The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[pickitfarm]

I guess I should show my 4 off. They hatched on the 17th and the 18th. They grow fast! I want to keep the darkest one.



The one that is peeking around is from an OE egg.. looks like a boy, the buff is from a brown egg,
the other two are from some pretty med. colored blue eggs.

It always amazes me how fast they start getting feathers. That was just a week ago. The second one on the left is really a looker.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote:
Still not showing. Try PMing them to me & I'll check them later on my cell where there are no blocks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Happy Chooks, I am not holding out much hope for the wild turkey egg... When I candled it halfway through, there was development, but no movement. Sparkle hasn't kicked it out, though.

You gave it your best attempt.

I came home from work today, to my only smooth cochin hen missing. I had kept her because she had such a great character. She was my little butterball.

There were some feathers in a pile, but nothing else. And she was broody too. She would get off her nest just to greet me each night and then run right back to her nest.

I collected all her eggs and stuck them in the incubator, so hoping I got to them in time. 6 fertile eggs went in.

Looks like we are going hunting this weekend.

I'm so sorry. It's always the favorite too.

On a happy note though...

Although some are already spoken for, here are a few...

Mohawk RIR (keeping)


RIR/Lt. Brahma (keeping, but need a name...he is very pudgy)

RIR/Lt. Brahma

Delware Mix

d'Uccle

Delware Mix

You should definitely keep that 2nd one.

Singing Incubator From Hell Update

I contacted the seller, a company who sells many kinds of incubators to tell them about my issues with this incubator and my disappointment. I expected to have a back and forth conversation of some sort and end up leaving less than positive feedback. Without a word of reply though they sent a full refund..... so far no word even asking me to return it.

Interesting right? Maybe they know it is horrible?

Now what do I do with this thing? We try to be green and not trash things but who would I curse with this thing? I am not sure it could be made to work correctly even.

Good news on the refund. Maybe keep it to sing Happy Birthday to you every year as a remembrance of your first Hatch-a-long? And if you have a dying need to hear Clementine?

So I had set duck eggs the same day I set chicken eggs for this hatch a long, the duck eggs aren't due to hatch until late Fri night early Sat morn. Well I went to go turn eggs and candle and was going to move the duck eggs to the hatcher and well ALL the duck eggs are already pipped, THREE DAYS EARLY!!! Today is day 25 for them.

Im excited for these duckling because they are from my only duck who recently went missing this week. Now the drake is all alone.

Yay! Good luck!

So I ended up with 231 chicks and one muskovy duckling not a great hatch but not horrible. I started with 388 eggs

Only 231.

Congrats on the chicks!

i just spent the last 45 minutes with a dying baby chick. holding her and keeping her comfortable. I noticed something was wrong when she was layig down sleeping and didn't flinch or wake when the others pecked at her toes. I picked her up and she was limp. She died in my hands and threw up yellow foam before taking her last breath. So sad :-(

I'm sorry. It happens sometimes. At least she went on her own.

I'm going to try that with my wife, "I ended up with 231 chicks, not a great hatch rate", maybe she won't notice the number if I act a little disappointed.

Well I finally have a happy update!! I have one external pip 5 confirmed internal pips, 2 maybes, and 2 that seem to be a day or more behind. They haven't even really drawn down yet. One I still swear somehow has twins in it. We shall see.

Yay!

First day of hatching, 11 welsh harlequin & 13 mixed turkey in lockdown. 2 ducklings and 4 poults so far with many more pips. Looking forward to finding surprises in the morning

Our oldest son (4 yo) was so excited, this is how he fell asleep, that's a poult sleeping on his lap.
Our very first duckling, I can't believe how big they are! Already love her (think it's a female) she has been cleaning all the others as they enter the brooder

That is too cute.

Here is my "Creative shuffling..."
First hen who sat the Full time is in an old wire Rabbit hutch. Give her two chicks she hatched out. She seemed Happy to have them back. Clucked at them and called them under her as I made the move at 10pm.

2nd Broody who joined the nest only a week and a half ago got to stay free with only one chick.

I have a 3rd Buff Leghorn Broody that should be hatching out her 5 eggs in the next couple of days. I have a small wire dog crate that fit into her corner of the coop. She is now locked away from the others. The down side is that the wires are far enough apart that the chicks will be able to get out, but mom can't.

This will have to be Very Temporary....

They should be fine to interact in a week. The babies will know their own mother by then.

Oh dear....I'm on the west coast so a lot of you are probably sleeping. One of my terrible air cell call ducklings has pipped into the air cell. The problem is, his beak is high and in the middle. I doubt very much that he will ever make an external pip. Also, this is day 24 for this egg. A normal call duck incubation would be 26 days. None of the others look anywhere near ready to pip. A couple more actually quit today These eggs are really bumming me out. I am very good at assisted hatches and have surgical experience as well. I am assuming and prepared to help any of these eggs cause they are all going to need it if they will just live long enough!
I have never hatched call ducks and it's been about 20 years since I hatched any kind of duck! I really want to drill a small hole into the air cell so he doesn't suffocate. I don't think he should be ready to hatch until late tomorrow (Wednesday) to late Thursday.
Does anybody have some advice for the timing of this? I know Gardeningmama just went through the same thing... I doubt that I can go to bed without making sure he can breathe....
Thank you!
What a supportive bunch everyone has been for others having hatching woes!!

