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

[ESofVA]

Quote:
I would have thought your high today would not be as high as ours is supposed to be since you are farther west and north than we are in VA. Looks like we are predicted to have our high as 59. Yes! The ups and downs are awful. I hate the wind more than the cold though. No snow here yet, not sure if we will get any but lots of rain and wind.

 

[Gardeningmama]

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[chickengirl1193]

If you are going to use medicated, it would be best to feed when they have the best chance of being exposed to the protozoa.
Medicated feed contains amprolium or a similar thiamine blocker.  It really isn't a true medication. In most cases, I still don't see a need for it with proper management. That's just me though.
No, that's just good math.

Most starter/grower is about 18 %. I like something more for the first few weeks. I was using too high of protein years ago, something like 27 %.
I think they benefit from protein in the neighborhood of between 18 and 24% for the first 5 weeks. A lot depends on if they are going to be or are genetically broilers, layers or DP birds.
 Growing birds can make use of a lot more protein than maturing birds.
Put it somewhere with more space, like the garage.

Nice Christmas present.

okay so I.think ill get a starter feed for the first few weeks cuz 16% seems low.

 

[Wisher1000]

I woke up at 3 or 4a.m. and put more water in the bator to get us from 45 to 60%. Then I went back to sleep and had a dream than every one of them hatched and I didn't know who was who because I woke up to 29 chicks (after missing the ENTIRE hatch) with eggshell dust everywhere. Oh, and I dreamed that someone dropped off 100 seagull babies, insisting that I had ordered them.

Mine? Mine? Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! MINE! (vague movie reference)

Quote:
My DH started out being a butt about them, but he is a trooper now and usually collects eggs and will even feed and water for me if needed. He's a keeper.

Quote: Ask him if you can put a flyer up in his window for "straight runs" since he doesn't want to sell them. If he balks, shrug it off and say you'll just put an ad in the local paper. No biggie. <chuckle> The owner of our feed store didn't like it that I wasn't buying hatchery chicks from him anymore, once I started hatching my own, but he got over it when he realized I was buying more feed!

I have three on the mat, one half out, one zipped and six more pips! They're popping out like popcorn!

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote: They look good to me, and I love the shade of your greens! I know.....LOCKDOWN TOMORROW!!!!

Quote: Chirp at the incubator, and listen really closely. If there's a pipped chick most times it will talk back. If it talks back, I'd go into lockdown. The others probably won't be too far behind. Although, I did have that 1 that time that hatched 2 days before anyone else...but the early lockdown didn't hurt anyone. That was last years Easter Hatch-A-Long...all the chicks ended up hatched out the day before Easter.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

I would have thought your high today would not be as high as ours is supposed to be since you are farther west and north than we are in VA. Looks like we are predicted to have our high as 59. Yes! The ups and downs are awful. I hate the wind more than the cold though. No snow here yet, not sure if we will get any but lots of rain and wind.

No snow here either. We are about 30 minutes west of Charlottesville, west of the mountains, right off of I-64. The wind drives me nuts as well...I thought we wouldn't have as much here at our new place, since we are in the middle of the woods...boy was I wrong! And it never fails...if we have a warmer than average temperature for the day, you can be guaranteed it's gonna be windy! (Like last week...we hit 72 one day, but it was so windy, I couldn't enjoy the "heat"!)

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote:

YAY!!! Congrats Wisher,....and Congrats to everyone with chickies hatching!

 

[Pozees]

Yay Wisher chicks!

So there were a couple of questions about candling/lockdown/internal pips. When I move to hatcher I candle. If you are not moving, just changing humidity and ceasing turning, candle then, so you can see if there are internal pips. Try and keep the larger (lower down the side of the egg) part of the air cell pointing toward the ceiling since that's where they usually pip. If you already have an internal pip, proceed as if it's day 18/19, raise humidity, and stop turning. Sometimes only 1 or 2 hatch early, but it could be temps were a touch high, or you just have eggs that didn't need the whole 21 days, either way it won't hurt the rest to stop turning, and should not hurt them to have higher humidity a day early. Don't panic when the humidity spikes after a hatch, it will. Lots of moisture from inside that egg being released into a small environment.

Enjoy your day all!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

See, and I would have thought VA was more stable than CO, but would have been wrong!

