5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[bantambury]

Bantams.... silkies especially don't feather sex correctly. This is what I was told when I bought my cochin bantams.

ok...yeah the black one is a silkie cross...white one is a silkie, and yellow one is a jap bantam. lets hope im accurate? LOL

 

[bantambury]

If it isn't effecting her walking and getting food and water leave it be. I might straighten on its own and maybe not, as long as she can walk.

even if im wanting to show her?

 

[Myfourladies]

even if im wanting to show her?

Well I don't know anything about that since you have to travel like 2 hours just for a county that has a poultry show where I am from.... I have no idea how you could tape it and I would be afraid to make it effect her walking or something and make things worse.

 

[JDchicks]

She pipped last night. She has been like this most of the day. The liner was white but now it looks brownish or wet.

Is this right or should I do something?

She just hangs her beak out the whole, wiggles around but never actually shifts positions.

 

[chicken pickin]

She just hangs her beak out the whole, wiggles around but never actually shifts positions.

If the membrane is starting to turn brown I personally would help her. Be very careful when opening the shell, keep warm water on hand to moisten the membrane and separate slowly and carefully to be sure the blood is all absorbed. If it bleeds, kind of wrap her and the egg (not the entire egg) an a moist papertowel and put her back in the incubator for another hour or so and then recheck.

 

[Myfourladies]

She just hangs her beak out the whole, wiggles around but never actually shifts positions.

If I were you, I would try to help her, but that is just me. Read the assisting article, warm damp paper towels and a pair of tweezers help alot too when I was freeing Hawke.

 

[chicken pickin]

QUESTION for all you peeps who fix crooked toes....

I realized my baby silkie, I want to show if it has potential, has a curled toe.

PROBLEM: the toe is one of the toes that is on another toe f this makes sense....how do I tape this toe straight without hurting her?



HOW THE HECK DO YOU TAPE A TOE LIKE THIS? lol





bad toe....(sorry its the blurry one)the other toe opposite...good toe.


standing

walking

To me the toes look ok. I see the slight curl but I personally wouldn't tape it. That said I also don't show and I know you could possibly lose points so you might want to ask this on the silkie thread and see if you can get advice from someone who shows silkies.

I LOVE HER FURRY FEET

 

[chicken pickin]

I now have 5 Silkies out yay!!! 1 BMC and 2 OE.

I still have 1 pip from a Silkie

and still waiting on something from 12 eggs

*Sigh* night of day 22, I sure hope I get a few more pips tonight

 

[SilkieSensation]

I tend to soapbox as well. The myths, old wives' tales and misinformation are annoying. I've had cats a couple times in my life and I think they're amazing animals so I'm not completely in the anti-cat camp. On the flip side, as an invasive species, I don't think they belong outdoors for their safety and the safety of all the small native animals.
I REALLY don't understand people that dump cats they no longer want or those that feed feral cats.

 
The last of my mixed Faverolles eggs just hatched !! none of them had 5 toes but I did notice this one has feathered feet for sure.e still have 12 other misc. eggs to hatch out, most have pipped. There are 19 little fuzzbuts in the hatcher right now.

I wonder how dominant the 5 toe gene is. I know someone who raises Black Penedesencas and gets a lot of 5 toed birds (a real no-no). He is known for mixing breeds but I can't imagine what he could have crossed to get 5 toes on a big black bird.

 


for a while I have thought about building a coop for just my roos. how does that work for you? or, do you let them free range in day and lock up at night?

I don't want my hens to be mating 24/7 so I want to separate the roos to give them a break.

Well, they'll only be mating 14/7 or thereabouts but I understand your point. Keeping them separate and offering occasional conjugal visits works well to keep them from overbreeding.  Also, adding more hens helps.
As far as cooping the roosters/cockerels together, it is highly dependent on the breed. With some breeds, there is no way to house roosters together. I've had mixed success with mixed flocks. As long as there are no pullets/hens in the same building/pen it can work OK. Most of my birds know each other as I move them around occasionally and sometimes free range them together. I also have only one breed of roosters now so they are on a more even plane as far as aggressiveness.
I pull all the hens out of the building and move the roosters in at night and put them on various roosts. I let them out early in the morning. There's some chest bumping and pecking the first couple days but is more pecking order than anything. Pecking order among roosters is just a little more tense than with hens.

