April 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[lilwanderer]

the 8 remaining orpington eggs are doing well! Hatch date is tuesday.
Those of you who remember Popeye and want an update, they are doing well. Starting think this Popeye may be an olive oil/Olivia actually (I'm keeping them by the way. )
The turkeys, told myself i didnt want any, but guess what? I kept two. The remaining 6 were given back to the owner.
I only want gobblers though as i dont plan on hatching turkeys (To keep anyway), and im hoping to be able to talk to them in the future and they go "Gobble-Gobble-Gobble!" . But anyways, I got a deal and they said if i get hens, they'll trade em out for gobblers.

 

[Iluveggers]

My eggs are in lockdown! Hoping to see some pups tomorrow night and maybe a hatch on Sat! (Mine usually start 12-24 hours early…we shall see!)

 

[Dinoroar]

7 quail eggs in the Hatcher. I’ve had to pull a few stinkers & I really have no clue if these are all duds. The quail had just started back laying when I gathered them & maybe they weren’t fertile? Anyway I should know on the 30th,

 

[dominiquePL]

I came back from work and...
Two more have hatched since then - i'm waiting for them to dry out to move them.

 

[Waterfaery]

I managed to free up a chicken tractor to use as a larger integration run for my chicks. The March group have been enjoying it. When I can supervise them, I've been wedging the tractor door open a crack so that they can get in and out of the main area with the adults but the adults can't get in to them. It's been working really well and the adults have been really welcoming. It's so cute!

So a couple of days ago I moved my April chicks out to try to integrate them with the March chicks. I moved the whole indoor brooder outdoors so it's within the tractor. The big chicks have the whole run of the tractor but the little ones are contained within their own space. I left them like that for a couple of days and it seemed really sweet. Each group was a bit curious but didn't seem overly concerned about each other.

Here's a closer shot of some of the April chicks.

Then today I tried letting the little ones out and it didn't go very well! I followed the same idea - I opened the little chicks' door enough so that they could get in and out but the big chicks couldn't get in to them. Only a few little ones came out but the ones that did never really paid any attention to how to get back in. Most of the big chicks were fine with them but a few (I think mostly cockerels) were very mean to the little ones. They were pecking quite harshly and the little ones were running around frantically and screaming. They didn't have a clue how to find their way back. I ended up picking them up and putting them back in.

I wonder if they're too little still or if the age difference is too big. The March chicks are 4 and a half weeks old now and the April ones are 10 days. Or I wonder if maybe it was a mistake to let the big chicks mix with the adults before introducing them to the little chicks. Maybe they just need more time to get used to each other and then try again. At least they're all located together now, which makes things easier.

 

[ivy_huan]

Here is my hatch so far
Set 17 duck eggs the first round the end of March 16 went into lockdown and 15 cute little ducklings came out

Also had 2 barred rock chicks hatched out too from the same hatch
Now I'm waiting on my goose eggs to hatch. 2 went into lockdown and only one internally pipped I think I can hear the chirp and no movement in the other one sadly

 

[dominiquePL]

I managed to free up a chicken tractor to use as a larger integration run for my chicks. The March group have been enjoying it. When I can supervise them, I've been wedging the tractor door open a crack so that they can get in and out of the main area with the adults but the adults can't get in to them. It's been working really well and the adults have been really welcoming. It's so cute!

So a couple of days ago I moved my April chicks out to try to integrate them with the March chicks. I moved the whole indoor brooder outdoors so it's within the tractor. The big chicks have the whole run of the tractor but the little ones are contained within their own space. I left them like that for a couple of days and it seemed really sweet. Each group was a bit curious but didn't seem overly concerned about each other.

View attachment 3485730

Here's a closer shot of some of the April chicks.

View attachment 3485733

Then today I tried letting the little ones out and it didn't go very well! I followed the same idea - I opened the little chicks' door enough so that they could get in and out but the big chicks couldn't get in to them. Only a few little ones came out but the ones that did never really paid any attention to how to get back in. Most of the big chicks were fine with them but a few (I think mostly cockerels) were very mean to the little ones. They were pecking quite harshly and the little ones were running around frantically and screaming. They didn't have a clue how to find their way back. I ended up picking them up and putting them back in.

I wonder if they're too little still or if the age difference is too big. The March chicks are 4 and a half weeks old now and the April ones are 10 days. Or I wonder if maybe it was a mistake to let the big chicks mix with the adults before introducing them to the little chicks. Maybe they just need more time to get used to each other and then try again. At least they're all located together now, which makes things easier.

I think they need more supervised time together. And i agree about cockerels attacking the little ones. I had the same situation with mine and the silkies. It only lasted one day though and then it got better but i had to make sure there were enough feeders since some cockerels kept on pecking the silkies when they were eating. I also didnt let the cockerels do that when i was there, however, i'm not sure if it mattered. My chicks were about 7 weeks then. The chicks were together for the first 6 weeks, then separated for another week and put back together in a new coop and then the pecking started. After a few weeks I can say it went ok - but at that time I was pretty nervous. Good luck!

 

[gimmie birdies]

I think I had 4-5 clears but I had set 42 eggs so that is fine.

 

[dominiquePL]

I lost 6 Australorp chicks (DIS). All 6 were malpositioned (head over the wing or under the left wing), most od them looked ready to hatch (almost no yolk left). They
didnt even pipped internally. The rest (19) are doing fine, there is just 1 egg left (internally pipped, chirping). All 4 Bresse have hatched without any problems.
Is it possible that using the turner had something to do with malpositioning? It was the first time I used it.

 

[Canadian Wind]

I lost 6 Australorp chicks (DIS). All 6 were malpositioned (head over the wing or under the left wing), most od them looked ready to hatch (almost no yolk left). They
didnt even pipped internally. The rest (19) are doing fine, there is just 1 egg left (internally pipped, chirping). All 4 Bresse have hatched without any problems.
Is it possible that using the turner had something to do with malpositioning? It was the first time I used it.

I'm so sorry to hear this!

I don't use a turner, so I don't know if it can affect that. Did you remove it, or place the eggs somewhere else? Most people do, I believe...