Any Eggs in Incubators out there for the New Year?

[bantamhill]

I just put my first batch of three dozen eggs in the incubator tonight. A few bantams (buff, F1 lavender cross, wheaten, blue wheaten) and a few large fowl (buff, white, black) in an assortment of varieties. We are supposed to have a stretch of decent weather this week, so I hope for more eggs to set next weekend!

[Guest]

Holy cow!
  I haven\'t even got my flock separated into breeding pens yet.....You are so far ahead of me!  Michael, save me out some blues or black std eggs....I need some new blood.  Either or, doesn\'t matter.  I\'ll catch you in Sedalia.

[grisaboy]

I put some eggs in the incubator on Saturday.

Mostly Silver Bantams and Silver Bantam crosses.
Some white bantams
and a couple eggs from the Lavendar cross.

Curtis

[Paul]

  We set our first GQF with 166 black, blue & splash and 23 wheatens, blue wheaten and splash wheaten eggs on Jan. 2nd.  We are running several weeks behind due to the heat hanging around so long.  It was 104º Sept. 28, 2005.  We didn\'t get the breeding pens set-up until late Oct. into Nov. because it was too hot to have the birds penned.
  It\'s been in the 80\'s lately and the girls are starting to lay well so we should soon start setting full incubators which are 288 eggs.  We will set one every other Monday except moved to Tuesday for hatches on holidays.  Our last hatch is scheduled for May 15.  It usually starts getting to warm for the PO to accept lives the last of May.

[John]

I plan to set up the breeding pens this weekend and start hatching in March.   That is pushing it for this mid west climate.  The first two hatches will be mine then I\'ll hatch for up to 10 weeks to fill orders.  Last year I sold out.  When I\'m in full swing I\'ll have 3 GQF incubators, 1 Leahy incubator and 2 GQF hatchers running.  I can\'t hardly wait to see the electric bill!

[faith valley]

We are only hatching bantam wheaten and blue wheaten this year- our first hatch went into the brooder yesteday.  It is fun to have the chicks out already.

~Patty~

[Mike Gilbert]

I set about 120 eggs January 5th, mainly for the local 4-H project members.    I won\'t set any for myself until March.  Too bad, as they have been laying great.   Every single pen has produced eggs since mid December, and we had some miserable cold weather before Christmas.    It seemed to help when I changed from 40 to 100 watt bulbs in the coop.   I have three bulbs for a 30 foot by 16 foot building.

[Suz]

Hey,

Have any lavender chicks hatched yet?

Susie

[jwoodhaven]

We have had one hatch and another on the way due to hatch Feb 5 lots of bantams but Standard Black and blue are not fert. Hope will will have some fertility soon. We have about 200 fertile eggs due for the 5th and another 200 due 2 weeks later.

Jerry and Jake

[John]

Have any lavender chicks hatched yet?

I just put my fisrt hatch in the incubators this evening.  312 eggs total.  About a dozen are Vorwerk (they only come in bantams) and the rest were Ameraucanas (some would say some are Easter Eggers, but that\'s another topic).
I have two pens setup for lavenders.  The F1 breeders are all 1/2 black Ameraucana.  One has has a 1/2 d\'Anver cockerel (100% black w/no red/gold) over two 1/2 OE pullets (M. Muenks\' breeding).  The other pen has a 1/2 OE cockerel (w/a pea/single comb, M. Muenks\' breeding again) over 5 very nice 1/2 d\'Anver pullets.
In three weeks I should have some news to report.

[Mike Gilbert]

My one setting produced 84 live chicks.   All but 15 have been distributed to various 4-H families in the area - actually one family from Iowa and one from Minnesota drove here to pick up chicks since we do not ship them.    The 15 we kept include one large fowl brown red (John, the male is definitely fertile), 7 bantam wheaten & blue-wheaten, 4 bantam blues, 2 silver wyandotte bantams, and one rumpless bantam araucana.  We won\'t hatch again until late March.   It\'s kinda fun to have just a few to take care of instead of the hundreds we end up with in the Spring.   These will be pets.

Mike Gilbert

[John]

Have any lavender chicks hatched yet?

Well have they?  Inquiring minds want to know and I\'d like to see a photo.
I\'m still waiting for my first hatch.  It should happen on the 23rd.
I sat 408 more eggs today.  I hope some hatch!

[grisaboy]

The eggs that I have been setting so far are primarly for 4H so most of the breeding pens are for show bantams.  So far I have hatched several white Ameraucanas, a few silvers, a couple of blacks.  Also have a few modern game bantams and a couple of cochin bantams.
It is interesting hatching this time of year because it is not normal for chickens to be hatching in January or February.  Therefore they have to be artificially induced by lights to get them to lay.  I get a wide range of fertility from the different pens of birds.  I have one pen of blue frizzle cochins that have eggs hatching like popcorn. Right next to them is a pen of black cochins and every egg is clear.  Go figure.
The F1 Lavendar hen that I have is in a pen in a barn with no artificial lights but she has been laying eggs all winter.  I keep setting the eggs but none have hatched.  I suspect that the male bird isn\'t quite doing his job since fertility in the males is often linked to day length.   I don\'t intend to show these so I haven\'t been too worried about hatching them yet.  I will probably move them to the coop with lights in the next couple of weeks and see if I can get things going.
Later
Curtis

[bantamhill]

Have any lavender chicks hatched yet?

Well have they?  Inquiring minds want to know and I\'d like to see a photo.
I\'m still waiting for my first hatch.  It should happen on the 23rd.
I sat 408 more eggs today.  I hope some hatch!

The report from Missouri is all black chicks from the F1 generation so far. I have more eggs in the incubator and all three hens are now laying.

Michael

[John]

Have any lavender chicks hatched yet?

Yes!  I have several as of this morning.