5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[mstricer]

Quote: I'm pretty straight forward myself but have a background in teaching & psychology so have had a lot of experience in explaining things very simply so people can understand them. I tend to look at the words themselves and think how I would feel under similar circumstances. Then I give the benefit of the doubt that I may have still misunderstood & ask for clarification if needed. We all just need to remember to ask for more details if something sounds a bit off, then no one gets offended by misunderstandings.

As for smilies, not all of us can use them. There is no option for them on my cell phone.

 

[Aphrael]

Well, I cracked an egg.

I don't know how it happened. It is one of the most beautiful eggs I have (pic doesn't do the blue justice), so I candled and put nail polish on the crack. I couldn't see anything candling, but I'm 8 hours behind everyone else and the egg is hard to see into. I'm hoping it still develops and can give me a hen that lays the same gorgeous color eggs. But I guess that's a lot to wish for right now.

Anybody cracked an egg and had it hatch successfully?

I haven't tried it yet. But I have read about people successfully hatching cracked eggs as long as the membrane is still intact. Most of what I have read says to use plain unscented candle wax or melted crayon though. I would worry about the nail polish chemicals being harmful to the embryo. But I worry about EVERYthing, so...

APHRAEL...we were looking for our 'forever home' for almost a year. We would find a great lot/bad house, or great house/bad lot, but not both until we came upon this one. It has everything we wanted! We knew right away...so that night our realtor wrote up our offer/contract and in it are the chickens and all their supplies! We have a 3 stall covered horse corral that has been chicken wired up to 8 feet. So I am putting up aviary netting around the outside to keep the wild birds out who are eating most of the food.

Hopefully it will be done by Wednesday...I am going through 3-4 bags of 50# pellets every month. And I only have 8 chickens. Grrrrrr!

I really am having fun working on it, and SO grateful that the runs and coop/nests are in place already.

It sounds wonderful.

Yeah, at 150-200# of feed a month for only 8 chickens I'd say you definitely have grain thieves. I know when I had free choice crumble out it vanished way too fast for the number of chickens I have. Wild birds were getting some, mice/rats some, wild kittens/cats were eating it, and if I didn't watch my dogs while they were out with me they'd eat it too.

 

[Myfourladies]

Well, I cracked an egg.

I don't know how it happened. It is one of the most beautiful eggs I have (pic doesn't do the blue justice), so I candled and put nail polish on the crack. I couldn't see anything candling, but I'm 8 hours behind everyone else and the egg is hard to see into. I'm hoping it still develops and can give me a hen that lays the same gorgeous color eggs. But I guess that's a lot to wish for right now.

Anybody cracked an egg and had it hatch successfully?

I have hatched an egg that had a crack before.... but it is best to use wax to seal the crack. I hope this works for you!

 

[mstricer]

I should have saved mine that I dropped and dented, I didn't think they were fertile.

 

[chickengirl1193]

We used to have 3, they are all Jack Russell Terriers. We had to find the youngest one a new home though, as she was forever chewing through the fence and then chewing and digging her way into the chicken coops and making the chickens extremely nervous, killing those she could get to. She also had a royal time chasing sheep - we just had to re-home her. We don't live on our own farm, my husband works on the farm and we live in a little cottage on the farm. 2 Jack Russell Terriers are quite enough for me, but I'm really entertaining the idea of a LGD - just need to get past the hubby as he's the voice of reason when it comes to new animals being brought here. He's the reason I don't own every type of dog there is! Luckily he isn't bothered about me bringing new chickens or chicks home, or hatching eggs for that matter.

I only have one jack russell... I can't imagine three! my little guy is relatively calm and submissive towards the chickens so I'm lucky...

