Anyone have a hen or eggs set for October? Join us!

[Sweetlilbaby]

Hi!

Sorry for disappearing off the face of the earth. School went back. No more explanation needed. It's the final term, which means it's the second half of Semester 2, which is the shorter semester... so basically I've got to squeeze 10 weeks' worth of work into the next 4 weeks... which really isn't fair. But anyway, I've been pretty busy. My fault for choosing subjects that require tonnes of preparation for an oral presentation (three languages).

ANYWAY, the first two chicks hatched this evening. At least one more egg is pipped, but I didn't really look. Here they are, drying off before going into the brooder.


The chicks from last week are doing well, too. 17 of them are a week old today; three others are 6 days old. They've grown so fast (but not as fast as quails)! They have wing feathers! Where have my babies gone?


I must remind myself to set eggs in the morning in future... I'll probably get another one, maybe two, before I go to be tonight, and then get up in the morning to find thousands running around the incubator...

from Rachel.

PS, I don't think I mentioned, I set another 48 eggs last friday, so they will probably hatch around the 25th or 26th of October. 2doz are the same as these two hatches - crosses from my chooks. 2doz were given to my by a friend, mostly Frizzle eggs with a couple of Brahma thrown in too. Wow... three hatches in one month. Hmm.

I also have eggs due in 2 weeks and congratts on the new babies. They are so cute. Setting them morning or night I find either way there is always a few that hatch in the middle of the night. If i set them in the morning they usually hatch in the middle of the night and on day 21 i get up and run to the incubator hearing chirping, if i set them at night they begin hatching before i go to bed and still a few in the middle of the night. I swear chicks just like hatching at night.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Hi Everyone,
Remember the 3 eggs I had? Well, the first chick hatched Monday and is doing GREAT with the week-old chicks even! The 2nd pipped Sunday afternoon. It hadn't zipped by Monday -but kept sticking it's beak out the hole peeping. Before we went to bed, Monday night my son said we should help it.

Soooooooooooo, even though I say, "I'm not helping anymore, we did!" We zipped the top off for it and let it "hatch" the rest in the bator itself. That chick is so weak, I probably should have left it alone.

I'm not sure it will make it because it can hardly stand or walk yet.....poor little baby.

I candled the 3rd egg yesterday evening and didn't see movement (and an overly large aircell) so gave up on that one.

I'm just really worried about this little chick that isn't developing properly. It has it's own little area in the bator and we try to give it vitamin water every hour (and offer softened food). Pray for this little one. For now, we call him "Chance"........if s/he makes it, we'll rename it Victoria or Victor!

 

[jennibos]

Well at the very end of day 23 two more hatched so now have 3 new chicks. Yipeeeee

 

[threeacresfarm]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I didn't find this thread sooner but my GED class started with 12 eggs in a homemade incubator. We had 8 make it to lockdown which started Monday our chicks are due tomorrow (Oct. 11). We have one that has pipped and has been cheeping on and off all day. We candled the eggs before lockdown and all 8 were seen moving in the egg and looked to be right on track.

Stay tuned.

-Three Acres Farm

 

[Rachel96]

Hi everyone!

Cajun Chooks - Lol. I am justifying myself in two ways: (1) Before the last hatch, I never had any more than 3 actually hatch. I still get less than 50% hatch rate. So really I'm only setting about 20 eggs each time... and (2) My family (read: parents) set down lots of rules, like (a) no small chicks inside during winter (June-September), (b) buy supplies/food/brooders/incubators yourself, and a couple of others. It helps that my mother gets more excited every time a chick hatches than I do.

Sweetlilbaby - Don't human babies like being born in the middle of the night, too?

Anyway, I woke up to three this morning. Maybe this won't be as good a hatch as the last one... or maybe they're just slower starting. Who knows? At any rate, there are at least four in the incubator in various stages of hatching (pipping, zipping, wing out zip, and so forth). But since I'm not counting my chickens until they've hatched, I currently have 6 babies (3 this morning, 3 yesterday evening) and 20 not-quite-babies.

I'll hopefully set the incubator again on Saturday. (I know, I know, seek counselling, I'm addicted, et cetera). 2 dozen duck eggs probably, because my sister's been bugging me to give her incubator space. (Seriously, that child is weird. Of a chick: "Aaw, it's so cute!" chick moves fractionally "Argh! It's evil! It has a sharp point beak!". Of a duckling: "Aaw, it's so cute!" duckling moves fractionally "Look at it's adorably round beak!") I'll put 2 dozen chicken eggs in after a week so that they hatch at the same time.

from Rachel.

 

[thebanthams]

Ive decided that I am going to have to take the babies away when they hatch. for their safety. the dominique is breaking some eggs and eating them and my sillkie got some taste for it ! wahhhhhhh!!!

no matter how hard I tried to seperate them they just have a hissy fit !

The dominique is NOT a good mother ! I came home to find two more eggs broken, with babies inside,missing. she either ate them or the other hen did ! But thank goodness I did saved one and put her under Minnie, my white silkie , she has 10 babies and sitting on 5 more eggs !! Minnie is a very good mommy !!!!

 

[threeacresfarm]

We've had 6 of our 8 egs hatch over night. 4 blond RIR's, 1 black Americauna, 1 dark that could be either (it's still pretty wet so it's hard to tell). Two eggs still un-hatched. Today is day 21 so we'll see what happens with those two. All of the hatched chicks appear to be healthy and quite active already. My students are thrilled.

-Three Acres Farm

 

[thebanthams]

We've had 6 of our 8 egs hatch over night. 4 blond RIR's, 1 black Americauna, 1 dark that could be either (it's still pretty wet so it's hard to tell). Two eggs still un-hatched. Today is day 21 so we'll see what happens with those two. All of the hatched chicks appear to be healthy and quite active already. My students are thrilled.

-Three Acres Farm

 

[DreadedMoonMama]

I got 3 chicks out of my 7 eggs. 1 egg didn't develop at all. All 6 remaining were perfect, except for the fact that 3 didn't hatch. I had to help 2 out (1 pipped but didn't zip, the other pipped in the wrong place), and I think while helping them I must've killed the others with the humidity shifts. So sad. But at least the 2 that I helped survived, and now I have 3 cute chicks. Still sad though.

 

[lareynadenada]

I took my bator chicks (banties) put them in with broody who only hatched 2 now everybody is happy but me I Like having them where i can play with them
These two hens sat together throught the whole thing and are sharing the babies