8th-annual-byc-new-years-day-2017-hatch-a-long

[junebuggena]

Thanks so much for the advice, guys! Little guy seems to be doing great. Eating, drinking, running around adorably. I also added some calcium powder to the chick food. Figure it could only help. Also gave them a small scoop of tiny baby mealworms which they all ate with gusto.

Too much calcium is actually very, very harmful to young chicks.

 

[Bug n Flock]

Too much calcium is actually very, very harmful to young chicks. 

My feed has a low base calcium %.

 

[junebuggena]

My feed has a low base calcium %.

That's because chicks don't need a lot of calcium. And overdosing them can cause organ failure and kill them.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

My feed has a low base calcium %.

what are you feeding them? can you post the analysis?

 

[Bug n Flock]

I just looked for it and can't find it online. I'll check the bag when I can, but it's less than 1% and considering I also fed mealworms today which have a ridiculously high phosphorus to calcium ratio, I don't imagine a scoop of calcium powder will hurt the chicks.

 

[pioneerchick816]

This is so eggciting!!! My DDs and DS and I are setting our very first batch of eggs tomorrow morning, planning on a New Year's Eve hatch day, and I could not be more eggstatic!! I just got my incubator (an early Xmas present from my mom!) and it's been running so I could figure out all the controls and everything, and tomorrow is the big day!!! I'm so freakin excited!!! This is just a practice run, really, as I'm just throwing in a few eggs from my SLW who's in with my Wheaten Am cockerel atm for a couple cute OEs (!!!) and we'll see how it goes. I don't know how good my fertility is gonna be, or how good my incubating skills are gonna be, but I'm SUPER excited to hatch out my own babies! Thought I'd share some pics of the proud parents... Daddy Hugo: Mama Astrid: Checked out the chicken calculator, and it sounds like I'll probably get some pretty golden laced OE girls, and yellow (?) laced OE boys...wonder what that'll look like?? I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to sex them early! Hopefully the boys and girls will look different ETA: I've decided that if she lays tomorrow and Sunday, those eggs are going in, too. That'll give me a total of 10 instead of 8, which just sounds better!

I can't wait to see how your chicks turn out

I bet they will be beautiful. Hoping you have a great first hatch. I'll be doing the same next year

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I just looked for it and can't find it online. I'll check the bag when I can, but it's less than 1% and considering I also fed mealworms today which have a ridiculously high phosphorus to calcium ratio, I don't imagine a scoop of calcium powder will hurt the chicks.

just wondering about protein and stuff because they are quail
i dont know how much calcium they should have but i dont think much until they start laying,
someday i want to try quail

theyre so cute!

 

[Bug n Flock]

They're *super* adorable and do everything at top speed: incubating, growing, laying, moving. The protein is 28%, it's the highest I could find. Honestly I don't like the feed at all, it has a lot of problems, and I'm planning a trip to the nearest feed shop in a couple weeks to see if I can find anything better. City living really limits feed options unfortunately.

 

[kyeschicks]

*PIC HEAVY*
I received most of my eggs today! (Queen Silvia, Mottled Houndan, Frizzled Cochin, D'uccles and mystery eggs!)

It has been YEARS since I owned chickens and I am freaking excited to be setting eggs with y'all! All I'm missing are my Cinnamon Queens which wont get here till Monday.
I will probably need to build another incubator as it seems I have almost twice of eggs as I anticipated lol and I haven't even added the Cinnamon Queens

None of the eggs were broken, all shippers were great packers!

@TJChickens is amazing you guys! Not only did I get Porcelain, Millies, and Golden Neck D'uccles but she also sent some mystery green-tinted eggs which I'm very grateful for!
Don't know what they exactly are and there are not many breeds I know that lay small green-tinted eggs, but makes me think that they are from her bantam EE's?

No matter what they are, thank you so much!

I will post some pics to share my excitement lol this journey so far has helped me move forward with everything that I have been dealing with. Thanks again TJChickens! Your eggs are my priority out of all! Click to Enlarge

-D'uccle eggs (P,M,GN)-



-Frizzled Cochin-


-Mystery Eggs-


-Mottled Houndan-


-Porcelain D'uccle Egg- (so small!)


-Mottled Houdan Egg-


-Mystery Egg!-


-Silvia Queens (renaming them Sylvia Queens lol)-



-My Homemade Incubator-


-Peek Inside through first window-


-Peek from above-


-Different view from above showing aluminum foil-


-Peek from second window-


-Water Wigglers!- (3 of them)


I know my digital thermometer says 93f in a forced air incubator, but it's actually off. I need to calibrate it, but still have to figure that out

so I'm mostly using that thermometer as the hygrometer.
I have three different alcohol thermometers which are wrapped underneath the water wigglers and they all say between around 99.5f so that's how I decided I wasn't gonna go by my digital thermometer lol

The foil I put up there is to block direct contact with the eggs so that the eggs directly underneath are not different than the ones near the edges and it works great! without the foil I was getting an 8 degree difference between that and the non-direct edges.

Anyway, sorry for the long pic heavy post, just way too excited lol By the way, some eggs have names on them because my niece and nephew were with me and decided to name a few

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Awesome @Skitz good luck!!