# staggered hatches



## happy_girl71

well my hen started laying today so i decided to crack it open so i did and a little blood came out so my eggs are fertile i wanna know how to stagger hatch i do have 2 bators


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## Nm156

Blood doesn't indicate fertility that I'm aware of.


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## happy_girl71

oh well i have a roo with 3 chickens so....


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## robin416

No, I've never heard of that indicating fertility either. And if they just started laying and your rooster is young, I doubt highly the eggs are fertile.

Having two bators does make a staggered hatch easy but why would you want to do a staggered hatch if you don't have to? Having peeps spread out in age even in terms of days can get quite complicated when it comes to care.


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## happy_girl71

so heres the story my chickens laied but stopped so i switched their food the roo is older so today after being away for a few days i discovered an egg it was to old so we couldn't eat it so we cracked it open and it had a small developed part in it because tepetures here are in 100s so...I just want to know how to do it


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## seminole wind

Did you see veining on the inner membrane? Sometimes hens lose a tiny piece of meat or skin while the egg is made. There is a way to know if it's fertile. Somewhere on the yolk, there's a tiny white spot the size of a pin head. If it has a halo around it, it's fertile.


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## Fiere

The egg could've partially developed if your in temps of 100. 

I do staggered hatches all the time, running 2 or 3 incubators at once. As Robin said, if you don't need to do it, don't bother. I have chicks coming out of every spare corner and my head is awash with dates trying to keep everything organized. Some of my hatches run together so I'm rushing at 3am to get one batch of chicks out, the hatcher sanitized, and the next batch in. Then the brooders... I have 3 for different stages of development, all need to be bedded bi-daily and cleaned top to bottom weekly as I move chicks around. It's quite taxing, honestly.
Collect your eggs for a week or two, keep them in a cool place, then pick a day to set them. Much easier on the chicks and you


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## robin416

Mention the numbers you're doing, Fiere.

There's three hens in this flock so there would only be max, three eggs a day set. Add in that if only one hatches there is a single, very unhappy chick and the collecting for a week makes way more sense.


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## happy_girl71

i think i am going to do batches of spared hatches like collect then put in. my chickens have started laying so i only get 1 a day so should i collect for 1 or 2 weeks


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## Fiere

I'd collect for two weeks and then put them in, then cops kid a week, collect for another two weeks and put them in. That way you've always have some going in as some are going out but aren't over loading yourself with chicks. At the end of 2 weeks you'll have between 14 and 42 eggs. That's quite a lot when you think about it.

I hatch at least 2 dozen chickens and half a dozen turkeys a week, which isn't a ton but think of how many chicks I have at the end of each month. My first hatch this season was 76 birds. If I saved up my eggs and hatched once every 3 weeks, (1) I wouldn't have any room in the incubator to have chicks hatch and (2) I'd not be able to make the customer orders I have. At any given time there are 50-100 chicks here and let me tell you, it's tiring. Just the daily chores, but especially when something goes wrong. Then there's feeding all those spare cockerels...
If you don't need to hatch out dozens, don't lol! Once every 21 days is plenty and gives the birds a good amount of time to grow out before they're moved somewhere else for the next batch, because you can't just throw them all together.
Jeez, reading all that I wonder why I do it LOL. The hatchings the easy part, you don't even notice that happening, then all of a sudden your holding a box of newly fluffed chicks wondering where in the heck you're going to put them LOL


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## happy_girl71

well we just got done the auction so 2 goats 4 hens 1 roo and 35 quail eggs


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## robin416

Fiere said:


> I'd collect for two weeks and then put them in, then cops kid a week, collect for another two weeks and put them in. That way you've always have some going in as some are going out but aren't over loading yourself with chicks. At the end of 2 weeks you'll have between 14 and 42 eggs. That's quite a lot when you think about it.
> 
> I hatch at least 2 dozen chickens and half a dozen turkeys a week, which isn't a ton but think of how many chicks I have at the end of each month. My first hatch this season was 76 birds. If I saved up my eggs and hatched once every 3 weeks, (1) I wouldn't have any room in the incubator to have chicks hatch and (2) I'd not be able to make the customer orders I have. At any given time there are 50-100 chicks here and let me tell you, it's tiring. Just the daily chores, but especially when something goes wrong. Then there's feeding all those spare cockerels...
> If you don't need to hatch out dozens, don't lol! Once every 21 days is plenty and gives the birds a good amount of time to grow out before they're moved somewhere else for the next batch, because you can't just throw them all together.
> Jeez, reading all that I wonder why I do it LOL. The hatchings the easy part, you don't even notice that happening, then all of a sudden your holding a box of newly fluffed chicks wondering where in the heck you're going to put them LOL


And that is why I asked you to tell her how many. I hadn't thought about the whole thing but you putting it in black and white really lays it out.

I never ever hatched as many at one time as you do but I let the hens do most of it but it was still work to keep track of who was where, when they hatched, and all the rest that goes with it.


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## robin416

happy_girl71 said:


> well we just got done the auction so 2 goats 4 hens 1 roo and 35 quail eggs


Getting really serious about farm life, huh?


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## happy_girl71

meh...i guess...Totally


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## robin416

With the latest acquisitions I sure hope you are.


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## happy_girl71

hahahahahaha!!!


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## Fiere

35 quail are easy. At 6-8 weeks the males start killing one another so you have no choice but to downgrade FAST.

Watch putting the new birds with the old, make sure you quarantine. auctions are known to be cess pools for sick animals.


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## happy_girl71

what does downgrade mean


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## Fiere

Go from having a lot to a little. You will have no choice but to get rid of some.


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## happy_girl71

oh OK thanks!


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## Fiere

They're ruthless to one another, and go right for the eyes the demented things. You have to keep males separate and the hens enough room so they don't feel crowded.


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## hildar

I staggered some of our hatches, I have to say it really wasn't worth it. Having a small flock already then having to wait for the chicks to get old enough to go in with the older birds, who were the Queens, and then would attack the young ones, then about a month later adding in more, and then you had the older hens and the juveniles attacking the youngest ones. It isn't easy. I decided it was best to just do whole flocks at once, much easier doing that.

I always have had a spare coop just for the juveniles, that way the older birds could be outside the coop and watch the younger ones and get use to them. However having them get up close and personal with the older birds became the big issue. The older girls don't care for young competition. Also make sure you have a spot for all of the cockerels. I always had my culling yard, those boys were just raised until fully grown then culled.


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## Feathered

I'm currently hatching my first batch of chicks. My hens were laying 1-3 eggs per day. Didn't realize they could be kept for a few days, so mine went in the Hova bator over three days. Two hached at 20 days one at 21 and one is peeping out now! I'm so excited it was the only green egg in the batch. The other three are cute black and white chics out of bigs brown eggs. I wasn't sure which hens were laying. Out of seven eggs , four are hatched/hatching and hopefully the others will tomorrow . I've ready that people put in eggs every day and hatch an egg or two a day, constantly rotating. Seems like way to much work! 

Kept the temp 99.5-101 and humidity at 40-50 until day 19 added water to reach 65-70%
Good luck!


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