Valentine's day hatch -a-long

[Faraday40]

OMG! I just love that pretty Hens name!!

So sorry for your loss, love her name! Looks like she was a good momma hen, too.

Thank you.

Yes Princess Lay-a was our top as well as our oldest hen. A nice lean, white, clean-looking, egg-laying gal.
We hatched her opposite: a fluffy, fat, black orp = Darth Layer,
and a feisty little bantam orp = Cookie, but nicknamed her "the Bantam Menace" because she was fast and would zip between the legs of the other hens & steal their treats!
We later hatched Bielefelders & kept only one.... named Hen Solo.

(As jokes we had chicks: Luke Sky-wattle, Yolk-a, and Chew-BAWK-A, but they were not permanent flock members.)

The "Bantam Menace" is the last remaining Star Wars chicken.

 

[Faraday40]

Had to do some fluff trims today. Of course before our old roo went back to the coop, DD insisted he stay for some cuddles. He's such a good boy!

 

[Faraday40]

I candled a few more eggs last night and am very skeptical if I have any good ones. I randomly pulled out 4 eggs and candled. They looked sort of clear but I could see a yolk shadow. I ended up cracking them to be sure & saw no veining.

The good news is that I did not kill any eggs. The bad news is that I haven't seen any true developing eggs. I'll have to go through one at a time to candle & toss. So Bummed. There's also the strong chance that some eggs were frozen.

The blk/lav split rooster got some trims, but he's old & has a limp. He's always been the flock master, but needs another lav orp to help cover the hens. (He's semi-retired and more of a pet.)

My laced orp is 7.5 mo. He just started mating about a week ago. (A very, very late bloomer) I don't think he has his technique down yet. I plan to separate him with my 2 laced orp hens for breeding.

I have young lav boy that I was hoping to use, but he has some gold leakage. Although very pretty, he's going to end up as dinner. He's only 4 months old. Then yesterday, I saw him mate BOTH of my laced orps. The only 2 girls that I specifically want to save for my laced orp!
I was hoping to grow him out a little more and perhaps find someone in need of a pretty roo to watch over their layer flock. He's a beautiful, sweet boy, but I don't want to deal with random gold leakage popping out


So my last resort male is this little 8 wk old blk/lav split chick:

His flaw is a little white on the tip of his beak.(seen in 1st pic) His mom is on the small side and also carries mauve genes. I normally wouldn't even consider breeding him, but unless I can get the old man to fertilize some lav hens, I'll have to hang onto this chick long enough for him give us a decent lavender son.

 

[chonsey]

I'm not giving up on some of my eggs, I'm hand turning twice a week - in case they aren't turning good enough. I've had a few eggs three to four days behind the others and they were put in at the same time. I love my R-Com incubator because of the quality and temp & humidity control, however; they have three ways to roll the eggs. I have two different setups and I have to believe the option that doesn't come with it must be the best. The floor of the incubator is what moves back & forth and the dividers keep them in place. I'm thinking my floor is becoming too smooth and the dividers don't work so well with odd shaped eggs. You have to have three eggs uniform in size to put in one row. If there is too much room in between dividers, they don't roll properly. I have quite the variety of egg shapes & sizes this time. Seems like one egg in each row needs help being turned. The 56 egg incubator made in China did not give me any chicks for the New Years hatch & had difficulty getting up to 99deg and staying there. So glad I use nitrile gloves, had a leaking egg explode in it, cleaned it up and now that I'm getting ready to use it - I'm taking the entire unit apart & sterilizing everything for a deep clean. I was thinking maybe some of the releasing agent from the plastic mold process might still be on some of the plastic parts, or oil on the metal parts. The plus side of it, it rotates the eggs every two hours and has led lights in the egg holders a see through lid - so you can push a button to candle and view without touching the eggs. Waiting to hear back from the manufacturer. Hope it works when I get it back together. Sure hope I get a good broody hen & she can do the hatching!

 

[Kenny_]

I'm not giving up on some of my eggs, I'm hand turning twice a week - in case they aren't turning good enough. I've had a few eggs three to four days behind the others and they were put in at the same time. I love my R-Com incubator because of the quality and temp & humidity control, however; they have three ways to roll the eggs. I have two different setups and I have to believe the option that doesn't come with it must be the best. The floor of the incubator is what moves back & forth and the dividers keep them in place. I'm thinking my floor is becoming too smooth and the dividers don't work so well with odd shaped eggs. You have to have three eggs uniform in size to put in one row. If there is too much room in between dividers, they don't roll properly. I have quite the variety of egg shapes & sizes this time. Seems like one egg in each row needs help being turned. The 56 egg incubator made in China did not give me any chicks for the New Years hatch & had difficulty getting up to 99deg and staying there. So glad I use nitrile gloves, had a leaking egg explode in it, cleaned it up and now that I'm getting ready to use it - I'm taking the entire unit apart & sterilizing everything for a deep clean. I was thinking maybe some of the releasing agent from the plastic mold process might still be on some of the plastic parts, or oil on the metal parts. The plus side of it, it rotates the eggs every two hours and has led lights in the egg holders a see through lid - so you can push a button to candle and view without touching the eggs. Waiting to hear back from the manufacturer. Hope it works when I get it back together. Sure hope I get a good broody hen & she can do the hatching!

Yes, I believe the egg tray is the best way to rotate the eggs. I purchased the egg tray for my r-com.. it was completely worth it for me. I did not enjoy the dividers at all. I felt like I was always doing it wrong. At least with the tray there was a hole, and you filled the one hole with one egg. You knew how many eggs that you were going to be able to incubate no matter what. Best of luck! I'm going to try Oxine AH for sterilization with my incubators soon, and also in the water for humidity, so I don't have to dip/wash the eggs.. it eliminates bacterial infections so that sounds good to me. Yes, it's one more step, but incubating isn't all of the time so...

 

[Hirad]

I'm down 10 eggs, a couple duds and a few early DIS. I know cold may have been a factor for some of them. I still have 30 something going. I'm going to set up my brooder this week so it'll be ready.

 

[Familyfarm47]

ok I'm doing a staggered hatch. I need to make more room if i can, and some of my wonky aircell eggs have been incubating for 5 days now upright in egg crate cups. The cells are doing better but not totally attached on some sides. I want to lay them flat so I can fit other eggs in? I've made some wedge type props for them out of egg crate to keep them at a steeper angle than they would be flat, but not as upright as in their current full cups. Is this too risky? My other incubator is soooooo crazy with temps! its a farm innovators and I've got like 5 thermometers in there and they are all different by +/- 5 degrees!! I wanna get them outta there. I've got a brinsea manual that can hold more if i can wedge them up?

 

[Familyfarm47]

btw, I've got 7 out of 12 looking good for valentines. well the 15, really.
but the air cells haven't grown much. humidity is at 25-30. should i lower it?

 

[Familyfarm47]

I think I'm going nuts!!!!

 

[chonsey]

Just received a fresh batch of hatchright. Hope it kicks in the progress with the necessary vitamins & amino acids. I had a chick hatch with wry neck once, don't want a chick to experience that. Candled, some of the ones that were progressing earlier and half are slow or stopped. Some of the suspect ones are showing fertility & progressing. Giving them a few more days before cleaning some out. Had one explode once, it was infertile and started leaking at the bottom. Couldn't get it out of tray, stuck to the bottom and KABOOM-what a mess! Do not ever want to experience that again, either.