Don't think they are going to hatch

[bergere]

Will be 21 days later this evening.  I don't think the 6 d'Anver and the 6 from my stock are going to hatch. I did everything by the book...  

Normally I just use Broody Hens, but this time, I decided to use an incubator.. how hard could it be right?  Sigh ~~   

I kind'a expected to see something by now.  Going to wait until tomorrow night, just to make sure they aren't going to hatch.   Depressing because those Millie D'Anvers eggs 
hard to come by and spendy. 

Am bidding on some cheap hatching eggs,,, and going to try them in the incubator, that way if I fail again, it isn't a big deal.. maybe it isn't just me, maybe is something wrong with the incubator.

At this point though, must of been something I did wrong.
The incubator I bought, has super good reviews... though a couple people got machines that did not work correctly.  



Of Course, I have Lavender d'Anver hatching eggs coming in the mail today.  Think I am to just use a Broody hen. Can't afford to loose those ones too.

 Granted, in two weeks, there abouts, I have my full sized Wheaten Ameraucana eggs coming...

Have only two broody hens I trust, right now.  One is on eggs at this moment, though, they should hatch in two weeks,, I hope.   Could take her chicks and brood them myself and give her the Ameraucana eggs. 
The other is going to hatch out the eggs I am getting today.... after they have rested a bit.

[bergere]

Will candle them tonight to see what I have....

Wow, a whole week?! I do have a small incubator... "seems" to be keeping the temp ok... but then I don't have another temperature gauge inside with the eggs, to make sure. Will have to re start the machine tonight too, then.

Wee.... the adventures of not using broody hens. Thank you!!

[bergere]

So do I keep turning them? Haven't turned them in a couple of days. Have been raising chickens for 21 years.. but never with an incubator.



One of my best past broody's, was a little white Frizzle bantam. I would have her hatch out my Dutch Hook Bill duck eggs. Poor thing had an heart attack every time her babies wanted to go play in the water. LOL

[bergere]

OK... will see how it goes.

Right now I have a very Broody Blue Copper Maran and most of my Speckled Sussex go broody... the SS I had last year too... got broody the first week of April, and didn't stop until it snowed..even then
they still wanted to be broody, so I started kicking them out of the hen house every morning. LOL This Blue Maran was also broody first week of April.

Not sure they are all like that... but it might be two breeds to look into. That Frizzle I had, was always broody and a super good mother to boot!  Hear Cochins also get very broody.

[bergere]

Now going into day 22  .....    sigh ~~



My 6 Lavender d'Anver Eggs arrived and I am going to put those, under a broody hen!

[aoconnor]

I have always had incubated chick eggs hatch out by day 25. I know, a long time, but it has never been sooner or later than that. Drives me a little crazy, but I think it has to do with the incubator, not the eggs. I use the inexpensive styrofoam type incubators from Tractor Supply, and always put an egg turner in. I leave them alone except to candle at day 14 to see if anything is going on or not. I never got instructions from anyone, just put the thing together, stuck some Silkie eggs in it, and left it alone except to add water to my wells, which I didn't know I was supposed to not open the lid to do! How I ever get chicks is beyond me, but I hatch them each time in the incubator.

The only ones I didn't do well with were peafowl eggs. Those are a pain in the neck to incubate.

[bergere]

Thank you Connor! Is good to know.

One of the eggs in the incubator was talking to me this morning and can see at least one is trying to break through the shell! Is the egg from my stock. Wasn't sure a Lavender and Porcelain would hatch... as I don't know the backgrounds of these bantams.
I did see Aubrey's d'Anver Millies rocking a bit a couple of days ago.... so there is hope.

Glad my friends that have incubators, told me to wait.... Thank you!

Keeping my fingers crossed, things will keep progressing!

Did bring the Speckled Sussex broody over to the bantam house.... she will be hatching Aubreys d'Anvers Lavenders out for me.

[Bear Foot Farm]

It's good to hear your patience is paying off.

Eggs don't watch the calendar the way we do, and realistically, most things pertaining to animals are estimates rather than true schedules

[bergere]

We Have chicks!

At this point, wasn't expecting it, but it is a nice surprise. 23 days until the first started to pip...

First one about 9pm last night, with two other pipping...
This morning, have 3 chicks, all from my stock.

Two Lavenders and one that is lighter... kind'a threw me off... all healthy so far.
The 2nd photo is the lighter one. They haven't fluffed up yet.

Saw two of Aubrey's d'Anver Millies, starting to pip.

Looks really humid, weird thing is, before the eggs hatched, it wasn't.

[Deleted]

Congratulations!!! Are you passing out cigars?

I would think that the humidity came from all of the moisture in the eggs.  The chicks poke through and the moisture escapes.

All during the thread I was envisioning a big old clunky incubator like from the good old days.  Then you posted the pictures and I was a little surprised.  Times have changed!

[Mari-in-IN]

This is so exciting! Thanks so much for posting the pictures...Been following this thread.

Congratulations!

[blueiris5]

So excited for you !

[bergere]

Thank you TRellis. I have always liked weird things. LOL This is a tiny incubator, is a little slow hatching but it seems to be working.

Thank you Mari and Blueiris.

