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

[ChickenCanoe]

Fighting disease here seems to be a constant here. VA has some of the stricter laws for bringing hatching eggs, chicks and chickens in and shipping them out. I really think it makes little sense because there are so many diseases already here...or maybe just in this area? A lot of people go a short distance to 2 other states and bring them back in and no way to check where they come from and it makes me angry. I feel like I have to vaccinate of I want to keep chickens. When we moved here, it was my first time having chickens in about 35 yrs.. I haockd never had a chicken with a disease. It was a REAL shock and heartbreaking when I started losing one right after another. Really bad when I lost one of my bantams that would come and sit in my lap.

Weather??? 19 degrees night before last, 40+ yesterday and it is 46 now at 9:45 and we are going to have a high of 60+ today. Temps have been jumping all over the place this winter!

...

Poultry is big business in VA. I'm sure the commercial farms are working to have the state locked down.

-10 here tonight, -3 for a high tomorrow, we're also in the midst of a true blizzard.

My son just called and said he heard on the news that people in my zip code were without power.

Good thing I got the generator fixed. I'll just have to find a way to helicopter it up to the house.

I gotta PROBLEM once again.

my chick with the crooked toe.....I just tried taping it and it did not work. I don't know what to do, and I do want her for a show bird.



if taping wont work for her, once she is older I KNOW she will end up stepping on it. (its curled under another toe)
what do I do now? if she was in a show, and had a crooked toe, wil she only have points deducted and that's it?

Find small diameter straws, cut them to length, put them on that one and adjacent toes.

My little OE chicks needed me last night. They woke up hungry and chirping--I had to turn the light on and let them eat!

They are going down stairs today. There is more light down there so they should be able to find the food if they need a mid night snack....

Silly chickens!

I'm going to have chicks on 24 hour light a few days longer than I wanted. One of my ceramic emitters broke as did one of my red heat lamps. I have 3 little brooders. One has a red infrared, one a ceramic and the other a red flood light. I have a white infrared but it's too bright in such a small space.
I added a rope light to the one with the ceramic so they can eat at night too. The ceramics were over $20 at the pet store yesterday. The same ones are $8 on ebay. .

Chicks are doing well, did lose one the first day. But out of 55, having 46 hatch and only to lose 1 was very good. I also had some hatch yesterday which have been tossed into a brooder.

Had a great hatch yesterday 11/12 La Flèche were fertile. 11 entered the hatcher. Had 9 viable chicks, 1 drown in blood, 1 did not absorb its organs completely. Better than my odds with the La Flèche on New Years.

Going to have a lot of material to select from this year.

Great job!

YAY congrats!!! I hope you share pics with us once mama shares with you.

My 11 yr old DD recently discovered showgirls and now she wants some, also Naked necks. DH isn't gonna be happy that I am passing my addiction on to our daughters. She even insisted that out of her Silkies that just hatched she NEEDS a rooster. DH told her if she could give him a good reason why she NEEDS a rooster then she could keep one. Her response- "I need a rooster so they can have babies and then I can sell the babies to have money to pay for the food" Sounds like something I would say. DH said "Good answer you can have one rooster".

Her response to me was "Mom you already have 4 roosters, So I need one too". LOL I couldn't argue with her.

Like mother, like daughter. Way to go.

Such a pretty basket. I love a mixed egg basket.
I used to have JGs, Orps and Rocks. Great birds but the egg basket was a little boring.
I wanted some white, green and dark brown eggs.
For whites I got some Anconas, Jaers, White Minorcas, Black Leghorns, Buttercups and Polish.
Ameraucanas for green and Welsummers for dark. Since I tend to walk to the beat of a different drummer, Rather than go the Marans route, I decided to find dark egg Barnevelders and Penedesencas.
I found a line of Barneys that had beautiful eggs here in MO but never got any. The lady with them retired so her birds are now in Oklahoma.

 

[chicken pickin]

Okay, I was wrong. I don't have 3 black silkies.

Went out to get pics. Grey showgirl and one black kept hiding, so no pics.

But got a pic of the other 2 blacks. Apparently, one is a silkie and the other is a showgirl.

So...

2 showgirls (grey & black)
2 silkies (black & partridge)
1 to be determined (black)

 

[JDchicks]

I think I figured out what happened though. I have the incubator in my basement and I found one of the cats curled up on the viewing window. I think she blocked the heat escape and caused the heat to elevate and the cheap water heater thermostat didn't respond quickly enough. So I am trying to decide whether to get a better thermostat or to buy a Janoel $99 incubator that could be come a hatcher when I upgrade again.

I would just buy a new incubator. I had issues with the water heater thermostats also.

I'm wanting to upgrade too, but can't find one that meets the requirements I want.

 

[Aphrael]

Wow, that would be COOL...lime eggs? I hatched two RIR over EE. One has very dark chipmunk stripes and the other much lighter with minimal stripes so can I assume I have a pullet and a roo? Owl is the one with darker chipmunk stripes that I posted the photo of in the Christmas tree who I think is the pullet. She is our favorite of the 19 we hatched...we just love that owl face and I could just eat her up.

From my experience you can't judge the sex by color or by feathering with RIRxEE crosses. Mine were all over the place in coloring and in feathering speed. The RIRxEE I hatched this summer had a wide range of red and orange chipmunks and one a pale cream chipmunk. Funny thing, the pale cream colored one turned out to be the darkest when he feathered out. He has lots of black all over. The other two boys are dark red with black tails and black necks/hackles. The one girl turned out a medium red with a thin columbian type patterning around her neck.

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

AWESOME!!!!

 

[roostercluck]

Congrats everyone on the hatches. I do have one question. I ordered 10 Buff Orps, but they won't ship until the 22nd. Will they be okay to add to my chicks that hatched for New Years? The NYD ones will be 3 weeks. I'm just worried about the pecking order.

 

[Whoops]

Quote:
That sucks! FWIW, when the cat would sleep on my mother's old 'puter and block the vents, causing it to shut down, she just put a wire letter basket upside down on top of the vents.

 

[Wunjo]

I have a question. With this big cold front coming in. It is going to be a low of -4 here Monday and a high of 4. I have 8 week old chicks outside in a shed that have a heat lamp. Can they survive or do I need to bring them indoors for this? Not sure if windchill counts for them but it will be -25. I do have the big brooder I can temporarily put them in, in the house and move the new babies to a small brooder if need be.

The shed room they are in. They are fully closed in with a door.

Anyone know?

 

[Aphrael]

Anyone know?

As long as they have the heat lamp and are sheltered from any wind, I'd say they will probably be just fine.

 

[insanity]

Anyone know?

They should be OK. Wind chill doesn't matter inside the shed. Give them extra bedding and a late afternoon snack, digestion creates heat.Keep the water thawed out, dehydration can be a problem in cold temps. They are pretty hardy, my 10 week babies were "playing" outside today. Our high was +1.