THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[coldupnorth]

I think many of the hatch-alongs that have hatch rate contests use the what hatches over what is set to figure out hatch rate. Candling skills vary per person so what goes into lockdown can be very different.

I started with 18 eggs (12 shipped and 6 of our own). My own 6 were put in there more as an experiment - they were old and hadn't been turned so I wanted to see about hatchability. Pulled all of them at 7 days - no development. The 12 shipped eggs were from the same person. 7 lavendar orps and 5 blue Polish.
8 of the shipped eggs made it to lockdown (all 5 Polish and 3 Lav. Orps)

Saturday night at 11:00 pm (no pips or zips) - woke up Sunday morning (7:00 am) to 4 hatched and three more pipped. Those three were hatched by 2:00pm. Last egg - nothing. All 5 Blue Polish hatched along with 2 of the Lavendar Opringtons (Thanks Beth, for these beauties!)

My total was 7 hatched of 18 set (39%)

I am happy with my hatch, since part of it was experiment and I did all right with the shipped eggs.

 

[Arielle]

All my AM/EE hatched; waiting for 1 pipped BO and one none nothing BO. One Marnas interannly pipped so I went looking for him as there was no movement. It was upside down.

HOw can I prevent upside down chicks?????? THis is what I think so far. Need to identify the large air cell end sooner and store with aircell end up in a carton rather than on their sides.

ANy other ideas?

 

[stargazerlabs]

Our 11 new fuzzy butts!

 

[yinepu]

All my AM/EE hatched; waiting for 1 pipped BO and one none nothing BO. One Marnas interannly pipped so I went looking for him as there was no movement. It was upside down.

HOw can I prevent upside down chicks?????? THis is what I think so far. Need to identify the large air cell end sooner and store with aircell end up in a carton rather than on their sides.

ANy other ideas?

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head..

odd shaped eggs also tend to have a higher incidence of pipping at the wrong end...
with the football shaped or torpedo shaped eggs as well as very round eggs the chick has a harder time turning or orienting itself
Most of the larger hatcheries will only set "egg shaped" eggs because of the problems odd shaped ones can have

 

[yinepu]

Our 11 new fuzzy butts!

adorable!

 

[Toxic Chicken]

2 more just hatched. One has a puffy belly button I guess you call it
with a tiny bit of blood. Should I put blue Kote or bacitracin on it when I
move them to brooder later?

3 more eggs to go

 

[Arielle]

Quote: It is scary how important the storage phase is.

My marans produce a wide variety of egg shapes and colors. I am starting to appreciate all the years of selection that has gone into all the chicken breeds we have available today. I had an uncle who started with racing pigeons when he was 15. and was reputed to be an excellent breeder of birds that won plenty of races and paid for all their own feed. He was still at it well into his eighties. I realize now how valuable his knowledge was . . . .70 years of breeding and racing.

 

[jandrusrn]

Ooooh so great. Showing these pictures to my "practice eggs" to show them how gorgeous wee fuzzy butts can be..... come on guys!!!

Happy Mother's Day everyone..... woooo hooooo

 

[yinepu]

It is scary how important the storage phase is.

My marans produce a wide variety of egg shapes and colors. I am starting to appreciate all the years of selection that has gone into all the chicken breeds we have available today. I had an uncle who started with racing pigeons when he was 15. and was reputed to be an excellent breeder of birds that won plenty of races and paid for all their own feed. He was still at it well into his eighties. I realize now how valuable his knowledge was . . . .70 years of breeding and racing.

yup.. when storing an egg if it sits for too long on one side the yolk will naturally "stick" to that side.. so all the turning in the world won't make it hatch properly
and last summer it was so hot here that some duck eggs I had sitting on the counter (not intending to hatch) started to form embryos... so the storage temp is important as well...

(the duck egg in question was one that the cats had rolled around and back behind a few things.. I found it several days later and carefully cracked it open.. little baby ducky was forming.. and I have pics!.. )

Your uncle sounds like an interesting guy!

 

[gwendalynn28]

I didn't plan on a Mother's Day hatch but my chicks decided to come a day early. Only one so far has been born on the actual due date. I still have 3 more eggs but I'm not sure if they will hatch. I had two questionable eggs when I candled right before lockdown. I'm hoping for one more chick. I set 13 eggs and I now have 10 chicks! Yay!

I did try some new tricks for humidity in the Little Giant incubator. I've had trouble getting the humidity up so I put two hot, wet sponges and a hot, wet paper towel in the center over the water trays. It worked really well and got the humidity up to 75%! I even had to open all vents when things really starting going because it jumped up to 90% humidity!! All the babies are cute and healthy! I'll have to post pictures of them hanging out in the brooder! My newest chick just arrived about 2 minutes ago! He's late, but he's actually right on time since today is the actual due date! This was a great Mother's Day present!