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Author Topic: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010  (Read 7482 times)

Offline Cindi

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The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« on: January 11, 2010, 09:57:18 am »
This is why I think I might say I am busy, hee, hee.  Got a lot going on with chickens these days, smiling.  Well, again, as the last hatch the hatch began about 1/2 a day before the expected hatch.  Yesterday about 3:30ish the hatch began.  There was three eggs that were marked as Brahma ?, those were the only eggs that I thought may not be from a Light Brahma crossed with a Light Brahma, all the other Brahma eggs were known to be pure (I spend alot of time in my Brahma chicken house when I am gathering eggs for incubation, smiling).  It could be a cross of:  Australorpe, Buff Orpington or Silver Laced Wyandotte with the Light Brahma rooster.  That chick looked black, no clue yet what cross it will be.  The other Light Brahma chicks will be pure and come out yellow with some darker colours, some more dark colours than others, and there will be ones that are only yellow. Amazing with the Light Brahma breed the difference in the two tone shades of chicks when they are young, but very cool.  Oh yes, where was I?  The last hatch the first ones to hatch were the Light Brahmas, and so it would appear this is happening again.  Guess they want to get out of their house more quickly than their Cochin nestmates, which seem to take more time to break through their little homes.

In the hatch I have a combination of Light Brahma, Blue and Black Cochins.  Oh yes, four Buff Orpington eggs from when I had Jimmy, before I sold him to someone who wanted a tough Buff Orpington rooster, it would be nice if those hatched.  This Jimmy dude was just a little too aggressive to fit in with my style of chickenkeeping.  All my efforts of trying him to be nice just weren't working.  He wanted to fight with everyone, even though separated from the other roosters.  Must be the breed.  My Cochin roosters and Light Brahma rooster are just sweethearts.  The other person just wanted a virile young dude for breeding, and that she got, he was one that loved to breed  :shock:

As of 8:30 last night, 7 little ones had broken out and were enjoying their new view with life.  I can't wait to go down and see this morning how many more have emerged.

This is a also a test hatch.  I have placed approximately 48 of my own eggs, gathered for over a period of two weeks.  I am anxious to see how many eggs will be viable after having collected for over 14 days.  That proof will be in the pudding of egg viability beyond 7 days, which I have read so much about.  The eggs were all collected and stored in a coolish place, in the egg turner for my little giant incubator, so they were turned evenly the entire saving period.

Right, gotta get back to where I was, oh I so ramble, when I get to ramblin' about ramblin' -- got a couple of pictures.  The incubator ranged from 99.5 to 100.1 degrees.  The humidity was steady at 44%.  The last hatch the humidity was steady at about 33%.  As the incubator was moved out from our basement, down to the cabin with all the chicks I think the humidity level was higher, maybe because of the moisture of their breath and other things, like what happens when chicks drink water and eat food, smiling.  Also, the cabin has only the heat lights for the chicks and electric baseboard heater, no moving air as in my house.  I think in the house my humidity must be lower because of the forced air furnace.  Anyways, that is an aside.  The humidity was higher than the last hatch, we'll see if that makes a difference.  Enjoy the pictures, there will be more to come as I show off my new clutch of babies.

I set 64 more eggs in the incubator yesterday morning, before the hatch began to emerge from their shells. So in 20ish days, the process will begin again.  I have put the last two hatches on Craigslist and have had nice responses.  Those chicks in those hatches are now 21 days and 10 days old, little beauties, and still such a nice friendly breed for surely.   Have a most awesome day, love and live with that great health, Cindi

The first two out, within a few minutes of each other



Look at the little guys leg coming out of the shell, no wonder they get out so easily, I think they have some strong little legs that kick the dickens out of the shell, smiling.




There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline JP

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2010, 10:28:33 am »
You know Cindi, I don't recall ever seeing anything hatch out of an egg before. It must be an exciting experience.

Looks like you will be knee deep in chickens very soon!

Have fun & good luck!


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Offline zan

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2010, 07:44:49 am »
Isn't this humidity a little to low?

Offline nucsnchooks

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2010, 07:50:34 am »
That is awesome!  Congrats!  I can't wait to get my 'bator full.  ;)
I'm a newbeek. :)

Offline Sean Kelly

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2010, 09:58:47 pm »
Cindi!!!!!
Ahhh.... I'm jealous!!!  You must be very proud!!!!
What are you gunna do with all these birds?  I had no idea you were so into raising chickens!  I'm hoping to get some birds this year if I can afford to build a coop.

