April 2020 Hatch-A-Long! All are welcome!

[Akoharski4]

Silkie (buff) day 9!

 

[gmjarvi]

I'm reluctantly on this ride. I love chicks, and I Iove watching a broody become a mother, then be a mother. It's the teaching part that makes me grin I'm just not best prepared to deal with the consequences of going over my municipal limit and risking having a cockerel.

Last fall, a friend gave me her three favourite hens, two that she hatched and one bought locally RTL. She was told that it was an Ameraucana. She was naive and the bird was not an Ameraucana. I'll add a photo later. She's on the small side, like a leghorn, with a rose comb, with greyish white feathers with grey splotches and she has a rose comb and tiny wattles. If she were human, she'd look like a tough old lady with short hair that you don't mess with. She is holed up in my birds favourite laying box. She definitely has character.

Earlier this week, she was not out like my other birds. Thursday, she was on the eggs and retrieved eggs after a couple of visits. Yesterday, she was on the eggs again. The others are going into the box with her and laying and she is bogarting the eggs. I bought four lavender Orpington eggs this morning from a hobby breeder in Ontario. I came home, Esther was still on the eggs. I took today's eggs out. She was not happy and pecked me a couple of times. She didn't growl or come close to hurt me, but I remain convinced that she's broody.

I put the marked Orpington eggs beside her and was getting ready to manipulate her to thinking I put the originals back, she was rolling the new eggs underneath her.

The smartest thing for me to do is break her, but we are still getting temperatures below zero at night. I don't want to soak her and not giver a chance to dry off and warm up. I see two worst case scenarios. No viable eggs and I have to break her anyhow, or four cockerels. I went with basically battery-type hybrid hens because I didn't want to have to deal with this.

I am at my municipal limit for hens. In fact, I'm over by two. I thought that I would have losses due to winter and predators. Even though we are fairly suburban, other chicken owners in my suburb have had losses. I haven't had that heartbreak yet.

I went with lavender Orpingtons because they are attractive and I should have no problem selling or giving away a pullet, and I might have a better chance moving a cockerel of that breed/colour. Being dual-purpose, an Orpington could also be eaten if I could find an abattoir that will process small numbers of birds.

Is Esther maybe an Easter Egger? A lot of times they are labeled as "Americana" at feed stores or a similar misspelling of Ameraucana.

Fingers crossed it goes well and you get all pullets so they'll be easier to part with!

 

[Akoharski4]

Also if you haven’t visited the “boob egg” saga on BYC it’s worth a visit for the laughs and the OP’s sense of humor.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...tch-an-egg-in-my-boobs.1350903/#post-22263489

 

[elizabethu42]

Since this is my first time hatching ducks I'm going to need a little help. Can anyone teach me the tips and tricks for a successful hatch. Just put in 6 Rouen duck eggs and I need some help with what humidity should be as well as temp and how lockdown should go.

 

[legojenn]

Is Esther maybe an Easter Egger? A lot of times they are labeled as "Americana" at feed stores or a similar misspelling of Ameraucana.

Fingers crossed it goes well and you get all pullets so they'll be easier to part with!

She could be anything. Her eggs are almost yellow. The colour of these eggs are distorted a little. The two bottm-right eggs are Esther's. The four surrounding are from my hybrids Lohmanns and Red Stars. The colour on the four to my eyes are almost the same and the green one is from a barnyard mix. She has no visible comb or wattle, has feathered legs, sideburns and is tiny. The father was an easter-egger.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I'll jump in! I have 35 eggs from a pot luck auction (1 egg was cracked) and 15 Cream Legbars.

The pot luck breakdown:
1 Basque hens
4 Barbezieux
2 Blue Marans
1 Mixed Marans
2 Cream Legbars
3 Gold laced Orpington s
2 Golden Spitzhauben
5 Isbars
2 Liege Fighters
3 Pavlovskaya
3 Silver double laced Barnevelder
4 Blue laced red Wyandotte

I hatched eggs from this same source in February! I hatched 18/36 which I was happy with. From the list you mentioned I hatched Barbezieux, mixed Marans, Legbars, Isbar, Barnevelder, and Wyandotte! Here's a few pictures of them from today. There are 10 chicks from her (Cindy-Foxfire Farms) potluck eggs and 5 mixed chicks from another source. The 2 roosters I'm keeping from her stock are a splash Isbar and a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte.

 

[Jules929]

I hatched eggs from this same source in February! I hatched 18/36 which I was happy with. From the list you mentioned I hatched Barbezieux, mixed Marans, Legbars, Isbar, Barnevelder, and Wyandotte! Here's a few pictures of them from today. There are 10 chicks from her (Cindy-Foxfire Farms) potluck eggs and 5 mixed chicks from another source. The 2 roosters I'm keeping from her stock are a splash Isbar and a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte.

View attachment 2058142View attachment 2058146

Beautiful!
I candled last night and saw veins in 21 of the 35, but it's early, barely day 4, but I couldn't resist, lol.

 

[gmjarvi]

Since this is my first time hatching ducks I'm going to need a little help. Can anyone teach me the tips and tricks for a successful hatch. Just put in 6 Rouen duck eggs and I need some help with what humidity should be as well as temp and how lockdown should go.

Try this post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/first-time-incubating-duck-eggs.1351100/post-22267911

@FortCluck just hatched ducks last month and has more in the bator this month. There are other duck hatchers in this thread, but I'm having a hard time remembering who is hatching what. I have cayuga eggs in the bator but it is my first hatch with ducks so I'm hesitant to give advice, but here is the method I'm using so far:
My humidity is around 40-45% and temp has been between 99° and 100°. They are on an automatic turner set to turn every hour. They are on D8 so I will start cooling for 10 min a day and then mist them with warm water before returning them to the incubator. I will probably treat lockdown similar to chicken eggs, but start it on D25 or so.

I wont candle until D10 because they are shipped eggs and have wonky air cells, so I want to handle them as little as possible.

 

[FortCluck]

Try this post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/first-time-incubating-duck-eggs.1351100/post-22267911

@FortCluck just hatched ducks last month and has more in the bator this month. There are other duck hatchers in this thread, but I'm having a hard time remembering who is hatching what. I have cayuga eggs in the bator but it is my first hatch with ducks so I'm hesitant to give advice, but here is the method I'm using so far:
My humidity is around 40-45% and temp has been between 99° and 100°. They are on an automatic turner set to turn every hour. They are on D8 so I will start cooling for 10 min a day and then mist them with warm water before returning them to the incubator. I will probably treat lockdown similar to chicken eggs, but start it on D25 or so.

I wont candle until D10 because they are shipped eggs and have wonky air cells, so I want to handle them as little as possible.

I do my humidity and stuff quite different with my duck eggs than everyone else so I won't give advice. I don't want to confuse anyone or anything. I did have a good hatch rate last time with them.

I'm unsure if im spraying mine or not this time. I might or I might not. I'll see how the air cells look. These duck eggs are mine so I know exactly where they came from and the quality of my ducks. You know me only the best breeding stock. I can't stand others eggs anymore because they just don't meet my satisfaction.

 

[FortCluck]

@BantyChooks is hatching ducks too. Call ducks I'm sure Banty has advice she could share.