If the goats are bred and are going to kid while it is still cold, go to the Goodwill and pick up some baby/toddler sweaters for your new goat kids. You trim the arms short so that they don't step on them and for boys split the front up from the bottom so they can't pee on it. Use a blanket stitch to whip the raw edges down or a crochet hook and yarn to chain an edge so they don't unravel. Or bias tape and a sewing machine. I would also get a larger sweater that can fit an adult goat for inevitably one of the goats will eventually get sick in the winter. Try to get one with real wool in it. Speaking of sweaters I found a chicken sweater pattern that was on Facebook. Little Hen Rescue Double knitting yarn (100g makes approximately 3 jumpers) 2 buttons or 10cm Velcro 1 pair of number 8 (4mm) knitting needles 4mm crochet hook Knitted in stocking stitch with garter stitch borders Cast on 41 sts, Work 4 rows K Increase for tabs; Cast on 10 sts at beginning of next row, k14, p to last 4 sts, k4. Cast on 10 sts at beginning of next row, k14, p to last 14sts, k14. Work buttonholes; (work these 2 rows straight if using Velcro). (K2, yf k2tog) 3 times, work to end keeping edges in garter st. Repeat this row for buttonholes on the other tab. Cast off 10 sts at beginning of next row. Next row – cast off 10 sts, k4, p2 tog, p to last 6 sts, p2tog, k4. Dec 1 st at each end on every fol 6th row until 25 sts remain. Divide for neck; Work 11 sts, cast off 3, work to end – complete this half first. 1) k4, p to end 2) cast off 2, k to end 3) k4, p to end 4) k2tog, k to end 5) k4, p2tog, p to end Work 4 rows straight 10) K to last 5 sts, inc in next st, k4. 11) K4, p to last st, inc in next st. 12) Cast on 2 sts, k to end, (11sts) 13) K4, p to end 14) K Break yarn and rejoin to the other side of neck. Work to match, reversing shaping’s and ending at winghole edge. Next row – k, cast on 3, k across sts from other side of neck. Next row , k4 inc in next st, p to last 5 sts, inc in next st, k4. Inc 1 st at each end of every fol 6th row until there are 41 sts on the needle. Work 6 rows straight. Change to gst and knit 4 rows. Cast off. Sew on buttons or Velcro as desired. Work double crochet around neck.

thank you so much! luckily my goats aren't bred, they are still to young. and I will save that chicken sweater pattern! is it necessary to put sweaters on the chickens? it seems like they would appreciate booties more!

 

[Pyxis]

So I jsut got word from the seller that my leghorn eggs are most definitely not fertile. She checked hers after the heads up I gave her and they are not. @ronott1 would it be okay to go back and edit my number of set eggs and sumbit a new picture for Best Hatch Rate or am I just out of the running? Not that I really need more eggs anyway

When I calculate my hatch rate not for the contest I won't be counting them because they never had a chance in heck of developing anyway, so either way it's okay. I'm really just excited that 100% of my eggs, that were SHIPPED and were actually fertile are developing. When do that ever happen?

 

[SilkieSensation]

Well, I cracked an egg. I don't know how it happened. It is one of the most beautiful eggs I have (pic doesn't do the blue justice), so I candled and put nail polish on the crack. I couldn't see anything candling, but I'm 8 hours behind everyone else and the egg is hard to see into. I'm hoping it still develops and can give me a hen that lays the same gorgeous color eggs. But I guess that's a lot to wish for right now. Anybody cracked an egg and had it hatch successfully?

I haven't tried it yet. But I have read about people successfully hatching cracked eggs as long as the membrane is still intact. Most of what I have read says to use plain unscented candle wax or melted crayon though. I would worry about the nail polish chemicals being harmful to the embryo. But I worry about EVERYthing, so...

APHRAEL...we were looking for our 'forever home' for almost a year. We would find a great lot/bad house, or great house/bad lot, but not both until we came upon this one. It has everything we wanted! We knew right away...so that night our realtor wrote up our offer/contract and in it are the chickens and all their supplies! We have a 3 stall covered horse corral that has been chicken wired up to 8 feet. So I am putting up aviary netting around the outside to keep the wild birds out who are eating most of the food. Hopefully it will be done by Wednesday...I am going through 3-4 bags of 50# pellets every month. And I only have 8 chickens. Grrrrrr! I really am having fun working on it, and SO grateful that the runs and coop/nests are in place already.

It sounds wonderful. Yeah, at 150-200# of feed a month for only 8 chickens I'd say you definitely have grain thieves. I know when I had free choice crumble out it vanished way too fast for the number of chickens I have. Wild birds were getting some, mice/rats some, wild kittens/cats were eating it, and if I didn't watch my dogs while they were out with me they'd eat it too.

I have used wax & nail polish both to seal eggs. Never got any wax ones to hatch but have hatched 3/5 sealed with nail polish.

 

[kara1015]

Candled again tonight. Looks like I have 2 clear, and I can't see much in the marans eggs. My new ovaview should be delivered tomorrow! Great veining in one of the leghorn eggs!!

 

[kara1015]

 

[ronott1]

You will have

Soon!