6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[SilkieSensation]

This wasn't my best hatch ratio only 30% hatched but not bad for a homemade incubator i made out of a medical Styrofoam cooler i found in my shed.

Nice colors. .. What kind are they? ..

Look like Silkies to me.

 

[FuzzyHens]

They're BOTH in on it now! They just wont stop playing scare-the-pants-off-of-mommy!



...

Really...???



What is this???

These Welsummers know exactly what they're doing, I tell ya! Evil!

They're lucky they're so... darn... CUTE...

OMG...those two chicks are awesome!!!! They do have a bit of a mean streak. Are welsummers known to be such characters?

 

[FuzzyHens]

I got the chicks to be still for a few cute pictures. I love the Buff ORP Mafia lineup and the "No, you can't have my scarf" picture, lol!! The last one is the largest chick with the smallest. Too stinking cute!

These are adorable!! I love the one with the scarf.

 

[FuzzyHens]

I love that picture. I've felt like that a few times, lol.

It's precious but so dramatic and pitiful! I can actually hear the violin when I look.. Honestly it almost made me tear up.

A co-worker (and one of the peeps who got me into chickens) said she could hear the song 'One is the loneliest number' playing in the background.

He does enjoy his little rock and it is warmed by the heat plate, I find him sitting on it a lot. He is actually doing fine...eating/drinking/pooping/growing. It's more me who wants him to have a friend now. I predict he will be a very tame/friendly adult chicken.

 

[FuzzyHens]

I have a little teddy bear. ..

And she loved it. .

That's a good idea!!

 

[LemonMeringue]

Well, we inspected our side pip. He'd been in the same position since yesterday morning but managed to make the pip a little bigger. The membrane was turning black. I couldn't stand it.

I helped him hatch.

And I'm very glad I did. His leg was twisted all the way over his head in a very unnatural position. He wasn't able to turn himself around in the sell.

There was zero bleeding from the membrane, but I did find something like looked like dried/cooked yolk stuck to the shell/membrane. He bled a little from his belly button, but that stopped on its own quickly.

Now he's recovering in the incubator and drying. I'll leave him in there overnight to finish fluffing and maybe encourage the final egg to pip (float test tomorrow if no activity by morning). He's peeping and falling everywhere. That's a good sign!

I'm a little worried about his leg. It was sticking out at a weird angle, due to the position in the egg... I'm hoping it will correct itself by morning.

This is a prime example of weak genetics... a chick that wouldn't have hatched and maybe shouldn't have, as cruel as that is to say. My soft heart (and some prompting from a pacing husband) led me to intervene.

I hope it turns out for the best.

MrsB

That sounds close to how our upside down chick was. Then he rested so long after that I didn't think he was going to make it. But he finally woke up and started looking around. I also gently rubbed its back and legs once. I figured if it was going to go back into place, soon after hatch would be the time. They are so flexible. He basically had his head to his butt. I put him out under the broody with some others and he is doing fantastic. Little chicken dinner

 

[ronott1]

Last night there were two more pips in the TJ's eggs and a big hole in another Australorp egg. I made sure the Australorp was ok and removed the membrane around the beak. I then moistened the shell around the big hole. The veins still looked active so I put it back into the incubator. This was an egg with a very bad saddle air cell.

This morning it was out along with 5 more TJ's eggs! I have 3 TJ's eggs that have not hatched and 1 Australorp egg. My hatch is getting to be too big for the eco glow brooder plate! I may need to get the second brooder set up and split them.

The new australorp is white with brown so either I have a splash or it is a mixed breed. We shall see...

 

[SilkieSensation]

 


I love that picture.  I've felt like that a few times, lol.

It's precious but so dramatic and pitiful! I can actually hear the violin when I look.. Honestly it almost made me tear up.

A co-worker (and one of the peeps who got me into chickens) said she could hear the song 'One is the loneliest number' playing in the background.

He does enjoy his little rock and it is warmed by the heat plate, I find him sitting on it a lot.  He is actually doing fine...eating/drinking/pooping/growing.  It's more me who wants him to have a friend now.  I predict he will be a very tame/friendly adult chicken.

We had a late hatcher in Feb who didn't get sold with her hatchmates. We put her in a box in my daughter's room with a bath poof for a companion. She was the quietest chick I have ever had. She is also the quietest & friendliest hen I now have. She will still walk right up to me & my daughter both & stare at us until we reach down to pick her up & scratch her neck. My daughter even stuffs her inside her coat.

 

[ronott1]

We had a late hatcher in Feb who didn't get sold with her hatchmates. We put her in a box in my daughter's room with a bath poof for a companion. She was the quietest chick I have ever had. She is also the quietest & friendliest hen I now have. She will still walk right up to me & my daughter both & stare at us until we reach down to pick her up & scratch her neck. My daughter even stuffs her inside her coat.

How cute!

All of my Pita Pinta pullets do that. They are so friendly!

 

[FuzzyHens]

OK, one more question...how do you know when to call it quits on the remaining eggs?


I just candled the two remaining eggs...no internal pips and no movement (but I didn't see movement in the egg that hatched the last time I candled it either...so I suspect my inexperience is at play a bit). I also did the water test...both floated, maybe one of them wiggled a little after settling...maybe? Neither egg smells funny and neither does the incubator. When I candled back on day 18, egg 3 had a moving chick that was smaller than the other 2 and I could see it moving. It now looks more full, like the chick has grown. Today is day 23.

So since nothing smells bad, do I give them another day? Can they really go 24 days before hatch? I do know that my incubator temps were dipping down to high 98 over night on a fair number of nights. Could they be that far behind the one who hatched (at day 21)?

So, that ended up being more than one question...

Thanks in advance for any advise!!!