Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[BluebirdHomestead]

Wow... that just sounds awful! I'm so sorry!



Can I ask what questions you ask sellers to avoid ebay egg fiascos?

They are usually questions that genuinely come up for me, like can I get an estimated ship date, or if someone claims their birds are show quality or breeding quality or something like that, sometimes I’ll ask about what bloodline they started with because I’m curious to know. For example, someone was selling show quality birds and I asked about their bloodline and they told me they got the breeding stock from a Meyer Hatchery. Maybe they were show quality but I had my doubts at that point. And if someone just never answers then that worries me too.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Looking good! Which incubator is that?

It’s the Rcom 10 Pro Plus

 

[wolfwalker]

February hatching is over for me. I went to bed with one newly hatched one zipped 2/3rds of the way and one egg pipped. Woke up this morning, (4 am) to 2 dry chicks and the zipped one sitting there. put the 2 chicks in the brooder with the other 6 and slowly opened the partially zipped egg thinking it had died. to my surprise it was alive but stuck, so off with the shell and it is stumbling around the incubator. when fluffed it will go into the brooder.

so on recap, 10 of 12 eggs made it to lockdown. And 9 of the 10 hatched. This was in shipped eggs.

Just checked the last egg, it looks like it was an early quitter and probably would have not made it to lockdown if I could have seen inside it

 

[CluckNDoodle]

February hatching is over for me. I went to bed with one newly hatched one zipped 2/3rds of the way and one egg pipped. Woke up this morning, (4 am) to 2 dry chicks and the zipped one sitting there. put the 2 chicks in the brooder with the other 6 and slowly opened the partially zipped egg thinking it had died. to my surprise it was alive but stuck, so off with the shell and it is stumbling around the incubator. when fluffed it will go into the brooder.

so on recap, 10 of 12 eggs made it to lockdown. And 9 of the 10 hatched. This was in shipped eggs.

Just checked the last egg, it looks like it was an early quitter and probably would have not made it to lockdown if I could have seen inside it

That's a great result for shipped eggs!! Congrats on the hatch!

 

[My hen house]

I'm almost to my hatch date I have 5 eggs going into lock down 4 egg I took out already they should be between Sunday and Tuesday I'm hoping Sunday so I can be home

They are in my room so if they hatch over night I'll know

 

[LilyD]

They are usually questions that genuinely come up for me, like can I get an estimated ship date, or if someone claims their birds are show quality or breeding quality or something like that, sometimes I’ll ask about what bloodline they started with because I’m curious to know. For example, someone was selling show quality birds and I asked about their bloodline and they told me they got the breeding stock from a Meyer Hatchery. Maybe they were show quality but I had my doubts at that point. And if someone just never answers then that worries me too.

You know I have even gone so far to ask if they can give me video or live feed of their birds. It would be so easy for them to take pictures from another breeder online and put it on their birds so I want to know for sure the birds in the pictures are theirs.

I also will ask if they have grown out any of the babies from those parents and been able to see them fully grown. I definitely ask about packing and if they will be able to have the package held at my post office. If they aren't using foam packers and having the eggs held I won't bother it's too easy for them to get stuck on my front stoop in bad weather and kill any prospects of the eggs being okay.

I also will ask fertility and hatch rates they are getting and I check out good egg bad egg (now that I know it's there) to see if they are doing okay on customer service. I tend to be picky though usually it's nothing to spend 50-75 with shipping included so if I'm doing that I want them to hatch lol.

 

[LilyD]

I think they can take the cold weather just fine.

I have heard from people who have them up here that they have special coops for them and they tend to have to run heat for them in the winter and keep them inside to prevent them dying of the cold.

 

[FortCluck]

You know I have even gone so far to ask if they can give me video or live feed of their birds. It would be so easy for them to take pictures from another breeder online and put it on their birds so I want to know for sure the birds in the pictures are theirs.

I also will ask if they have grown out any of the babies from those parents and been able to see them fully grown. I definitely ask about packing and if they will be able to have the package held at my post office. If they aren't using foam packers and having the eggs held I won't bother it's too easy for them to get stuck on my front stoop in bad weather and kill any prospects of the eggs being okay.

I also will ask fertility and hatch rates they are getting and I check out good egg bad egg (now that I know it's there) to see if they are doing okay on customer service. I tend to be picky though usually it's nothing to spend 50-75 with shipping included so if I'm doing that I want them to hatch lol.

I just died reading how much you'd pay for eggs I'm used to going to two local farms and paying nothing (we barter like this month I'm incubating 32 duck eggs for them) or $10 for dozen at the other farm. Sometimes I just go outside and collect my eggs for the bator.

I am a penny pincher though.

Someday I MIGHT but emu eggs and I know those can get quite costly. We do have an emu farm an hour away who does eggs and I think they're only $30 a piece. They're way more expensive when you get them shipped.

 

[FortCluck]

I think they can take the cold weather just fine.

I have my chicks in the shed and it has been kind of cold at night. They don't even use their heat plate anymore. Some of them aren't even all the way feathered out.

 

[LilyD]

Not looking like these eggs are doing anything. Day 21 started yesterday at 10am so it will be day 22 soon.