First Time Hatcher Hatch-A-Long

[3KillerBs]

I'm collecting eggs to set my first hatch this week, probably Tuesday night after I get home from work. Anybody else new to hatching and want to share the experience?

I'll be setting up the incubator today to run it and make sure it's stable.

My thought is to choose eggs that are perfectly-clean, perfectly-shaped, and within shouting distance of 60g, which is a US Large -- since I want to improve the egg size in my flock, which has too many Mediums for my taste.

I figure that I'll skip the Marans' eggs this time so I can learn candling on the lighter shells even though I want to darken my flock's overall shell color average.

I haven't decided how many to set. They're going to be mixed breeds since I haven't separated the Blue Australorps out yet. I want enough to have a decent chance of a reasonable number surviving but not so many as to overwhelm my facilities when I'm going to need the space for the Blue Australorps later.

6? 8? 10? It might depend on how many really perfect eggs I get over the next couple days.

 

[Iluveggers]

I’m in! I will be hatching for the first time in April! I’ve been stalking hatch-a-longs to prepare!

In the future if you ever want to trade hatching eggs, I’d love it! (Hatching Legbars in May and I’m assuming I’ll have at least one pair for breeding next year).

 

[3KillerBs]

I’m in! I will be hatching for the first time in April! I’ve been stalking hatch-a-longs to prepare!

In the future if you ever want to trade hatching eggs, I’d love it! (Hatching Legbars in May and I’m assuming I’ll have at least one pair for breeding next year).

I might take you up on that.

 

[PetraStonegirl]

I’m in!

I am also in the February hatch-a-long. I am on day 8 with 1 55 Flowery, 2 Swedish Flower, 3 Isbar, and 2 Hedamora shipped eggs from Greenfire. We bought a Swedish mixed dozen eggs on auction through their eBay listing. I completely missed that shipped eggs are different, so I had some stress and histrionics for a bit on day 2.

Things are going well now though, with 8/12 developing. With the four that didn’t develop, three had not been fertilized (we cracked them open yesterday to verify the cause), and one had a detached air sac and was well and truly scrambled egg inside. We only have one that has a saddled air sac in our developing eggs, so I’m calling it blind luck with them being shipped and all.

While they arrived at my local post office in Montana only 12 hours after scanning in at the post office in Florida, and I did allow them to settle in a cool room for about 35 hours after picking them up, I did lay them down horizontally and started the turner immediately. So, I could have easily had more issues.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s first time hatches!

 

[Tonyroo]

I'm collecting eggs to set my first hatch this week, probably Tuesday night after I get home from work. Anybody else new to hatching and want to share the experience?

I'll be setting up the incubator today to run it and make sure it's stable.

My thought is to choose eggs that are perfectly-clean, perfectly-shaped, and within shouting distance of 60g, which is a US Large -- since I want to improve the egg size in my flock, which has too many Mediums for my taste.

I figure that I'll skip the Marans' eggs this time so I can learn candling on the lighter shells even though I want to darken my flock's overall shell color average.

I haven't decided how many to set. They're going to be mixed breeds since I haven't separated the Blue Australorps out yet. I want enough to have a decent chance of a reasonable number surviving but not so many as to overwhelm my facilities when I'm going to need the space for the Blue Australorps later.

6? 8? 10? It might depend on how many really perfect eggs I get over the next couple days.

I agree with quality egg selection for the outcome your looking for.

I did that with my SFH hen, I collected extra large eggs from one of my hens. They were all clean and had good shell thickness. I kept my hands sanitary to reduce any chance of bacteria contamination on the shell. 10 out 10 hatched without any issues.

 

[3KillerBs]

I have the incubator set up and turned on to get it stable over the next couple days:

Also to make sure that the cat-proof enclosure is as cat-proof as we hope it is.

 

[casportpony]

Love your cat-proofing!

 

[Sally PB]

Following along! Someday, someday I'll join in!

 

[3KillerBs]

Love your cat-proofing!

I know my cats' capabilities for getting into things and I know that there is no way they could *possibly* leave a container of moving, peeping things alone.

 

[Brooks_]

6? 8? 10?

If it helps at all, I had set 12. One was not fertile, one was culled a few days after hatch (eye issue) leaving me with 10 (8 pullets).