Sean Kelly
"My son,  eat  thou honey,  because it is good;  and the honeycomb,  which is sweet  to thy taste"          - Proverbs 24:13

Offline zan

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2010, 09:50:50 am »
I red that humidity must be at about 70%. I tray this but I have little success. Only 3 from 20 and other time 6 from 40 eggs. First time with home made incubator and secend time with Hova bator. I don't now what I am doing wrong. Maybe you can help me. What is final result of your hatching?

Offline Cindi

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2010, 12:39:48 pm »
Oh man, I am so bad, I just am having such a time to spend time here, gotta whine about busy-ness, smiling.  I am anticipating time to have more time to spend time here with my friends, (isn't the overuse of words somethings an interesting thing, like, time after time, smiling). 

JP, yes, I am beyond knee deep in chicks, I have like 3 different hatches growing in our cabin, 33 chicks in the most recent hatch, (sold some and am selling more today), 21 in the previous hatch and the first hatch had 17.  I have sold 4 of the oldest chicks.

Sean, yea, I am totally into raising heritage chickens.  I have a great bunch of breeding stock that I have been raising, taking the best of the best of each breed -- I feel quite confident that I have pretty good stock now for that purpose.  It is as addictive as beekeeping, which I am still into, and love, but the bees are quiet during the wintertime, and not an awful lot of interest to look at them, smiling.  Actually, yesterday I saw a few flying around, the winter has been so temperate the past while.  Windy as ol' getout today though -- I don't like wind.

Zan, I don't think I could help you, because I have not used a Hovabator before.  I have heard that they are pretty good for hatching though.  Perhaps the eggs that you got were not fertile?  That is a really bad percentage of hatching that you have had, pretty disappointing and I feel badly for you.

I have a Sportsman cabinet style incubator, has forced air, maintains a temperature of about 100 to 100.4 F, which seems to be the perfect temperature for great hatching.  It has three incubating trays, which rotate automatically many times a day, about 66 eggs per tray, for a total of close to 200 (regular sized) chicken eggs.

The humidity is maintained in the 35% to 44% and also gives great hatch.  I do need to have a cloth that I put on the edge of the pan, that wicks up some of the water to stay moist -- this is what maintains the humidity at this level.  Without it, the humidity is too low.  If I had a better pan that had more surface area, I would not need the cloth.  I have read that humidity during the last 3 days in particular, must be higher, like about 65%, but I don't honestly believe that.  My Husband built me an automatic humidity control thingy.  Basically a pan that has a float in it that is connected to the water line of our house.  It maintains the water level at a certain depth and I don't have to open the incubator even once during incubation.  I do not bother to candle the eggs to see if the embryo is growing, I know that one should, but I am too lazy, so don't.  My hatch rates are high enough that I am satisfied with them.

Whew,I am a little late to posting about what actually did finally happen with the hatch.  But this is the lowdown, a little lengthy, but then, that is me.

The hatch was still what I consider good, 63% or so, 33 out of 48 chicks hatched.  Some of the duds were from the buff Orpingtons pullets (2 eggs) with a very young cockerel, so maybe a bit of a fertility issue there and some of the duds were eggs that I didn’t know if they were purebreed  light Brahma, as I didn’t actually see who laid them, there were 4 that did not hatch of the Light Brahma X eggs, 5 purebreed ight Brahma eggs did not hatch, 3 black Cochin and 3 blue Cochin.  One chick died the day following being moved to the brood pen, no clue why, just was found dead, it must have been a weak one.

In this January 10 hatch there are:

Light Brahma 10
Light Brahma cross 4
Buff Orpington 2
Black Cochin 8
Blue Cochin 9

The first hatch I did with the incubator this fall was 17 out of 21, not sure of that percentage, but that was very good.