No idea, but I've heard Call ducks are very difficult to hatch.

Only 5 of the 40ish in lockdown, no new pips or talkers in the last 24 hours. Going to break lockdown to pull the temp/humidity logger and try and see what went wrong in detail. Horribly disappointing hatch, but will keep it up until day 25 in case there are later hatchers somehow. I am hating these styro incubators these last hatches - and they had done so well last year

I'm sorry your hatch wasn't the greatest.

So I waited a few days a one chick out of thirty two hatched. Absolutely my worst hatch ever.

I'm sorry.

Not sure who is keeping track of all of this but wanted to report my stats since we're finally done hatching:

I set 24 eggs (all shipped) in a Brinsea 20 Octagon. Our first hatch ever. 10 Olive Egger eggs and 14 Welsummer eggs.
Before lockdown we removed 7 eggs, then removed an 8th very quickly during the first day of lockdown when it seemed to be suspicious. (Tiny amber drop appeared on the surface.)
We hatched out 5 chicks: Hatched out 2 Olive Eggers (1 had to be assisted due to malposition, but had yolk sac completely absorbed by the time we intervened. It pipped in the middle of the egg and it's head was trapped so it could only cheep out of the one hole it had made. We left it for about 10 hours and when it continued to cheep but made no progress, we felt it was time to intervene. After a slightly longer recovery period, chick is fine.) Hatched out 3 Welsummers.

This was our first hatch ever. The first 4 chicks hatched out absolutely perfectly despite one of them pipping on the wrong end. The fifth chick really tested our abilities to observe and make good decisions based on the situation. We intervened three different times, offering only conservative measures each time to see if the chick were freed up enough to do any hatching on its own. After reading everything here, we were very reluctant to help, but after we realized the positioning, this chick would never have hatched if we hadn't helped out. Now we will just wait to see if it thrives or if we helped an inferior bird to hatch. Knowing that our eggs were shipped and that we had some very weird air sacs (it was extremely difficult to candle the olive eggs), we erred on the side of shipping issues rather than genetic ones. Only time will tell.

Thanks to everyone who contributed on this thread! We have learned so much! Good luck to all the new chick mommy and daddies out there!

Great job!

Lethargic day old quail chick. Help don't want to loose another?

Sugar water? I don't know, I've never had quail before.

Look what just came in the mail from pickitfarm! Thanks a ton.

Beautiful fabric! Warning, when you put them on the hen, they walk backwards for a day or so. Messes them up, but then they get used to them.

Putting my only egg in lock down tomorrow....................................................................................... MY ONLY EGG!!!!!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its father is a mottled cochin bantam and its mother is a mille fleur d'uccle.

Good luck.

Quote: Sweet! Congrats!

Baby four is out. It was super wet... Any ideas why? It's egg was covered in poo. I never had much hope for it but it's out and going nuts in the hatcher.

Humidity too high?

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Haha now that funny! I have one with no middle tour nail.

That's ok, both of your chicks can have one of my chick's toenails. She's got 2 extra.

 

[pickitfarm]

(sigh) thats what i thought. I am THE worst person at settling on prices. oh well I will try to figure this out a bit.

I got one and it was doing just what yours is, checked and even replaced the battery, put it in my mouth to test temp, put it int he incubator to test temp and nothing. I wrote to them and they sent me a new/functional one right away.

If this helps, DH just purchased three Blue Wheaton Ameraucana's last night from a local BYC member at $8 per chick. I think the price is typically driven by the desire of the breed.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote: I had 1 like the "reverse skunk" 2nd from the right. She is a cuckoo marans/ameracauna cross & lays HUGE chocolate eggs. Sometimes she adds a pink/purple bloom to them too. She's the blue barred hen with chocolate leakage. I think you got a couple of her eggs. Her babies should give you chocolate or olive eggs. We call her Fancy, because she's GORGEOUS!

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

That's ok, both of your chicks can have one of my chick's toenails. She's got 2 extra.

I remember setting this. What caused it? And OK. Then we will have 3 normal chicks between us.

 

[Scrambles55]

That's ok, both of your chicks can have one of my chick's toenails. She's got 2 extra.

 

[JDchicks]

AWESOME! I got the eggs in the bator in time. Not sure on all of them, but a couple had movement. (They were originally under a broody that disappeared).


Question: Can anyone recommend a site or advice on the best way to determine when they should go into lockdown. I normally try not to candle much? The broody was up and down on the nest, so there is a gap of time that I can't be sure of.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

I remember setting this. What caused it? And OK. Then we will have 3 normal chicks between us.

Beats me. She's a Polish/Silkie cross...so maybe with the Silkie in her, she tried to grow her 5th toe but some wires got crossed and instead grew a couple extra midget toes instead