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

[LilyD]

I've got one egg due on the 9th, and a batch due on Valentine's Day

My second set of eggs are due to hatch on the 16th the first batch is due on the 12th. I candled the first set of eggs and it looks like only a third of the eggs are growing. It very well could be the cold though since it's pretty nasty still outside. The other option is that the roo has a favorite and isn't breeding with the other hens lol. We'll find out in a few weeks.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I’ve recently decided I’m no longer selling and posting out hatching eggs as the set up I have now won’t give me enough spare to be able to meet the demand people have for eggs from my birds.

Occasionally I will sell some if I have spare but it will only be to other breeders and/or people who I know have experience with hatching. Plus, the price will go up.

I used to get a lot of spare hatching eggs as I just have small incubators and I didn’t like seeing them go to waste. Compared to most, I wasn’t charging a lot at all as I rather them go for hatching than be thrown away when I knew beautiful chicks could hatch.

However, this brought in a lot of first time hatchers with little to no experience. Of course, I understand everyone has to start somewhere as we all did once.

I knew myself that all eggs were fertile after doing many hatches myself and some others which hatched my eggs that knew how to incubate.

However, there was first time hatchers which had non hatch or just one hatch or they had difficulty hatching. When I asked about their temps and humidity 9 times out of 10 they were not right or they used horrendous cheap incubators. Some had never even candled the eggs and just thought because they didn’t hatch exactly on day 21 they obviously were not fertile. However, they were...

Me being me, I agreed to send more eggs out to people for free. I’ve come to realise I was paying for other people’s mistakes and it was costing me quite a bit in postage.

Now, if I was to send eggs out again, I will require people to candle the eggs on day 10 and only if less than 50% are developing will I send out replacement eggs. (This is for eggs being posted, eggs that are delivered in person will be given a higher percentage).

I now also have a hatching/incubating tips and guide sheet to put in with the eggs after so many people didn’t even know the basics.

I really did used to love sending out eggs and seeing others hatch the chicks but it became frustrating people saying the eggs weren’t fertile and never developed yet their temperature was either way too hot/cold or humidity was off the scale.

 

[FortCluck]

I've got one egg due on the 9th, and a batch due on Valentine's Day

What are you hatching?

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Oooo that's looking very promising! I would start collecting eggs the second I saw a bullseye. I have no self control, you're way stronger than I am! lol

Haha trust me it’s difficult!

 

[FortCluck]

I’ve recently decided I’m no longer selling and posting out hatching eggs as the set up I have now won’t give me enough spare to be able to meet the demand people have for eggs from my birds.

Occasionally I will sell some if I have spare but it will only be to other breeders and/or people who I know have experience with hatching. Plus, the price will go up.

I used to get a lot of spare hatching eggs as I just have small incubators and I didn’t like seeing them go to waste. Compared to most, I wasn’t charging a lot at all as I rather them go for hatching than be thrown away when I knew beautiful chicks could hatch.

However, this brought in a lot of first time hatchers with little to no experience. Of course, I understand everyone has to start somewhere as we all did once.

I knew myself that all eggs were fertile after doing many hatches myself and some others which hatched my eggs that knew how to incubate.

However, there was first time hatchers which had non hatch or just one hatch or they had difficulty hatching. When I asked about their temps and humidity 9 times out of 10 they were not right or they used horrendous cheap incubators. Some had never even candled the eggs and just thought because they didn’t hatch exactly on day 21 they obviously were not fertile. However, they were...

Me being me, I agreed to send more eggs out to people for free. I’ve come to realise I was paying for other people’s mistakes and it was costing me quite a bit in postage.

Now, if I was to send eggs out again, I will require people to candle the eggs on day 10 and only if less than 50% are developing will I send out replacement eggs. (This is for eggs being posted, eggs that are delivered in person will be given a higher percentage).

I now also have a hatching/incubating tips and guide sheet to put in with the eggs after so many people didn’t even know the basics.

I really did used to love sending out eggs and seeing others hatch the chicks but it became frustrating people saying the eggs weren’t fertile and never developed yet their temperature was either way too hot/cold or humidity was off the scale.

I could completely understand your frustration. This is why I do not sell my eggs to anyone because I honestly don't want to be responsible for someone else's screw-ups. I have hatched my eggs numerous times and I know what hatch rate I get and if somebody got a 50% hatch rate off my eggs when I'm getting 90%, that would probably infuriate me a little bit.

 

[FortCluck]

I keep track of both, the fertility rate and the hatch rate. Since I try to both gauge the "hatch/fertility" rate of the eggs I'm getting from someone as well as the hatch rate of my incubators, but I can't hold my incubator accountable for an infertile egg so I keep notes like this. lol

3/31/19: 100% (started with 22, 4 infertile, No quitters, 18 live chicks) Version 2 Nurture Right incubator

I keep a log of how many eggs I put in and how many eggs I'm pulling. I also write down what was wrong with the egg when I pulled it because if it's a quitter then that happens, but I had some eggs this time from those free eggs that had mold inside of them. It was really strange and I basically told myself that this will be the last time that I get free eggs from them.

They can have all the free roosters that they want, but I don't want any eggs in return.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I could completely understand your frustration. This is why I do not sell my eggs to anyone because I honestly don't want to be responsible for someone else's screw-ups. I have hatched my eggs numerous times and I know what hatch rate I get and if somebody got a 50% hatch rate off my eggs when I'm getting 90%, that would probably infuriate me a little bit.

It really is so frustrating knowing myself the fertility of my eggs I had was on point. If people done a little research before getting the eggs, they’d have more success. Some people think that if an egg doesn’t hatch, it’s automatically the breeders fault but that can’t be more far from the truth.

I’ve been to kind in the past and ended up loosing out myself and I can’t afford to do it anymore.

I will give advice but if people take it is another thing

 

[FortCluck]

It really is so frustrating knowing myself the fertility of my eggs I had was on point. If people done a little research before getting the eggs, they’d have more success. Some people think that if an egg doesn’t hatch, it’s automatically the breeders fault but that can’t be more far from the truth.

I’ve been to kind in the past and ended up loosing out myself and I can’t afford to do it anymore.

I will give advice but if people take it is another thing

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink

The reason why my first few hatches I did with my own eggs is because I didn't want to be responsible for screwing up someone else's eggs.

I know not everybody has the ability to hatch their own eggs, but I truly believe that me doing that is the reason why I'm good at hatching now.

My first hatch was horrible because I had read on here the humidity that you should have and everything else. Little did I know you should really judge your humidity and stuff by your location. It just became a huge disaster.

I did get 21 chicks out of 30 eggs, but if my humidity wasn't so high I probably would have had 29 out of 30 chicks I was so angry with myself and upset with myself. I decided that I was going to continue to try and my second and third and fourth hatch went amazing.

 

[NNYchick]

I would love the link to this page for future reference!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/814539915329216/?ref=shareHere is the link to the FB group.

 

[Pyxis]

What are you hatching?

Luiske Vechter aka Liege Fighters