I have one last hatch that I am doing.  I will not do any more until we move.  (We have had quite a number of showings of our home, and I feel that there will be an offer to come in soon.  We will be moved by summertime for surely).  These chicks are due on the 29th of January.  I gathered these eggs for the period of 14 days as well (same as the last hatch). I am feeling pretty confident that 14 days is just fine to be gathering eggs, but still not 100% positive of this fact, yet, still need more corroboration with hatch results.  In this hatch coming up on the 29th I have set 70 eggs in the incubator.  This should give me a very good idea of how things are going to be .  This is what I have incubating as we speak:

25 blue Cochins
15 black Cochins
24 Light Brahma
6 light  Brahma possible crosses (ones that I did not identify as 100% light Brahma

The light Brahma cross chicks are very easy to differentiate from the light Brahma purebreeds.  They have some extremely light feathering on their legs, not typical of the heavy feathering of the Brahma breed, but those feathers are there, nonetheless.  In the yard that houses the Light Brahma rooster I have of course the two Light Brahma hens, 4 barred Plymouth Rock hens, an Australorpe hen, a buff Oprington hen and a silver laced Wyandotte hen.  So the crosses would be of the possibility of barred Rock, Australope, buff Orpington or silver laced Wyandotte.  The last hatch, as I said, had four that may be possible crosses, not to say that they are, but I didn’t actually see those 4 eggs laid, so it is nonetheless a possibility.  I do notice that there are two in that hatch that are quite a bit smaller than the rest, and have what appear to be black legs, so I am suspecting that they are Australorpe X light Brahma.  Have I caused confusion yet?  I am getting a little confused just trying to keep things straight too, smiling.  But it is under control, I am absolutely anal about record keeping and stuff like that.  I always need to know, EVERYTHING.  Do have that most wonderful day, a beautiful life, with great health.  Cindi

The transport of the first crew to the brood box, they fit nicely into a big bucket, smiling.  The second move was the next day, the incubator was getting rather full of babies.

Did I mention that 33 of 47 hatched?



All comfy and warm from the move from the incubator



It is amazing how quickly they figure out what water and food is.


There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline zan

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2010, 07:20:24 am »
Thanks for your answer and yes, in last hatching many eggs were not fertilised. I don't do candling also because eggs are not white and i don't see anything. This result is not so bad for me because i don't need
to many chickens. And you mean that humidity is not so importand and eggs mustn't be 7 day old?
 Have a nice day. Zan

Offline Cindi

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2010, 01:39:50 pm »
And you mean that humidity is not so importand and eggs mustn't be 7 day old?
 Have a nice day. Zan

Zan, I don't know about the humidity requirement, other than what I have in my cabinet, forced air model, it appears the humidity is good below 50%, but don't know anything about anything else about other incubators.  I have been doing an experiment with the last hatch and the one to come on the 29th of this month.  I gathered eggs for 14 days for each hatch.  The last hatch was 63% and no clue what the next one coming up will be.  Doing an experiment.  I had read in many places that 14 days is just fine to collect eggs for, other places say the hatchability reduces drastically after the 7th day of gathering.  Still don't have enough personal data/experience if 14 days is OK or not.  I am experimenting with this.  Have that wonderful and greatest of days, with health.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Shawn

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2010, 07:09:55 pm »
Its amazing how the birds emerge from a shell and know exactly what to do to survive. They find the water, they know how to eat, and they can even walk and all is known from day 1. Thanks for all the pictures. My daughter loves looking at all the baby chickens.

Offline Sparky

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2010, 08:37:45 pm »
What do you think JP, meet over at Cindi's this summer for a BBQ huh ?

Offline Cindi

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2010, 12:25:12 am »
Sparky  :shock: :shock: :shock:  And now you?  Guess we'll have to add you to the group of brats here on the forum, you all know who you are, smiling, brats!!!  And there is one in particular, right good ol' JP!!!   ;) :)  Beautiful days, to love, live, enjoy, with all the health wishes in the world.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline poka-bee

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #12 on: January 20, 2010, 01:00:09 am »
Oh Cindi, you are a busy woman!  They are so darn cute.  I wish you lived closer ( like in the same country....) I would buy some from you.  The Brahma are lovely.  It would be great to have a "chick house" cabin like you do, everything in one place for the little guys. Chickens sometimes will lay 14 or more eggs in a clutch and sometimes all hatch so I would think the 14 days would work out OK.  With nature tho you just never know from one time to another.  Keep the pictures up so I can live vicariously!

Jody
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Offline JP

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #13 on: January 20, 2010, 09:56:00 am »
What do you think JP, meet over at Cindi's this summer for a BBQ huh ?

Sparky, you read my mind. That be a lot of chicken nuggets!


...JP
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Offline Cindi

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Re: The hatch began again, smiling -- Jan 10 2010
« Reply #14 on: January 20, 2010, 12:07:11 pm »
Brrrrrraaaaattttttssssss!!!  C.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

 

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