4th Annual BYC NYD Hatch-a-long

[lesliedow]

I, too have been otherwise occupied today and have missed most of the posts. I did read FayeRaine's post. I am so sorry, that sounds grueling and very hard. 8(

I've still got two eggs in the 'bator. both candled with moving chicks night before last. One pipped some time last night and has been not doing a lot since then. I've decide to sit on my hands with this one. The last one that hatched stayed pipped for a really long time then zipped and hatched in moments. It was wild. I'm thinking that I'll give this guy til around midnight (its 6:30pm here) and if he's not doing anything peel a bit of shell off. He does seem to be breathing fine, not a lot of chirping tho. The little bit of membrane I can see is white and his little beak is moving around.

fingers crossed.
Leslie

 

[RavenWood]

Hoorah!
What cuties!
There are a number of crosses that make Olive Eggers. Mine are Welsummer x B/B/S Ameraucana. You pretty much cross a rooster with dark brown/chocolate genes with a blue/green egg laying chicken and the offspring will lay an olive colored egg. Probably the most common cross is BCM x Ameraucana. Hope this helps

Well, since I have an Ameraucana roo and just hatched 2 more Ameraucana X roos and a whole bunch of Maran chicks I think I can probably manage that next year!

Ok, so I put a brace thing on it's little legs.

Good job! Does it have crooked toes too, or is that just the pic?

Look how pretty this golden one with the brown stripe is.

Looks exactly like my Ameraucana chicks did years ago and like two of my Ameraucana Xs do now!

These are the pictures of the chick that was prematurely ripped from its egg. The other chicks jumped on the zipping egg.



The skin was papery, the liquid moved freely under the skin. I think the shell literally pulled the skin off the body, and it could not reattach. It was very uncomfortable looking, and as the chick moved around, it sloshed. I am glad this chicky is no longer suffering, I just wanted to know if anyone had ever experienced this before. I will not leave rambunctious chicks to run with zipping eggs again.

That is just bizarre.

UPDATE the past 24 hrs

Well I haven't been online in about 24 hrs b/c it has continued to be not such a happy hatch for me

I had the 2 of 3 I had to assist alive and acting great yesterday afternoon, w/ the surprize of new peeping from the pure Maran egg L

I'd only gotten 2 hrs sleep the night b/f so I thought it was safe to take a nap.

2 hrs later my special little Chick W was slumped over acting listless, I moved him closer under the heat from where he was laying on the wet washcloth
which was under the piped egg L (Brooder humidity was very high and this quick opening didn't change the reading).

I went to make some gator aid to as someone had warned me the assisted chicks might need it.
I can back to see the 2x larger half Maran Chick B pecking the life out of poor little W, I think he broke its neck before I could save him.

I was REALLY upset and regretted not seperating them, which I had considered due to the size diff. but they were both so lively I didn't think I needed to worry.

So then I spent a couple hrs on the floor resting my chin on the edge of the battor being sad & thinking maybe I don't want to try this again,
& watching Egg L start to unzip, which was going very slowly but I could tell L was moving freely to rotate so that was great. Then all of the sudden I head some tapping and an odd sound
while Egg L was resting, & of all the crazyness when I looked literally under my nose, below the egg turner pvc one of the eggs that was amoung the 4 I almost didn't put it at lockdown,
a pure Maran Egg K that had been silent, and not piped 2 hrs prior, was fully zipped & just hatched!! What the heck!! The chick I was sure would make it died and a "dead" egg suddendly hatches ???!!!

Egg L eventually hatched but the exhausted chick never really walked and died about 2 hrs ago.

So as of right now.

23 Eggs Set, 22 Locked Down.
Lots of mellow drama of didn't make it and late hatching maran eggs later
2 LIVE CHICKS : "B" & "K"

I still have the other eggs in the bator just in case like K they suddenly turn out to be alive and pip-zip-hatch-walk-start looking for food! all in some 2 hr burst of what the heckness...

I have to say I would not recommend Dark or Maran eggs for anyone's first hatch.
Also, these Maran chicks are nothing like any day old chicks or broody hatched chicks I've ever had, they litterally were eatting every speck they could tear up eggshells etc and pecking at the zipping L mercilessly like little sharks. While that was tragic for W & L I expect these 2 survivors to be some robust chickens! Has anyone else noticed the Marans to be different? or is it that I've only delt w/ non-vigorous hatchery quality chicks in the past and all of the better quality birds are like this?

Well I must confess, I have skipped all the 230 posts I missed in the past 24 hrs, I read everything else on this thread but I'm not going to read those, if I missed anything important or that I need to respond to pls pm me.

Hope all is going well for everyone else

You've had a really rough go of it

As for Marans - I would agree that because of the difficulty in seeing into the egg, it is probably not the best choice for beginners - that would extend to any breed with coloured eggs though IMO. So far my Maran chicks are quite docile compared to my Ameraucana cross chicks ... but that may change as they age. I did a bit of sniffing the internet too and found a lot of folks saying that Marans hatch late or that they had shrinkwrap issues ... now this could be due to incubation issues, but if all things are equal and all other breeds hatch on time without issue it seems odd that the Marans hatch late.

12 sixteen week old chickens in your house!!! Ack!!! lol. I love your cabinet and I admire your reuse skills!! Is that where they will stay until 16 weeks? Might get a little tight in there if so hehe.

Are you keeping them in because of the weather? I just moved some 6-8 week old chicks outside to the coop. I have some nice size box cages set up for brooding, breeding pairs or isolation. I have built a brooder box (an upside down box with two light bulbs for heat that they can go under) that fits inside the cage. I think they're warmer in there then in the house hahaha. This was teh perfect test because of course I picked the coldest weekend yet to try it, temps got down to -30 and when I check on them they're in there sunbathing!

Well - that's the plan, but I'm beginning to wonder myself as I don't think it's enough room. I have no space out in the barn for them and I'm in n. BC ... it's winter here until the end of April, but if the temps are mild I may be able to put them out earlier.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Ravenwood, I also thought I would love that cabinet for my Seramas! You need to get some sort of pan at the bottom for easy cleaning. maybe a cut down tote?

 

[Cynthia12]

I know I said I had posted my last picture, but this last baby that hatched, well, when my DH said it looked like a Penguin, I had to agree..Happy Feet!



Look at those feet..looks like boy feet.
My RIR's go into lock down tomorrow. 6 made it to lock down out of 10, had a quitter
tonight to throw out since last time I candled.

 

[missydcpc]

I need to change my answer to # hatched! Another one decided to hatch tonight! Of course it's big sister who was born 14 hours earlier is pecking at it and "cleaning" it....or just being an evil big sister!

 

[Sweetly Silkies]

GUESS who is getting an Emu?!?

 

[lesliedow]

I know I said I had posted my last picture, but this last baby that hatched, well, when my DH said it looked like a Penguin, I had to agree..Happy Feet!



Look at those feet..looks like boy feet.
My RIR's go into lock down tomorrow. 6 made it to lock down out of 10, had a quitter
tonight to throw out since last time I candled.

Wow! what cutie! he does look like a penguin.
8)

 

[cochins1088]

GUESS who is getting an Emu?!?

Really??!! Gosh I want one so badly! Somebody is giving me 2 emu eggs next week and I'm so excited. Good Luck!

 

[Fuzzybird]

Quote: WOW to you both! Love to have one myself!

 

[TMNfarm]

This is my little one with the beak issue... It is perfectly straight, just longer in the bottom... She seems to be eating fine, no issues at all, just looks like a little bulldog!