 
Ok thanks!
So lets say my breeder has 3 hens and 1 roo. say my jap, Cadbury, was made by hen #1 and the roo. lets say a chick I JUST hatched was made by hen #3 and the roo.
Could Cadbury and the chick that just hatched breed once older (and not have defects) if they had the same dad but different mom?

sooooo old. ROFL

That would be half sibling so can be OK. When doing line breeding and inbreeding it is very important to select birds with as few flaws as possible.

As for your crossbeak issue, it is often genetic so you may not want to use that one and be careful about using the hen it came from.

So I'm out of the running for best hatch (I gave a friend 3 babies yesterday) but my hatch rate is almost twice what it usually is! So I guess from now on I will hatch up right in cartons and hand turn. Woop!

 
[COLOR=800080]I'm sad to say the baby chick I was hoping for died in the night. But, I feel wonderful at giving it a chance that it otherwise wouldn't have had. I like to learn something from each hatch, and doing what I did last night was something that had scared me far too much to even try in the past. I know I came out of this hatch with more knowledge than I had in previous hatches, and that should be each one of our goals. Learning from our mistakes, trying new things, and perfecting this thing called hatching. In years to come with much diligence, some of us may be the ones giving expert advice in the ranks of Ron, Chicken Canoe, or Sally Sunshine....One can only hope![/COLOR]

It is nice to hear that the hatch went well!

 
I tend to soapbox as well. The myths, old wives' tales and misinformation are annoying. I've had cats a couple times in my life and I think they're amazing animals so I'm not completely in the anti-cat camp. On the flip side, as an invasive species, I don't think they belong outdoors for their safety and the safety of all the small native animals.
I REALLY don't understand people that dump cats they no longer want or those that feed feral cats.


I wonder how dominant the 5 toe gene is. I know someone who raises Black Penedesencas and gets a lot of 5 toed birds (a real no-no). He is known for mixing breeds but I can't imagine what he could have crossed to get 5 toes on a big black bird.
Well, they'll only be mating 14/7 or thereabouts but I understand your point. Keeping them separate and offering occasional conjugal visits works well to keep them from overbreeding.  Also, adding more hens helps.
As far as cooping the roosters/cockerels together, it is highly dependent on the breed. With some breeds, there is no way to house roosters together. I've had mixed success with mixed flocks. As long as there are no pullets/hens in the same building/pen it can work OK. Most of my birds know each other as I move them around occasionally and sometimes free range them together. I also have only one breed of roosters now so they are on a more even plane as far as aggressiveness.
I pull all the hens out of the building and move the roosters in at night and put them on various roosts. I let them out early in the morning. There's some chest bumping and pecking the first couple days but is more pecking order than anything. Pecking order among roosters is just a little more tense than with hens.

The five toe gene is dominant.

The post about cats stealing breath was tongue in cheek so not serious. Thanks for the reminder that it is not true though.

I love Polish! Are a couple of those chicks Tolbunt? I need to ad that color eventually! 

Yes two are tolbunt polish. Only one has the prominent "Mohawk". Not sure why the other one doesn't? Thought maybe as it dried the Mohawk would show up but hasn't? Maybe as she gets older? These are my first polish so if anyone has an explanation for the missing Mohawk please tell.

I had a splash polish that started out with no crest like your baby. She now has the nicest crest in my flock, so ya never know!

Stupid phone won't let me edit right...grrr

My cats are actually supposed to be barn cats charged with the duty of keeping critters out of my feed & coops. They do a very good job at this during the day. However, they are a bit spoiled and at least 2-3 of the 4 end up in our beds at night when the weather is nasty like it is now. There's nothing like having a blanket of kitties covering your legs on a cold winter night. The trick arises when you need to roll over...lol.
MY spoiled kitty sleeps on my pillow & purs in my ear. As soon as the sun comes up she & her 3 brothers are back outside protecting my feed & flocks & earning their keep.

 

[faerieannette]

internal pip! I hear peeping!