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

[Kalalyn21]

Well I lost one of my two hatched chicks so I was introducing her to her new friend for now. My puppy Dierks just wanted to lick the chick

 

[chickengirl1193]

thanks for my first set of chicks im pretty pleased!! my other chicks were POL pullets so i didnt get to enjoy the chick stage.

 

[faerieannette]

Okay need some help and advice.

I set my eggs on the 13th. I got them from a friend two were in her fridge for an unknown amount of time and two were just in there for a couple hours in the mornign after he mom collected them.

i culled one around day 10 that was clear.

another one didn't seem to be delvloping the same as the other ones and later needed to be culled at lockdown.

At day 16 I had two eggs with nice healthy looking veins.

At least 20 hours ago i had an internal pip from the one(thats when i noticed a peeping)
the other one looked kinda odd when i candled it and isn't doing anything

their air cells are on the larger side.


Should I make an external pip for the peeper or sit on my hands?



thanks!

xoxox

-Annette

 

[chickengirl1193]

Well I lost one of my two hatched chicks so I was introducing her to her new friend for now. My puppy Dierks just wanted to lick the chick

thats like my puppy !

Im sorry for your loss tho :/

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Greetings all, goodness everyone has been so busy! Me too, just not here

I put another 28 eggs into the hatcher last night, two were pipped and peeping at each other (and me), one of them was mainly done hatching this morning, just has to push out of the bottom shell, and there was another pipped, the other that was pipped last night had made progress when I left for work. 26 of these were picked up from a local keeper who has a flock for egg production, and they were big eggs. Production Reds, a White Legorn, and maybe an EE, there is a pale green egg.

I had another hen go broody this past week, and when I candled all the paper-towel-wrapped Dom eggs the broodies had they were duds, so I gave all the broodies some new shipped eggs (CL, Orpington, and Silkie) to see if they can get them hatched - they usually do much better than an incubator, so here's hoping. My main concern is one of the hens does have 3 that should hatch tomorrow, and I am not sure how that will affect incubation of the new eggs, she is right next to another hen brooding, and when one gets up to eat the other tries to take eggs, then goes and sits on the other ones, tries to spread across both nests, and I believe the three will hatch alongside some newer ones, so I'll be keeping a sharp eye all weekend. I have to say that Silkie Mamas are the bomb, I just adore their fuzzy little selves

DH was stoking one's back last week after I gave her new eggs, and she purred at him - he just melted.

I picked up 3 dozen eggs locally yesterday to set tomorrow (12 CL and 24 Barnyard Mix), and also received 21 Midget White Turkey eggs (yay!) in the mail to set. I'll have to start them in a tabletop then transfer to the new cabinet once it arrives.

ChickenCanoe I am so happy to see your eggs have started hatching - and well, from the sounds of it! For those who have successfully assisted hatches, I hope your chicks do well. I understand the desire to have them all hatch, but like ChickenCanoe, unless I think it's something I did that caused a problem hatching, I don't help. That is purely my choice, made after reflection on what I want my flock to be, as well as losing some I assisted as they showed problems within hours or days. It's a lot harder to euthanize a chick, especially after I helped it hatch. I don't toss them if they're still moving, but I don't intervene anymore.

Thank you. There are 27 in the brooders now. Several more on the way.

I also don't vaccinate or use medicated feed as a matter of course. I'm breeding for resistance. I have given Corid in the past when a flock's coccidia got out of control. Usually with dry bedding they get just enough of a dose to become resistant.
I'm trying to limit my mistakes so I don't have to do the time consuming and arduous work of coddling birds. If breeding one's own birds, coddling creates wimps.
I want them to be as independent as possible.

 

[faerieannette]

Okay need some help and advice.

I set my eggs on the 13th. I got them from a friend two were in her fridge for an unknown amount of time and two were just in there for a couple hours in the mornign after he mom collected them.

i culled one around day 10 that was clear.

another one didn't seem to be delvloping the same as the other ones and later needed to be culled at lockdown.

At day 16 I had two eggs with nice healthy looking veins.

At least 20 hours ago i had an internal pip from the one(thats when i noticed a peeping)
the other one looked kinda odd when i candled it and isn't doing anything

their air cells are on the larger side.


