Finnie- Finally A Journal

[farmerjan]

Have never in my life seen eggs put in mess bags in the incubator like that...

 

[fuzzi]

View attachment 117377

Chick hatching season has finally arrived! Later than I usually do it because we had our trip planned and I didn’t want the chicken sitter to have to deal with chicks. So I didn’t set any eggs until the timing was right to do lockdown a few days after I got back.

The first chick hatched last night and today will be like popcorn. I need to get some brooders set up quick!

So far some Easter Eggers and some speckled Sussex.
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(And, I don’t normally crowd the hatcher that much. Fingers crossed that the bottom ones make it.)

Are they in the bags so you know the breed?

Do they stay in their bag until all the eggs have hatched?

 

[Finnie]

Have never in my life seen eggs put in mess bags in the incubator like that...

Are they in the bags so you know the breed?

Do they stay in their bag until all the eggs have hatched?

Yes, they are called pedigree bags.(I use mesh produce bags from Amazon) When the hatch is over, and I remove the chicks from each bag, they get a colored zip tie on their leg so I know what parents they came from.

 

[Mini Horses]

Do you not turn eggs during incubation? The system is foreign to me but, interesting. Enlighten us.

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

I am thinking that is the hatching stage. We do that in the last 3 days for our quail if we have different types.
We have a single cabinet for setting the eggs (incubator) and the we have a separate cabinet for hatching. This has a couple of advantages. One, we can start another round of eggs immediately after a simple wipe down of the setting cabinet. Two, all of the dust and mess of hatching is in another cabinet and we can do a thorough job of cleaning the second cabinet after the hatch.

 

[Finnie]

Yes, that was just for lockdown (the last 3 days). I have a similar situation to @HomeOnTheRange -incubate in the cabinet incubator and then move them to a different one for lockdown. Usually I have one or two trays going per week in the cabinet and each week I move the ones that are ready into the lockdown incubators and add new eggs to the cabinet. So there is always a group ready to hatch each week. The cabinet runs constantly until I decide I’m done with hatching.

By the way, I will not pile so many into the hatcher again. It was a dismal hatch. Many of the ones on the lower level could not push the eggshell apart after they zipped it because it was packed too tight. I was able to save some of those, but they are bent out of shape and I do not know if they will straighten up as they grow. And I don’t think enough oxygen got down to the lower level because I had way more dead-in-shell chicks that didn’t pip then is normal. I should have known better and just set up a second hatcher. But I have had success piling up eggs in the past so I figured it would be ok. (In the past they were not piled up so much though.)

 

[Mini Horses]

I'll assume you sell chicks -- right?

 

[Finnie]

Yes, but often I grow them out to see if they are what I’m trying to achieve and then sell the ones I don’t want as started birds. (For more money than what I charge for newly hatched chicks.)

For instance right now I’m trying to make frizzled Easter Eggers. So I’m going to keep the first 20 of those until I see which ones get the frizzle gene. (50% expected). Then I will sell the smooths as EE mixes (half Polish half EE) and keep growing out the frizzles until point of lay, at which time I will see how their egg color is. (Or if they are male I will keep a few pretty ones and sell the ugly ones.)

 

[canesisters]

Yes, but often I grow them out to see if they are what I’m trying to achieve and then sell the ones I don’t want as started birds. (For more money than what I charge for newly hatched chicks.)

For instance right now I’m trying to make frizzled Easter Eggers. So I’m going to keep the first 20 of those until I see which ones get the frizzle gene. (50% expected). Then I will sell the smooths as EE mixes (half Polish half EE) and keep growing out the frizzles until point of lay, at which time I will see how their egg color is. (Or if they are male I will keep a few pretty ones and sell the ugly ones.)

I would love to see them!

 

[SageHill]

Didn't you end up with a purple egg layer out of your breeding a couple years back?