Recent content by impr3

Just FYI, it didn't make it :(. I finally decided to assist last night (end of day 25) and followed the assist instructions to open up the aircell end of the shell. No movement from the chick. No visible vessels in the membrane. Confirmed deceased chick after pealing away the membrane. No...

Currently candling every evening to check for progress and still no internal pip as of this evening (end of day 23, start of day 24). I'm getting really anxious and trying to sit on my hands but really wanting to assist so I'd at least be doing something! :fl

Only 1/18 shipped eggs made it to lockdown. Now we're at the end of day 22/start of day 23 and still no internal pip... I don't see movement, but it definitely grew between day 18 and now so hopefully still alive. When would you consider opening the aircell end of it still hasn't internally...

Well, I candled again on day 18 when I locked them down and was pretty sure only 1 was still going at that point with another vaguely possible. Because I'm an optimistic sucker I left all 7 of the remaining eggs even though I'm pretty sure some are definite quitters (I know it's an explosion...

Candled for the first time yesterday on Day 13 (I've been on call at the hospital so didn't have a chance to do so sooner). 11/18 are not developing, either clears or only early development with a blood ring. 5 of the remaining 7 look great, the other two are questionable but definitely have...

We set 18 eggs from Meyer Hatchery last night: 4 Black Sumatran 3 Blue Andalusian 2 Buckeye 2 Black Australorp 2 Black Copper Maran 2 Light Brown Leghorn 2 Rhode Island Red 1 Barred Rock We're using the same DIY incubator that gave us a 100% hatch rate on our last batch a few years ago. It's an...

I strongly recommend against mating a frizzle to a frizzle. The description below is borrowed from the Meyer Hatchery website so I don't have to type out a full explanation myself :) . The gene responsible for frizzling is dominant, meaning that it “covers up” the normal feathering gene. A...

Great. A hatch buddy!

Another hatcher here. Placed an order from Meyer Hatchery last week. The eggs will be shipped April 11 so I'm guessing I'll set them around April 14-16 depending on arrival date with a hatch date around May 5-7. In addition to 18 chicken hatching eggs from Meyers, I'm also hoping to get 12...

Thank you for sharing your experience! 3KillerBs also mentioned using a weir so I'd been thinking about that. I'm inclined to build without for now and then add later as needed to slow the flow of litter, similar to what you're doing now.

You'd mentioned wishing you had an uphill hatch in another thread so hatches on both ends went into the design as soon as we started thinking about building on a slope. If we settle on the spot we're currently considering, we'll probably need a little grading anyway to decrease the steepness a...

@3KillerBs Neuchickenstein coop has been a great source of ideas for us. I noticed in another thread that she mentioned having to rake bedding up the hill on occasion so I'm thinking less steep than she has. Just from looking at her photos, seems like about 1:10 (rise:run) but hopefully she'll...

I've noticed several folks on this forum mentioning deliberately building their coops on a slope to make a low-labor flow-through deep litter system (ie. add litter at the top of the hill, harvest from the bottom, let the chickens turn it to move everything down the hill). Sadly, my searching...

True enough, though for now we're aiming to start with a small flock and big coop to leave room for the addition component of chicken math :). If this hatch has a low success rate or a ton of roos who need packed off to freezer camp, there's still plenty of opportunity to top up our numbers next...

You clearly paid more attention to the shipping details than me. Though part of me wishes I'd ordered the extra 6 chicks to fill out two dozen, the rest of me knows that would be too many chicks for us this hatch, particularly since we're hoping to hatch a dozen ducks as well.