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

[chickengirl1193]

yes - but what a wonderful problem to have!!!

I agree lol

 

[Myfourladies]

RE: feeding - when I have chicks that seem to be struggling with crumble, I hard boil an egg & offer them the mashed yolk. You could also put a teaspoon or so of crumble on a plastic lid or something similar and dampen it with warm water to soften it. Note that either of these should be taken out in about two hours to avoid spoilage - give some time to see if she's ready for the dry stuff, if not (and she at least consumed *some* of it) replace it after another hour or so, repeat until she gets into the dry crumble. Do keep the dry crumble and water available at all times while supplementing.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! She is eating like... well like she hasn't seen food in 3 days. LOL She has pieces of yolk all over her beak and feet. She keeps stumbling every 5 pecks or so, just not to stable on her feet yet, but she is getting food into her. Maybe after she gets a little stronger from the yolk I will try some softened crumble.

I really think if I would have had you guys support when I hatched the last time my chick that failed to thrive would have made it, but lets look forward not back.
She is quiet now for the first time since last evening.

 

[ronott1]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! She is eating like... well like she hasn't seen food in 3 days. LOL She has pieces of yolk all over her beak and feet. She keeps stumbling every 5 pecks or so, just not to stable on her feet yet, but she is getting food into her. Maybe after she gets a little stronger from the yolk I will try some softened crumble.

I really think if I would have had you guys support when I hatched the last time my chick that failed to thrive would have made it, but lets look forward not back.
She is quiet now for the first time since last evening.

If you keep up with us, you will have so many chickens!

Good job with her.

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! She is eating like... well like she hasn't seen food in 3 days. LOL She has pieces of yolk all over her beak and feet. She keeps stumbling every 5 pecks or so, just not to stable on her feet yet, but she is getting food into her. Maybe after she gets a little stronger from the yolk I will try some softened crumble.

I really think if I would have had you guys support when I hatched the last time my chick that failed to thrive would have made it, but lets look forward not back.
She is quiet now for the first time since last evening.

YAY!!!

Glad to hear she's eating! (and quiet!)

 

[Myfourladies]

If you keep up with us, you will have so many chickens!

Good job with her.

If things go as planned when the ground thaws here I will start building a coop that will hold up to 80 chickens.... and I have bantams so that means even more!

 

[ronott1]

If things go as planned when the ground thaws here I will start building a coop that will hold up to 80 chickens.... and I have bantams so that means even more!

Yes!

You are very good at Chicken Math!

 

[chickengirl1193]

Oops Had flash on...

My favorite so far

EE Chick #1

Leghorn chick #1

Leghorn Chick #2

EE Chick #2

EE Chick #3

EE chick #4

EE chick #5

EE chick #6

all together 8

Another all together. So i had 4 Olive eggs hatch and 2 cream eggs, i know that a dark chick came from the first olive egg and i THINK a chipmunk stripe came from the first cream but other than that idk who came from where lol and i have 3 chip munk and 3 solid so no idea who came from where besides the leghorns lol

 

[abmaddox1981]

Here's my group pic. I promise, there really are 16 chicks but my silkies keep worming to the bottom of the pile every time I take the top off the box. Camera shy I guess.

 

[Pozees]

Greetings all, goodness everyone has been so busy! Me too, just not here I put another 28 eggs into the hatcher last night, two were pipped and peeping at each other (and me), one of them was mainly done hatching this morning, just has to push out of the bottom shell, and there was another pipped, the other that was pipped last night had made progress when I left for work. 26 of these were picked up from a local keeper who has a flock for egg production, and they were big eggs. Production Reds, a White Legorn, and maybe an EE, there is a pale green egg.

I had another hen go broody this past week, and when I candled all the paper-towel-wrapped Dom eggs the broodies had they were duds, so I gave all the broodies some new shipped eggs (CL, Orpington, and Silkie) to see if they can get them hatched - they usually do much better than an incubator, so here's hoping. My main concern is one of the hens does have 3 that should hatch tomorrow, and I am not sure how that will affect incubation of the new eggs, she is right next to another hen brooding, and when one gets up to eat the other tries to take eggs, then goes and sits on the other ones, tries to spread across both nests, and I believe the three will hatch alongside some newer ones, so I'll be keeping a sharp eye all weekend. I have to say that Silkie Mamas are the bomb, I just adore their fuzzy little selves DH was stoking one's back last week after I gave her new eggs, and she purred at him - he just melted.

I picked up 3 dozen eggs locally yesterday to set tomorrow (12 CL and 24 Barnyard Mix), and also received 21 Midget White Turkey eggs (yay!) in the mail to set. I'll have to start them in a tabletop then transfer to the new cabinet once it arrives.

ChickenCanoe I am so happy to see your eggs have started hatching - and well, from the sounds of it! For those who have successfully assisted hatches, I hope your chicks do well. I understand the desire to have them all hatch, but like ChickenCanoe, unless I think it's something I did that caused a problem hatching, I don't help. That is purely my choice, made after reflection on what I want my flock to be, as well as losing some I assisted as they showed problems within hours or days. It's a lot harder to euthanize a chick, especially after I helped it hatch. I don't toss them if they're still moving, but I don't intervene anymore.

 

[ronott1]

Oops Had flash on...

My favorite so far

EE Chick #1

Leghorn chick #1

Leghorn Chick #2

EE Chick #2

EE Chick #3

EE chick #4

EE chick #5

EE chick #6

all together 8

Another all together. So i had 4 Olive eggs hatch and 2 cream eggs, i know that a dark chick came from the first olive egg and i THINK a chipmunk stripe came from the first cream but other than that idk who came from where lol and i have 3 chip munk and 3 solid so no idea who came from where besides the leghorns lol

They all look so nice!

Here's my group pic. I promise, there really are 16 chicks but my silkies keep worming to the bottom of the pile every time I take the top off the box. Camera shy I guess.

You should be very happy with them!