3 chicks hatched now

No new pips. Today is Day 21 for these, so I won't really give up until tomorrow, unless when I move chicks to brooder tonight I see no movement and hear no peeps or pecking in the other eggs. I need to have the hatcher disinfected tomorrow night for Monday move of NYD eggs. Thought about moving tomorrow, but I've been having better luck moving Day 19 so I will stick with that for now.

We always say "if you don't like the weather in St. Louis, wait a few hours, it will change."
After a week near freezing, last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it was 52, 61 and 71 respectively. The next day the high was 37, 3 days later it was 7.
Today's going to be 60 and 9 tomorrow night. Then not above freezing in the next week.
In the past We've hit 70 during the day and single digits overnight.
The chickens can't get acclimated.
That reminds me, today's the day. I have to process at least 4 roosters today to make room for chicks.
Not looking forward to it but I'll be glad to have it done.

Never dreamt of dropping the baby, but every single pregnancy I had, I would dream about giving birth to half animal, half human babies. Once it was half alligator. Another time it was half cat. One time I had a dream that while I was giving birth, our town was being attacked by pterodactyls. Gah...the dreams we have while pregnant!!!

Sounds like you have always liked animals.

I have already culled several. Infertile. There are probably more but I can't tell due to the dark egg shells. I would not be surprised if none hatch! I have been watching my chickens in their pens a few times a day when I am out having coffee on the porch, and it seems as the roos just aren't doing anything and even if they get a notion, the hens are all running away. Maybe due to the cold temps outside??? The bantam Cochin chicks I hatched out earlier this month are doing great...I ordered those eggs and the hatch rate was poor. The PO did a real number on some of them others I am not sure but I lost 6 out of 6, 5 out of 6, and 13 out of 22. It was quite depressing but at least I got a few. Will candle this am again, then lock mine down, and just keep my fingers crossed on the ones I have left!

If you have an early hatcher and pipper, do you still rotate them and can you still open the incubator to prepare for lockdown?

No don't turn, you can quit turning by day 17 or earlier. The embryo is no longer floating up.


OK, here's the latest report. I just weighed eggs and candled at the same time.
Weight:
Today's goal was 2605 grams for all 47 eggs. They weighed 2586 grams. That is off by 0.7%. Not bad for not paying attention.
I weighed a couple with huge air cells. One had lost 12.3% and another had lost 16.1%. They should have lost 11%.
The one that lost 12.3 had been washed and was 6 days old when set. There is no explanation why the other lost so much. It was a freshly laid egg the day it was set.

Clears:
Out of 47 eggs, 7 failed. 5 had no development, 1 had a blood ring and 1 had something dark floating inside.
Of the 7 pulled, two were 10 days old when set, one was 9, one was 7, one was 6, one was 3 and one was set the day laid.
Of the remaining eggs still growing, five were 10 days old when set, three were 9, nine were 8 days old.
7 of the eggs set were washed and only one of them has failed.

I washed them with a solution of 2 1/2 cups water, 1/2 cup organic ACV and 2 Tbsp of Fruit Fresh.
Fruit Fresh is an ascorbic acid product that keeps fruit from turning brown. The downside is that it has other ingredients I don't like.
I found pure ascorbic acid powder that I'll use in the future. http://www.myspicesage.com/ascorbic...|34312308482&gclid=CJbT48mY07sCFa9aMgodDgYAxg

I've purchased whole dry milk powder from them that I use for finishing roosters before butcher.


That leaves 40 eggs cooking.
I'm hoping most hatch. I want to divide them into 3 groups to test fermented feed and probiotics with dry feed and a control group.

ETA
Another good thing about the fertility is that they are from 2 different flocks and 2 untested roosters along with the time of year and a little frostbite, I'm relatively pleased.

 

[roostercluck]

Mine? Mine? Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! MINE! (vague movie reference)


My DH started out being a butt about them, but he is a trooper now and usually collects eggs and will even feed and water for me if needed. He's a keeper.
Ask him if you can put a flyer up in his window for "straight runs" since he doesn't want to sell them. If he balks, shrug it off and say you'll just put an ad in the local paper. No biggie. <chuckle> The owner of our feed store didn't like it that I wasn't buying hatchery chicks from him anymore, once I started hatching my own, but he got over it when he realized I was buying more feed!

I have three on the mat, one half out, one zipped and six more pips! They're popping out like popcorn!

Congrats on the chicks, and thanks for the advice. I will try that.

I just candled and 6 out of the 12 are really developing. All the other ones are quitters, is there a specific reason why? At least I still have half, right?