3rd Annual New Year's Day Hatch!!

[featherz]

Trying to decide on this poor chick. Anyone see anything I HAVE to cull for? He's now eating and walking quite well and doesn't seem to have a cross beak so I don't see any reason to put him down.. He's got a deformed head, with one side bigger than the other, and he appears to be missing an eye on one side. It's possible the eye is actually there, or at least the muscles are, but his eyelids right now are very fused. He was splaylegged but he's walking with the vet tape now. To make the decision more difficult, he's almost certainly a boy (barred rock, big head spot).

His comb is squashed over to one side as well.

Just curious if anyone sees anything that's for sure going to cause problems - have had a one eyed chicken before and he got around just fine. but the head is also rather odd on this poor chick. Still, eating, drinking, walking around? that's gotta count for something.

- hard to tell, but the side with the eye is much bigger than the other side.

My other special needs chick is now almost normal, except scrawny.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

My rules, and they're entirely arbitrary but make sense to me:
1. Does the chick/chicken/whatever seem to want to go on? (this one is eating/drinking/pooping - so I say yes).
2. Is the bird in any type of pain?
3. What do I think the prognosis is? Will they have a good life until death/necessary culling?



Only then will you know what to do, I think.

 

[featherz]

Quote:
Sounds like good rules.

I don't do 'house' chickens, so he'd have to be able to play well with others, but right now he's acting like a normal chick, just messed up.

No loud 'it hurts' peeping, etc. I guess I'll wait and see. Hopefully will become apparent if he'll do OK before he gets too big.

 

[Beautiful_Chickens]

Quote:
I have a few questions that this discussion and the incubation hint sheet bring up...First, what difference would it make for doing dry incubation for someone living in Phoenix Az versus the Olympic penninsula or maybe somewhere like Ohio in the summer where I hear it is very humid? Just wondering if people in very dry environments have used dry incubation, or just humid areas.

Also, the directions on one of my incubators (can't recall which) says that for the last 3 days you can turn the temp down 2 or 3 degrees but that it is not necessary. ChookChicks, your cheat sheet part about using egg cartons after removing the turner makes me wonder if my instructions are correct on this. I don't think I ever saw anything anywhere else about turning the heat down the last 3 days, so I'm wondering what all you experienced hatchers think about the heat the last 3 days.

Also, I often see people say to set the temp at 99.5 degrees, period. But for a still air incubator, I thought the temp was suppposed to be a full 2 degrees higher, and that the 99.5 is just for ones with forced air. Maybe it depends on where the thermometers are placed, and if placed right, you can use 99.5 for still air?

I need to go back and read through the old threads on incubation. Ha, that will give me something to do now that the NY hatch is about over, sob. I have gotten quite accustomed to having this fun thread to come read during the cold winter!!!

I was looking at the spreadsheet of hatch percentage results, and I'm surprised that so many of us had about a 50% hatch rate, and many of us had way way less. Only a very few people had hatches over about 80%, it looks like. I'm surprised and expected most to get about 75%, and just a few of us to get none to very few, which would bring the average down. It's true that lots of us were using shipped eggs, so some of those would have been shaken up or xrayed or frozen, so possibly that's why rates were low. I'm pretty sure somewhere there's a link to where to see total participants, hatch rate, etc for a year or 2 ago, so now I'd like to see that info again. I'm curious whether our results this year are right in line w/ other years. It certainly seemed like a LOT of people had horrid luck like spikes in temp, and an appalling number of people seemed to find their incubators unplugged by other people, grrrrrr!!!, especially maddening because preventable, in theory!

Well, I'd best sign off or everybody will be exhausted just reading my one post, HA!!!

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
Pretty much the same rules I use.

 

[runsw/scissors]

His head is deformed most likely because he is missing that eyeball as well as some of the muscles that work the head, that would account for the deformity in the skull. AS one who has worked in medicine I was surprised at how much our eyes shape our faces and skulls, I mean really astounded!

There isn't much reason to put him down if he is trying and doesn't seem to be in pain... Obviously he is a non breeder, but you already know that... Do you have space for non breeders?

Quote:

 

[LarryPQ]

Random Chick picture. This is a silkie I hatched for Pastrymama right before Christmas. Check out the chubbabubba on him!

 

[featherz]

Quote:
Nah, he won't be bred. I don't need a BR rooster, so honestly he'll probably be sent to another byc member's freezer camp eventually. But he'll have a nice life until then!

 

[BHep]

Quote:
I have a few questions that this discussion and the incubation hint sheet bring up...First, what difference would it make for doing dry incubation for someone living in Phoenix Az versus the Olympic penninsula or maybe somewhere like Ohio in the summer where I hear it is very humid? Just wondering if people in very dry environments have used dry incubation, or just humid areas.

Also, the directions on one of my incubators (can't recall which) says that for the last 3 days you can turn the temp down 2 or 3 degrees but that it is not necessary. ChookChicks, your cheat sheet part about using egg cartons after removing the turner makes me wonder if my instructions are correct on this. I don't think I ever saw anything anywhere else about turning the heat down the last 3 days, so I'm wondering what all you experienced hatchers think about the heat the last 3 days.

Also, I often see people say to set the temp at 99.5 degrees, period. But for a still air incubator, I thought the temp was suppposed to be a full 2 degrees higher, and that the 99.5 is just for ones with forced air. Maybe it depends on where the thermometers are placed, and if placed right, you can use 99.5 for still air?

I need to go back and read through the old threads on incubation. Ha, that will give me something to do now that the NY hatch is about over, sob. I have gotten quite accustomed to having this fun thread to come read during the cold winter!!!

I was looking at the spreadsheet of hatch percentage results, and I'm surprised that so many of us had about a 50% hatch rate, and many of us had way way less. Only a very few people had hatches over about 80%, it looks like. I'm surprised and expected most to get about 75%, and just a few of us to get none to very few, which would bring the average down. It's true that lots of us were using shipped eggs, so some of those would have been shaken up or xrayed or frozen, so possibly that's why rates were low. I'm pretty sure somewhere there's a link to where to see total participants, hatch rate, etc for a year or 2 ago, so now I'd like to see that info again. I'm curious whether our results this year are right in line w/ other years. It certainly seemed like a LOT of people had horrid luck like spikes in temp, and an appalling number of people seemed to find their incubators unplugged by other people, grrrrrr!!!, especially maddening because preventable, in theory!

Well, I'd best sign off or everybody will be exhausted just reading my one post, HA!!!

Shipped eggs this time of the year are iffy at best. Packages are sometimes not handled the best or the temps are too cold. I set 79 eggs, 14 of my own & the rest shipped. 52 (9 of my own eggs) made it to lock down and 42 hatched. I think that is pretty darn good. I use the dry incubation method. I am NC, my humidity runs anywhere between 18%-30% naturally, fluctuating with natural. I get humidity up to 50% at lock down.

 

[schumanw]

Hey BHep, Thanks for the information, but what do you mean when you say read the sheet in your signature. I went to your BYC page and clicked on all links, but I could not find anything about incubation. I am still new to this humongous forum and am having trouble finding my way around.