Time to hatch Chicks

[brewmaster15]

My Hens are getting a little old0 and I always cycle through new ones every 2 years so its time to hatch again. Our rooster Ozzy is a blue Ameraucana and a great breeder. We have made lots of chicks with him and even some great easter eggers. I wanted to introduce new stock to the flock so I found a local poultry farm that sold a good mix breeds .. all barnyard crosses but thats fine. Decided to hatch 12 from them and 10.of Our eggs...quite the spectrum of colors


no telling what we will get except I am sure there will be olive eggers and easter eggers.

of course i went to get the incubator out of the attic and its missing a small critical vent cover so I had to make one from silicon pipe wrap.



temp and humidity are stabilizing then I will add our eggs.

[jwcarlson]

Good luck, Al! Good call getting some new blood in the mix. Plus there might be some cool looking chickens out of it.

[brewmaster15]

Good luck, Al! Good call getting some new blood in the mix. Plus there might be some cool looking chickens out of it.

Thanks Jacob.Im really looking forward to seeing what hatches.. price was fair..$24 per dozen fertilized and they have multiple roosters which should boost hatch rates.


Incubator is all set.

[jwcarlson]

How do you like that incubator, Al? I use a cheap "still air" incubator that I wired up with a couple of fans and a heat controller. Instead of the pot that controlled it before. I have really good hatches with incubating dry and then putting them in a separate styrofoam shipping box for "lockdown" with high humidity. I just use a light bulb and heat controller in there and I'm able to keep the humidity elevated for the last couple days.

One thing that I do a lot is shuffle the eggs within the incubator. So even if there's a hot or cool spot. In theory all the eggs should spend roughly the same amount of time in those spots over the course of incubation. That's not realistic with a big incubator, but with a couple dozen it works just fine. I do that at least once a day, but usually twice.

You're making me wish I was hatching eggs haha

[brewmaster15]

Jacob, I really like it alot. ..$180 holds 22 eggs.. rotates eggs well .. heats well & easy to control humidity. Come with a built in candler as well. Has a temperature alarm.
We have hatched I think 4 batches of eggs so far..I really have no complaints. i almost built.one from a cooler but when I added up all the parts and time and would still have to do alot manually I thought it was a fair price. Im glad I bought it.

Its great to be able to clearly see the eggs too... fun to watch them hatch. Not as fun as when a broody hen does the work but still fun.

I know my cats give it a clear 10/10 rating... they love watching chicks hatch. (I do tape the lid on just in case. )

[brewmaster15]

Hatching went well in some regards. Unfortunately our old rooster and hens did not perform . The eggs were not fertile. Ozzy is getting old I guess but I figured being holed up all winter with 7 hens would give us some chicks... bummer. The girls had only starting laying again after a molt so maybe better luck next batch now that we are getting more eggs.

Of the 12 fertile eggs we bought locally 10 hatched.. the remaining two I believe are duds or aborted near term. Still 10 chicks is great. CUTE buggers but no clue what they will be as adults. The farm has multiple breeds and roosters.

These are day old chicks now.












Should be interesting looking birds . Probably clean out the incubator and do another round of eggs this week.

[Second Hand Pat]

They are so cute Al, bummer on the two eggs which didn't make it.
Pat

[jwcarlson]

10/12 is pretty darn good! Do you candle them along the way at all, Al? I'm deathly afraid of having eggs that rot and explode. I had some that got buried in bedding a year or two ago and when I was cleaning the coop I found them. It was quite nasty. They sounded almost like gunshots when they broke. Not to mention the smell.

[brewmaster15]

10/12 is pretty darn good! Do you candle them along the way at all, Al? I'm deathly afraid of having eggs that rot and explode. I had some that got buried in bedding a year or two ago and when I was cleaning the coop I found them. It was quite nasty. They sounded almost like gunshots when they broke. Not to mention the smell.

I have the same fear Jacob. We do candle them several times but honestly some of the breeds have shells so dark its hard to see anything. I haven't had one explode yet but I did did do an experiment here where I tested ozzys eggs at 18 days. I was pretty sure from candling them that they were duds. I cracked them open and they looked like a normal egg and smelled like one.. Im pretty sure unfertlized chicken eggs will not rot and explode in 21 days of incubation if unfertilized.. Only time I can see it happening is when the eggs are fertilized and start to develop and then die... The last two eggs of the dozen we bought were definitely in the bomb ready to explode stage.. I dread the chance that happens in the incubator!

[jwcarlson]

I have the same fear Jacob. We do candle them several times but honestly some of the breeds have shells so dark its hard to see anything. I haven't had one explode yet but I did did do an experiment here where I tested ozzys eggs at 18 days. I was pretty sure from candling them that they were duds. I cracked them open and they looked like a normal egg and smelled like one.. Im pretty sure unfertlized chicken eggs will not rot and explode in 21 days of incubation if unfertilized.. Only time I can see it happening is when the eggs are fertilized and start to develop and then die... The last two eggs of the dozen we bought were definitely in the bomb ready to explode stage.. I dread the chance that happens in the incubator!

Agreed on unfertilized not being an issue. I have NO idea how long the ones I had explode were buried in the bedding. Probably a long time. I use deep litter and do not clean it out but once a year or so.

I know it's just yet another cost, but I bought this candler years ago and absolutely love it.

Amazon.com: Magicfly Bright Cool LED Light Egg Candler Tester, Powered Only by Power Supply : Industrial & Scientific

The very dark eggs like Marans are really difficult to candle, I've hatched a couple of them and this thing can at least... help. But it's still really difficult. With lighter eggs, though, it feels like you can see everything. Can see the heartbeat at just a few days.

[brewmaster15]

a few quick pics

[jwcarlson]

Looking good, Al! I've got 15 coming in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday. I've never had chicks mailed before, so hopefully that goes well.
Baby chicks are just so cute.

[brewmaster15]

Looking good, Al! I've got 15 coming in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday. I've never had chicks mailed before, so hopefully that goes well.
Baby chicks are just so cute.

Jacob looking forward to seeing what you get.

In case you didn't consider it.. Call your postoffice and tell them to hold them there for pick up. Its the safest way to get them alive..

[jwcarlson]

Jacob looking forward to seeing what you get.

In case you didn't consider it.. Call your postoffice and tell them to hold them there for pick up. Its the safest way to get them alive..

Absolutely, the hatchery sends them for pick up at the post office. I've shipped and received queen bees and even when asking to be held for pickup they will occasionally put them on the truck. They wiped out a pretty good sized batch of queens I sent a guy down in Missouri. Put them on their truck and ended up dropping them off in his mailbox when it was like 90 degrees down there. Sad stuff.

Next week the two goslings are coming. :O

[danotaylor]

Cool thread fella’s. We acquired a nice rooster just before the winter. Our layer are ISA browns. Since we lost half our flock to a raccoon attack last November we have decided to try to hatch & raise some of our own chicks. My wife bought a pretty cheap incubator last week and we have 8 eggs in there atm. I will attempt to candle them this week to see if any are actually viable from our youngish rooster. He’s is trying to fulfill his role. We’ll see soon I guess…