Anyone Hatching Yet?

[Paul]

We started our first incubator on Jan. 26-two weeks later than planned.  There were not enough eggs to set one earlier.  Not running the lights on the breeder birds, slows their egg production until the daylight hours get longer.  A few more hens start laying each week, so soon, hopefully, we will be incubating at full capacity.  Chick orders have been coming in at record pace!  We are booking the April hatches now.  Last year all the wheaten chicks were booked by the time we were half way through the season.  We only managed to keep about 200 chicks last year while over 600 were sent abroad.  We are trying to do our part, to get as many, good show quality Ameraucanas, into as many fanciers hands as possible.  Several of last years chicks did very well at shows through out the U.S.

Share with everyone, what your hatches are doing.

Paul

[bryngyld]

Well, of course, I\'m hatching.  I\'m in California!  B)  I didn\'t really stop.  The girls slow waay down, but there\'s always some pullets that don\'t know how to read the calendar yet.

Last night I took out a bunch of LF chicks that have rusty heads with blue bodies and black bodies.  I\'m really excited because I have a couple of potential black gold breeders waiting for them!  These guys might be good ones!

The bantam hens are still doddling about laying.

[Mike Gilbert]

We still have temperatures that freeze the eggs until the shells break here.   I would like to clean the pens, but the manure is frozen solid.   We get enough eggs to eat, but I don\'t plan to set eggs until the weather lets up a bit.   We had a fairly decent week in December, so I set a few eggs then.
Have seven bantam chicks that were hatched about the 3rd of January, three wheatens and blue wheatens, and four brown reds.

[Jean]

Dreaming of it, but won\'t tempt fate.......

I do have some sebastopol eggs in the incubator though.  They started laying a bit earlier because of the lights in the coop.

Jean

[Guest]

I\'m going to give it a go within a few weeks..  

[jwoodhaven]

We have a heated barn so most of the birds are in full gear.   Large fowl are doing much better this year than in the past.  Whites and Buffs seem to be great layers. but blacks and blues always seem to be slow.   This year they are all doing quite well.   Bantam whites and wheatens are laying well with good fertility.  Black and blue bantams have not cooperated as of yet.  very few eggs and no fertility.  

As usual, the white leghorns and large polish have layed well and have great fertility.

Jerry and Jake

[John]

I\'ve got my first hatch planned for March 22nd and that hatch will be for me.  Then I\'ll hatch for 8 more weeks to try to fill the orders for day-old chicks.  For this climate late March thru late May works best.  The lights are on for 13 hours a day now and I\'ll keep adding an hour per week until it\'s at 15.  Some breeds/varieties are laying well and others are just starting.  I\'ve sold out of many varieties of Ameraucana chicks.  Some orders were placed months ago.    
The forecast is for a low of -8 tonight, but it should warm up for the weekend.
A \"heated barn\"...must be nice.

[Guest]

we have been hatching sporatically for the last two months.. just a few here and there.. we have a hatch working right now.. all whites so far!  hoping for blacks and blues this hatch.. we will see!

Our Araucanas are just laying eggs that are just not fertile.. last hatch only one started to develop.. died early.

We just got in a whole group of bantam araucanas.. working on a breeding program for bantam colombian color araucanas..
getting sixty+ birds in one day is no fun!!!

[Guest]

Well, I have a blue Ameraucana pullet, about 8 months old, who has decided to hatch for me...  

She is going broody, and I am sticking eggs under her from other birds.  B)

We shall see if she really settles down to hatch them... so far she has been on the nest a LOT, but will hop off for treats and to stretch her legs (long enough for others to jump on the nest and add their own eggs to it!)

But I have only stopped collecting the eggs (and adding others) from her nest today...

So when she thinks she has enough eggs under her, is that when she will stay on the nest 99% of the day?