September 2023 Hatch-A-Long

Chicks so far.
2 from Saturn my blue egg layer. One egg remaining which has pipped the wrong end and hit a vein? As it's a bit bloody
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4 from Bella, two boys, a girl and a unknown. One still in the incubator which is a boy
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6 Silkie chicks, 3 chicks still in the incubator, ones a star gazer and one has a big vaulted head (another has a smaller vault) plus one pipped egg **EDIT** also one egg that hasn't pipped
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Lockdown tomorrow. I expect hatching out on the 26th based on the last batch. I haven't been collecting eggs really, other things have been pulling me away so I may take a break from Quail and try hatching out some chicken eggs. I do love the look of the Cochins when mixed with other breeds.

BTW. What are you folks using to write on the eggs? Which leads to question 2. Have you ever tried putting eggs against one roller while the other side is the wall of the brooder? That's why I want to mark those just to see how they go. There's 28 eggs and I got 12/14 last time. I'm hoping for more piebalds/wilds but I know there's only so much one little hen can do.
 

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Well, the last 2 eggs never hatched so that means I ended up with 4/6. The 4 chicks are doing well, even the small one which seems to have perked up a bit today; hope I am not jinxing it. 🤞

They are barnyard mixes; the yellow one looks to be half Orpington and the small one is probably half bantam of some kind.

My MIL asked me to hatch them for her but now she says she wants me to keep them till they are off heat so I guess they are mine for a few weeks. I named the black one Inky, the big brown one Mocha, and the little brown one Chip.

The yellow one has no name, its feathers are coming in yellow and brown speckled. I feel like it’s probably male because it’s usually the one in front staring at me😅
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Well, I have some tentative updates:

My first batch of 21 only had 3 hatch thanks to a power outage day 18. I was gutted.

My monster hatch of 44 only had 20 make it to lockdown for various reasons (mostly infertile, but a fair few quitters around day 14). Today is day 21 with no pips to be seen yet. I'm honestly not too hopeful, although at least 10 of the eggs had good movement when I moved them to my hatcher. Maybe I'll get lucky....

I'll let you know in a few days how things turn out.
 
Well, I have some tentative updates:

My first batch of 21 only had 3 hatch thanks to a power outage day 18. I was gutted.

My monster hatch of 44 only had 20 make it to lockdown for various reasons (mostly infertile, but a fair few quitters around day 14). Today is day 21 with no pips to be seen yet. I'm honestly not too hopeful, although at least 10 of the eggs had good movement when I moved them to my hatcher. Maybe I'll get lucky....

I'll let you know in a few days how things turn out.
Honestly with the way power is around my place I should be looking for an incubator that can run off a car battery. I always fear the outages especially with chicken eggs when the investment is a lot longer than say quail. I have my eye on a brooder on gumtree for $390 that can run off a car battery. I do wish you luck on your hatch.
 
Hatch day has arrived. Curious as to how many will pop out by the end of the day. Got one so far and they are quite lonely in there. They are making quite the ruckus trying to wake up the other bubbas. At this stage I'll have an entire coop dedicated to Jakes A&M crew.
 

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