FEBRUARY Hatch-A-Long 2015:Please Read First Post To Join H-A-L

[rainbowchick]

Hope there are more pips and zips today. I hatched my final beilefelders last night. Both boys. Wish one more was a girl but that's ok. Also hatched my remaining buff orps. I have 2 cream legbars left that I'm just not sure will hatch. I was iffy on 1 at day 18, but I will leave then a little longer. I'm very pleased that so far 11 of my 14 hatched from my shipped eggs, especially since it's my first time incubating.

Good luck to the others!

Wow! 11 out of 14 is great!

 

[vonrow]

Well, our final results on this first-time hatch goes as follows:

We set 25 eggs and hatched out 13. 10 Silver Laced Wyandotte and 3 SLW-'cauna cross. It was the crossed birds we were excited about, especially since the last one was our favored Olive Egg. Oddly enough however, it looks like that olive egger is going to be a roo. If so, we might just keep him around because he could carry the lavender gene from his mom. Two of the slw-'cauna are very easy to spot from the rest of the chicks. They have a much lighter down color. The 3rd cross however is quite the little ninja. It looks just like the pure Wyandottes. Bird genetics fascinate me. I'm not an expert, and I prefer the surprise compared to a formulaic calculation of possible offspring genetics/appearances. The biggest joy in working with the birds is the story these pics tell. Makes it all worth it in the end.






Look for us in the upcoming March 2015 h.a.l. as we will be running 2 incubators & 2 more hatches during March

 

[LisaLouHoo]

I thought it was someone on this thread that was talking about feather-sexing new chicks. But I went back and couldn't find the info.

I don't know if I just got lucky last year when I feather-sexed 3 mixed breed baby chicks using the technique of looking at the wing tip between days 1 and 5 and if there are two uneven rows of feathers, it is a girl and if it is one even row, then a boy. I reached into a big pool of chicks and chose 3 cute ones that had the two uneven rows. Well, all 3 ended up pullets. So today I feather-sexed my 7 OE chicks that hatched on Wed. It appears that 4 are girls, 2 are boys and one is still an iffy. I'm anxious to see if it works again.

 

[cedarcovefarm]

I thought it was someone on this thread that was talking about feather-sexing new chicks. But I went back and couldn't find the info.

I don't know if I just got lucky last year when I feather-sexed 3 mixed breed baby chicks using the technique of looking at the wing tip between days 1 and 5 and if there are two uneven rows of feathers, it is a girl and if it is one even row, then a boy. I reached into a big pool of chicks and chose 3 cute ones that had the two uneven rows. Well, all 3 ended up pullets. So today I feather-sexed my 7 OE chicks that hatched on Wed. It appears that 4 are girls, 2 are boys and one is still an iffy. I'm anxious to see if it works again.

That's great! I'm gonna look at mine tomorrow. Some of mine are auto sexing so I'll know for sure if it works in them

 

[thegrovestead]

Thanks to all BYC members who helped me along with my first hatch! We had set 4 eggs and two were fertile. Both hatched successfully.

Full write-up here on our blog:
http://thegrovestead.com/baby-chicks-hatching/


Our homemade incubator.


I waited a REALLY long time for this! Egg #2 started hatching on Day 23.



Chick watches closely as sibling begins to hatch.

Here is the full video of the second egg hatch:

Great experience and we are having lots of fun getting to know our new little chicks!

Rory

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

No new arrivals over the course of the day, holding stable at 4. Candled the incubator egg to reveal a healthy beak in the air sac and much movement, so I should expect another any day now on my end. Momma is still happily sitting on 5. Hopefully there will be more tomorrow!

 

[oolyboolu]

Well an hour after my last post yesterday where I was whining that it was taking forever, I got me a pip! And today around noon I stopped in to take a look and was able to watch the whole hatch happen.. In less then 10 mins! It was so awesome! Still no action from the others tho :/

 

[bekkanblue]

Congrats! I was wondering how things were going with your hatch. Boy, little chicky looks tired!

for the rest of your hatch!

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Well an hour after my last post yesterday where I was whining that it was taking forever, I got me a pip! And today around noon I stopped in to take a look and was able to watch the whole hatch happen.. In less then 10 mins! It was so awesome! Still no action from the others tho

Congratulations!!!!!

 

[oolyboolu]

Congrats!  I was wondering how things were going with your hatch.  Boy, little chicky looks tired!    for the rest of your hatch!

He was pooped! Poor guy was panting like he just ran a marathon

I hope the others follow suit soon!