MARCH Hatch-A-Long 2015: Please Read the First Post to JOIN the H-A-L

[paris_r]

If it's really intestine, and not the waste sack that often comes out of the shell, then no, I don't think your chick has a chance. Infection would kill it if nothing else did first. Is it protruding at the vent? Does it look like pinkish-gray worms, or stringy white-gray-red?

no it is not from the vent it is from the 'naval', not stringy white/gray (with lots of useful urea to help the tissues shrink), it is definitely organs. i wondered if they might retract- dont know if mesentery is torn.

Clarification: 2 of three hens are pullets. Chances are 66% of the eggs are theirs. They have been laying for a month

ah, ok , so you are expecting your young girls to have lower fertility? i wonder if that is really due to the age of the hens (i have read papers that says older hens eggs keep fertile longer, but nothing on young ones fertility) or to the experience or status of the rooster. i have real low fertility in my d'uccle pens because of young roosters and older hens telling them where they can go. but in my silkie pen (where you would expect some fertility issues since i dont trim their vent areas) i have a 2 year old rooster and even his 8 month old pullets had excellent-near 90-95% fertility.

 

[scflock]

no it is not from the vent it is from the 'naval', not stringy white/gray (with lots of useful urea to help the tissues shrink), it is definitely organs. i wondered if they might retract- dont know if mesentery is torn.
ah, ok , so you are expecting your young girls to have lower fertility? i wonder if that is really due to the age of the hens (i have read papers that says older hens eggs keep fertile longer, but nothing on young ones fertility) or to the experience or status of the rooster. i have real low fertility in my d'uccle pens because of young roosters and older hens telling them where they can go. but in my silkie pen (where you would expect some fertility issues since i dont trim their vent areas) i have a 2 year old rooster and even his 8 month old pullets had excellent-near 90-95% fertility.

I wouldn't say I was expecting it to be low, but I was cautiously optimistic. My silkies have a very high hatch rate, but all of last year they were hatching 75% roosters, so I'm not even incubating them. With these longer days, two of them are already sitting anyway

 

[WalnutHill]

no it is not from the vent it is from the 'naval', not stringy white/gray (with lots of useful urea to help the tissues shrink), it is definitely organs. i wondered if they might retract- dont know if mesentery is torn.

In the case of a herniated navel, it's possible that they may retract and the navel may close. But the chance for infection is high and the chance of retraction and closure is low.

 

[blkjak]

So final tally. 34 eggs made it to lockdown. 20 silkie and 14 barnyard mix. 23 hatched, 1 died due to non absorbtion of yolk sack. 1 silkie is small with curled toes but seems healthy enough (last to hatch). 22 chicks: 18 silkies 4 mixes. Hatch started March 7 finished March 10.

 

[jctid]

"lockdown" is boring when they are under a broody. I can't see if they pip or anything.....

On a more cheerful note, 3 of my eggs are polish, and I have never had them before! I can't wait for their cute little puffball heads!

 

[scflock]

O

"lockdown" is boring when they are under a broody.  I can't see if they pip or anything.....

On a more cheerful note, 3 of my eggs are polish, and I have never had them before!  I can't wait for their cute little puffball heads!

Of all my breeds, those are my favorite chicks. A ton of personality

 

[bekkanblue]

Norwegian Jaerhons are due to hatch tomorrow, but in true them fashion, at least around here, there's one pipping already. Cool!! Only 4 eggs in the Mini this time so plenty of room for them to fluff up. Hopefully them!

 

[drott3]

Hatch days getting closer. Time to set the Bower up. Bower works good for hatching but I could never get it to keep a steady temp humidity for incubating. Bantams go in on the 19th and Mareans olive eggers on the 23rd. Cant Waite to see them.

 

[paris_r]

I wouldn't say I was expecting it to be low, but I was cautiously optimistic. My silkies have a very high hatch rate, but all of last year they were hatching 75% roosters, so I'm not even incubating them. With these longer days, two of them are already sitting anyway

well if you are hatching that many roosters - statistically it may be an anomaly, depends on how many you hatched out of how many eggs-and there is some data out there (but i havent looked into it fully) that a temp drop/spike at a specific time will result in a gender difference AT HATCH. note it wont change the gender of the eggs, just which ones survive to hatching. since this is a sort of holy grail for the industry and not much is spoken of it I suspect the claim is bunk. but since genetic gender is determined by which is the heterozygote, and in chickens that is the female...so it's your girls fault. if you could identify the hen(s) then you could exclude them from the breeding. i had thought recently that my one silkie hen (foundation hen for my flock) was producing more females than males, but when i did the numbers it was only out of 11 chicks i made the assumption and it was only one more female than male so ....if only the male was heterozygote then a centrifuge would work....

 

[Varglet]

I keep wanting to candle the eggs, even though I know they're doing fine. So nervous about hatching ducks for the first time.