Alaska hatchers..How is everyone doing? Baby pics !!!!!!

[Mrs MIA]

Wow... 50°F here at the farm...

I got my pens finished on one side of the breeder coop so everyone can go outside now. There's even some dry patches, and I'm enjoying watching the girls fluff.

I need to do two flaps for the doors now, and eventually will finish the gates, but they're good for now. I just hope the sunshine and fresh air helps with the laying...

 

[Ban seabhag]

Tori I got them from Rosemary of Alpinefarm. She has had them for a couple of years in Montana and is really impressed with the winter hardiness and egg production to feed ratio of her birds. She encouraged me to give them a try and thought they might be a great bird for Alaska. They are also very human friendly and a good camouflage color regarding predators. The fertility was really good with the eggs she sent. I got 18, one was cracked and at day 14, 3 had blood rings, one was clear and the rest hatched.
I think I have 7 pullets and 5 roos. The pullets have a smaller, more defined, white spot on their heads and are a darker brown. The guys have ivory to yellow, very large, irregular patches on their heads (on some of them the entire head appears light) and are more silvery brown in body color. It's pretty distinctive, and is obvious very quickly.
I had to put one more roo down when I discovered (fairlyy quickly thank goodness) that he had ruptured his umbilical cord.

 

[AkTomboy]

Awoke to 1 of my bbs eggs hatched! Went to Fairbanks and back and came home to another one of my eggs and one of Tori's hatched!

one moreis pipped so

we shall see

for the rest

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
RIGHT ON!!!

c'mon chickies!!!

 

[Mrs MIA]

Well, after a lot of thought and discussion, I've decided to try a dry hatch on some marans eggs. What I am gathering is that the dark coating on the egg acts as a sealant, and if the humidity is too high then the chicks will drown. I'm just getting tired of full-term marans that are not hatching.

our humidity is high enough with the spring melt that I think that's what's been happening. So dry until day 19, then what I think of as "normal" (~50%) for the last 3 days. I'm not getting a good hatch with water, so what have I got to lose?

 

[incubatingisfun]

i know i havent even added water to the incubator and humidity is right at 50%

 

[Ban seabhag]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Well, after a lot of thought and discussion, I've decided to try a dry hatch on some marans eggs. What I am gathering is that the dark coating on the egg acts as a sealant, and if the humidity is too high then the chicks will drown. I'm just getting tired of full-term marans that are not hatching.

our humidity is high enough with the spring melt that I think that's what's been happening. So dry until day 19, then what I think of as "normal" (~50%) for the last 3 days. I'm not getting a good hatch with water, so what have I got to lose?

Tori I used 30-35 percent max because the breeder recommended dry hatch for them. One source I looked at said to let it get back down to 25% before adding anymore water. I didn't know why but that makes sense now. It has worked really well so I guess he knew what he was about. It is sure worth a try.​

 

[Mrs MIA]

Good... add another confirmation to the list.

Me likey. I pulled the dish out of the 1502. I have a 1202 with duck/turkey eggs, so that one is keeping a pan of water in there.

I was trying to take photos of eggs being candled, and while I had the candler on I pulled out one of Deb's eggs...

Out of a dozen eggs, there are 9 that are dancing in their shells.....

 

[Ban seabhag]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Good... add another confirmation to the list.

Me likey. I pulled the dish out of the 1502. I have a 1202 with duck/turkey eggs, so that one is keeping a pan of water in there.

I was trying to take photos of eggs being candled, and while I had the candler on I pulled out one of Deb's eggs...

Out of a dozen eggs, there are 9 that are dancing in their shells.....

Whooaaaa!

That's "s' math sin"!!!! Go chicks!
How did your photos turn out?​

 

[MissDeb]

Comeon chickies!!!!!!! I sure hope they stay strong and all come out for you Tori! You too Aimee! At least Tori can let us know if her
idea works. I do know bumping my humidity up for the Dellies helped. They did really well at 70% and up at times. I want to say I was
doing 30-40 for the BCM the first few weeks and then 50% for the last 3 days, and we all know my luck with them!