news, the hatched one (which appears to be a Legbar x Bresse), seems really vocally perturbed that I'm not scooping it out of the incubator and snuggling it. I'm gonna name it Billy Idol because it has bleach-blond-yellow down spiking up on the top of it head.

 

[ASteelman]

I'll just wait until they smell and recheck before lockdown.

That's a good plan. I've had an egg start to stink and leak before so keep checking on it.

 

[Mylied]

So I've got 8 days left for most of them. I put a few in a few days later. I didn't write anything down because that would be smart. I have 2 duck eggs in there that still have 18ish days.

After most of these are done, I'm going to do a big fertility check on my duck eggs. I've been collecting them for 4 days and will collect for 8 or 9 more days. Should be around 36-39 eggs. I'm writing the dates on the eggs too to see how they all do. I already have someone who wants half grown ducklings so I probably won't keep them all.

 

[livhatcher]

How did the auction go?

I lost at the last minute. THANK YOU, LORD. We are headed down to south ga for the weekend and I did NOT need a load of chicks showing up. It's hard enough to get your birds looked after without more new babies.

I would like to go ahead and confess that I did go ahead and bid on more.

 

[gmjarvi]

Alright any ideas why I'm not getting notifications for this thread anymore? it's my fave thread and I'm getting major FOMO