Should I make an external pip for the peeper or sit on my hands?



thanks!

xoxox

-Annette

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Okay need some help and advice.

I set my eggs on the 13th. I got them from a friend two were in her fridge for an unknown amount of time and two were just in there for a couple hours in the mornign after he mom collected them.

i culled one around day 10 that was clear.

another one didn't seem to be delvloping the same as the other ones and later needed to be culled at lockdown.

At day 16 I had two eggs with nice healthy looking veins.

At least 20 hours ago i had an internal pip from the one(thats when i noticed a peeping)
the other one looked kinda odd when i candled it and isn't doing anything

their air cells are on the larger side.


Should I make an external pip for the peeper or sit on my hands?



thanks!

xoxox

-Annette

If it were me, I'd sit on my hands. There doesn't sound like any issues with the one with the internal pip yet.

 

[ronott1]

Okay need some help and advice.

I set my eggs on the 13th. I got them from a friend two were in her fridge for an unknown amount of time and two were just in there for a couple hours in the mornign after he mom collected them.

i culled one around day 10 that was clear.

another one didn't seem to be delvloping the same as the other ones and later needed to be culled at lockdown.

At day 16 I had two eggs with nice healthy looking veins.

At least 20 hours ago i had an internal pip from the one(thats when i noticed a peeping)
the other one looked kinda odd when i candled it and isn't doing anything

their air cells are on the larger side.


Should I make an external pip for the peeper or sit on my hands?



thanks!

xoxox

-Annette

What time did you set them? If it was after noon on the 13th than this is day 21. You should let them go another day or two and see what they do.

Good luck!

 

[faerieannette]

What time did you set them? If it was after noon on the 13th than this is day 21. You should let them go another day or two and see what they do.

Good luck!

yeah it was around noonish. thanks guys! i will chill out.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

For those of you with experience with feather sexing...I have a couple of questions.

I'm not sure if I can feather sex my chicks. I did my commercial black pullets, and they all turned out to be, well...pullets! The chicks I hatched are fathered by a Barred Rock, and the moms are either barred rock or Commercial Blacks (hatchery barred rock crossed with who knows what...hatchery said it could be one of many different breeds). So I just don't know if I CAN feather sex them. I guess that's my first question

I have read lots of articles on feather sexing today, just because I wanted to make sure I do it right. I know that if the two sets of feathers are the same size, it's a boy. If one row is longer than the second row, it's a girl. BUT...I also read that if its slow to feather, it's a boy, regardless of the size of the two rows? I'm so confused!

I tried my 5 chicks (the sixth is still in the incubator, recovering from her assisted hatch), and this is where I'm confused...and this is IF I can feather sex these guys.

Yesterday, I could tell that chicks 1 and 2 (numbers signifying which order they were born) were almost certainly boys, and chick 4 was definitely a girl (3 and 5 I couldn't see nothin' but down on the wings)...but with 1 and 2, I had to really look hard because their wing feathers were not as long as chick 4. Today when I did it, it looks like 1 and 2 are girls! (4 definitely still is). Chick 3 is following the same pattern as 1 and 2...wing feathers are short and hard to see through the down, but it looks like two different sized rows. Chick 5 is way too young to tell...can't even SEE wing feathers. So I dunno if chicks 1,2, and 4 are boys are girls...the size of the feathers tell me one thing, but the speed of the growth tell me another!

Also, when I got the commercial black chicks, I was told they were a day old. I feather sexed them at the store, and took pics of the feathers when I got home, that same day. Those wing feathers were a LOT longer than my hatched chicks...and chicks 1 & 2 were born the 1st, chick 3 born right after midnight that same day (well, you know...the 2nd), which makes all 3 chicks over 1 1/2 days old.

Here is one of the CB's at 1 day old (feather shot):



Ugh, this is so frustrating! To top it off, my camera is being a butt, and only takes pictures in "flower" mode, which means no daggone flash. I tried to take pics of the wings, but with one hand holding a wiggling chick, and another with the camera, they suck lol. I'll post them anyway, so you can see what I mean.

Chick 1:


Chick 2:


Chick 3:


Chick 4:


So yeah, help??? LOL