Colorado

[FrogEggs]

So cute!!!

Congrats on the new babies!

 

[VtotheAL]

A pip is the first hole that they make. They will usually rest after the pip and eventually start unzipping. When they unzip they start at the pip hole and start pecking away shell working counterclockwise. Once unzipped they might rest for awhile or they might immediately start pushing up on the shell. Eventually they will lift the big end off and free their head and make their way out of the shell. The "clean lines" refers to the unzipping. I've seen some that are nice and neat all the way around and some that just hack away until they can break free. As for the lines on the eggs, those are the progression of the air sacs. On day zero you can weigh and trace the air sac on the big end. On days 7, 14, and 18 you can retrace the outline of the air sacs and watch them grow. This will help you adjust the humidity throughout the incubation period. Too much humidity and the air sacs will not get big enough for hatching and the chick will drown. Not enough humidity and the air sacs will get too large and compress the chick into such a tight space that it does not have the space to move around and hatch.

Very nice answer!   And VtotheAL , don't be sorry.  Asking questions is how you learn Chicken Math and then we have more local breeds and chickens to choose from!  It's all just a greedy twisted plot for our devious plan of getting more and better chickens. 

Thank you both! Scott, u are the chicken master!

 

[Pennoppom]

Tell

Bring your extras down to ChickenFest. Someone may take them home!

Tell me more!! Who/what/when/where is ChickenFest? Sounds like my kinda place

 

[wsmith]

Tell
Tell me more!! Who/what/when/where is ChickenFest? Sounds like my kinda place

Click on the link in my signature line. It tells you all about it!

 

[ScottLovelandCO]

Thank you both! Scott, u are the chicken master!

Haha.... hardly a chicken master...but thanks for the compliment. This was actually my first time ever incubating eggs! Shh.... don't tell anyone. I remember doing eggs in school but I definitely wasn't involved like I was in this batch. I think we got to turn the eggs or something and then watch them hatch. I honestly learned everything by asking questions and reading. There is a ton of great information on this site.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

FrogEggs- numbers are in your favor here (more chicks should make it harder for the hens to single a specific one out for abuse) but I would wait until at least 8 weeks of age for intros. Do an 'other side of the fence' intro to start with for a week or so then mix everyone with loads of goodies around to distract the older ladies. A head of cabbage, sunflower seeds, stuff like that. Your older girls are going to be overwhelmed I think, but better safe than sorry. And be sure there are plenty of escape routes for the young ones in case a hen does go for them. I am trying to keep up with the thread but forgive me please if I miss things. Update on me; 1 2-year-old, 2 parents here to help, 1 DH that STILL panics at the word 'contractions' (he actually cleaned out the car in under 10 min because of this; a record), 3 cats and 2 brooders of chicks are making my life very full. I went to L&D on Saturday night JIC but the contractions didn't get strong enough to do anything, never mind they were 3-4 minutes apart for three hours and started around 7am. Ahh, an DS is up. Off to make oatmeal!

 

[annav410]

Congrats! How very exciting.

 

[kaylaC6500]

Chicks went outside in their coop for the first time and are no longer in the house. I must say that I miss their chirping,. It is so quiet without them around that I told DH that I am almost ready to bring them back in. I didn't ever realize how wonderful a sound they make. I just assumed that they began clucking right away.

I am doing everything that I learned about on this site when it comes to the coop. I will keep the chicks in the coop for a couple of days without access to the run yet so they learn that the coop is home. I also sectioned off the nesting boxes so they don't go in there to sleep. I do have the heat lamp in there however because we are expecting another storm come Wednesday but I took extra precautions and put chicken wire around it and a C clamp.

I think my next thing is to look for a Nanny Cam to put inside the coop so that I can watch them from the TV when I want.

 

[ScottLovelandCO]

This batch was a test run of the homemade coolerbator before my shipped eggs arrive. I just used 24 eggs from a barnyard mix. Of the original 24, 18 made it to lock down. I have 12 hatched out right now and the last 6 still in the incubator. I'm not sure about the last 6. They showed really good signs all through the process but they have yet to even pip. Then again, that row was the farthest from the light and this morning at 6am MDT was the start of the 21st day. So there is still time! This barnyard mix produced some interesting chicks. I'll be curious to see how they grow up. There are three Buff Cochins crossed with the Ameraucana Roo, a Turken X Ameraucana, four Australorp X Ameraucana, and four that I believe are just EE X Ameraucana. I am just guessing on all of those. The only one that I am 100% on is the Turken!

Once the incubator is empty, I have a batch of shipped "blue breeds" coming from MyPetChicken. They will include 12 eggs of at least 4 different breeds. The possibilities are Blue Andalusian, Blue Orpington, Blue Splash Marans, Blue Copper Marans, Blue Hamburg, Lavender Orpington (self blue), Blue Ameraucana, and Blue Laced Red Wyandotte. To accompany those 12 eggs, I have a dozen of eggs from a farm just south of me. The eggs will come from a pen of full blood Black Coppers, and 2 Olive Egger hens. Another pen with a Blue Copper Rooster and Blue Copper hen, and 2 Americauna hens, and another pen with 2 Americauna hens, a Black Copper hen that lays a very dark speckled egg, and a Black Copper Rooster, and an Olive Egger Rooster. So these should produce some pretty amazing little chicks too. We're super excited for this next run!

 

[Chook Chick]

Hi all...

Been trying to get my coop finished....anyway, does anyone have any knowledge about wing injuries or can you recommend somewhere I can look? My blue andalusion had a nasty fall which stunned her at first. She landed on her left wing and back. At first I thought she had broken her back or neck, as she flopped over onto her back with legs in the air and just laid there....I immediately picked her up and at first she seemed ok.
Yesterday I had the girls outside with me and now I noticed that her left wing is droopy all the time. Not sure if it's the entire wing or just the feathers but it sure hangs low. Also, when free ranging she has a tendency to stay rather hidden. She will roam with the others girls but just isn't herself. She's not flapping around and running like she was before the accident. I watched her yesterday and that's what I observed. She is still eating and drinking, just has that droopy wing. She been vaccinated for Marek's disease.
The other girls are still accepting of her too.

Do you think she just sprained it?

Thanks in advance for any help!