So far, only the eggs from my bantams are hatching. One of the long awaited d'Anvers finally have a pip in the egg, but hasn't un zipped yet.

Was told, with a Lavender and Porcelain cross would get blacks.. but so far, I have gotten light lavender and what looks to be silver.
Will know more when they dry off farther.

[aoconnor]

That is such great news! I am always giddy when I see a chick start pipping! I go stare...then stare some more a little later...then a little later after that:-)

[bergere]

So the Millies started pipping out yesterday, first one to pip wasn't moving along like it should and I should of helped. Didn't , which I am kicking myself in the backside. That one didn't make it.



Had another Milie this morning, but this one was unzipping, so I stayed until it pushed out of the egg. Just to make sure.



There is a pip on one other Millie I can see... will give it one more day. See if anyone else decides to make an appearance or at least keeps talking.

Is the chances one takes, when one has to buy eggs through the mail.



At least I have one so far. Keeping my fingers crossed it is a hen!



Going to be one spendy Millie d'Anver, if this is the only one.

[bergere]

Baby chick photos anyone....

They are showing very nice muffs... and only one hatched two nights ago,, the rest yesterday morning and after 1pm.owing very nice muffs... and only one hatched last night,, the rest this morning and after 1pm.


My lavenders breed true.. easy to deal with.

My side project I have been working on, is a Lavender Rooster with some very light colored gold leakage.
His hens are Porcelain.  Ones you have seen on another post.

[bergere]

Thank you Redfish. You are right, that tends to be the case.... but still painful. sigh ~~

[Bear Foot Farm]

Those are some pretty babies

I suspect the late hatching may be due to the small size of the incubator

There isn't a lot of mass there to maintain the heat, and you have to open it daily to turn the eggs, which may be causing temperature swings

[bergere]

Thank you Bear Foot.      Am sure you are right....    Think the mini incubators are going to be a bit of a challenge..  but I learned a lot this time around.

Here is the latest....

I don't think it is a Millie Fleur.... sigh ~~

[allenw]

The milies I have now come out like that a lot, i never seen that in the others I had.

[jamiecatheryn]

Apr 25, 2015 10:46:14 GMT @redfish said:

What I have read, and found to be true in my limited experience, is that if you have to help them, they generally don't make it long term anyway. Long term being over the next week.

Anyway, yay on the hatch! While a broody is much easier all the way around, it is so cool to see them actually hatching!

I had to help mine and the ones I did help all lived, my broody hen killed the chicks as they hatched so I took the remaining eggs in and put them under a light but humidity was too low for them had to peel shell away after they pipped. One we ate at 16w another is the roo of our flock the other is a great layer and big and healthy tho she is bottom of the pecking order.

[bergere]

That is wild Allen. I have hatched out hundreds of Millies,, never one like this. Have been told, it should be Millie..  but split to Silver Millie. If that is the case... would be way cool!

That is good to know Jamie. I went ahead and just peeled off shell around the latest one that wants to come out, want to give it more of a chance to hatch. Need more than one of them.
And it is the only one left actively trying to get out as far as I can see.

[bergere]

I had a hen like that last year, killed the chicks as they hatched. Sold her on,, I hope any way. Hard to tell with the speckled sussex. Nothing worse than a chick killer. Sorry you lost some too.

[allenw]

Apr 25, 2015 18:29:02 GMT bergere said:

That is wild Allen. I have hatched out hundreds of Millies,, never one like this. Have been told, it should be Millie..  but split to Silver Millie. If that is the case... would be way cool!

The Millies I have now are from eggs I bought two years ago of Ebay, this is the first year I've hatched any out from them. My guess with out counting is they are running 2/3 striped and about a 1/3 the usual millie color pattern. I have some 1/2 game 1/2 cochin-leghorn babies in with them just to confuse things.

Now I'm wondering what I might end up with, off to see what a Silver Millie looks like.

Found this set of pictures.

pspetcircle.blogspot.com/2012/01/silver-millie-fleur.html

[aoconnor]

Bergere, I googled Millie Fleur, and there are actually several chicks that are colored out like your little one that are indeed Millie Fleur chicks. They are beautiful little birds, I hadn't really heard much about them before. I have a lot of assorted Bantys, but not those. Might try to add a couple to my little flock and see what I can hatch.

[bergere]

Had to help another one, but this one looks like a normal Millie colored chick. Wonder if having them shipped is what is, at least partly, causing the issues?

That is really interesting Allen. Are your Millies that are chick-munk striped, feathering out as a more traditional colored mahogany shade, instead of how light and washed out some lines are getting now?


Connor, d'Uccles, most lines any way, tend to be very gentle and easy going.

[allenw]

If I remember they ran about half darker colored and half light. When it came time to pick roosters I picked a dark on and my boy picked a lighter colored one, so we'll have to see what happens this time.

I read some where searching for information on the silver color phase that a yellow or golden colored rooster could bring it to the top. The light colored rooster could fit that description. I was skimming and not feeling great so I may have miss read it.

I'll have about 3 dozen hatched out when this weeks batch hatches so I should have a decent sample to look at as they mature.

The eggs were supposed to be from a show line. I just have them for fun but need to look at them for some of the characteristics mentioned in your post on the wish list topic.