April Hatch Along

[hensareus]

Congratulations! to everyone that hatched while the forum was down. Condolences to those of you that lost chicks...I did to and it is'nt nice.
My hatch is done. The ducks are doing well...3 weeks and a few days old now. Outside and growing like weeds. Will be happy when I can tell if boys or girls.
Had 19 chicks go into lockdown. 11 came out. ..hatched on Mother's Day and Monday.

 

[hensareus]

I lost a tiny Serama chick the same way last week. It hatched with a couple Marans and a couple bantam cochins, but was so small compared to the others.

On a brighter note, I ended up with 29 lavender orpingtons! If I had saved the 3 that died (2 fully zipped, couldn't break out, and 1 hatched, but died on its back in between all the eggs), I would have been happier! But that means only 6 didn't hatch. A couple of those had internal pips, but never external.

I think I had a couple of issues with this incubation. The crowded hatcher caused the temp to go a little high. Not deathly high, but several hatched with raw navels and goopy gunk, and it almost looked like cooked yolk sac. I think the temp was just a little too high for just long enough to gel some of the yolks. I also think my humidity ran too high for these dense shells. Even with no water, it was running 30-35% or higher at times, so they didn't lose as much moisture as I had hoped. But overall, I'm very happy to have gotten as many as I did.

I had the same problem with some of my chicks-the yolk looking odd. And I have a question...the chicks I lost...when I candled them they looked as though they had "settled" in the bottom of the egg. What caused this? When candled at lockdown, they looked good, taking up space and looking ready to hatch.

 

[WVduckchick]

I had the same problem with some of my chicks-the yolk looking odd. And I have a question...the chicks I lost...when I candled them they looked as though they had "settled" in the bottom of the egg. What caused this? When candled at lockdown, they looked good, taking up space and looking ready to hatch.

they do normally "settle" to the bottom of the egg. We call it drawdown. The air cell shifts as the chick gets into hatching position. So its totally normal to see that. usually we aren't candling on day 20-21, but if you do, they should all look that way (there may be some breeds that don't drawdown as drastically ad others). it's actually a good gage that they are getting ready. I've figured out if I lay them the right direction, I can sometimes candle thru the window. If I don't see the air cell drawing down, I get worried.

Sorry you lost some too.

 

[tao chick]

Staggered hatch is exhausting. 17 chicks in brooder from 5/16, 26 eggs locked down in one bator hatching today, 15 in the other bator due tomorrow or Saturday.

I'll update and catch up more soon.

 

[orrpeople]

Oh my goodness! I finally found you all!! During the "black out" we hatched a few more 55s, a splash Marans and a BCM. Terrible hatch rate with these shipped eggs and had to assist almost every one of them (some were huge and in pullet sized eggs). Ah well - bator are cleaned up and put on the shelf for the rest of the season until I

 

[WVduckchick]

Oh my goodness! I finally found you all!! During the "black out" we hatched a few more 55s, a splash Marans and a BCM. Terrible hatch rate with these shipped eggs and had to assist almost every one of them (some were huge and in pullet sized eggs). Ah well - bator are cleaned up and put on the shelf for the rest of the season until I

Glad you found your way back!!
I had quite a few assists with this last hatch also! Sorry we both had rough ones. My bators are empty too, at the moment, but I still have customers wanting more lav orps! I really don't want to set any more (omg, did I just say that?!?) but I think I just told someone I'd set some more. I think I'll try my big cabinet, and set some mutt eggs with them.

I don't know how people brood 30 chicks at a time. I had to split these guys up. They were playing pile on, kinda like Red Rover, Red Rover, and actually killed 2 chicks! Not fun.

 

[Jessimom]

Oh my goodness! I finally found you all!! During the "black out" we hatched a few more 55s, a splash Marans and a BCM. Terrible hatch rate with these shipped eggs and had to assist almost every one of them (some were huge and in pullet sized eggs). Ah well - bator are cleaned up and put on the shelf for the rest of the season until I

I'm glad you found your way back too!! I only had to assist 1 in the 2nd to last hatch and funny enough it was the first to pip - it was completely glued to the shell. It's doing fine now.

Glad you found your way back!!
I had quite a few assists with this last hatch also! Sorry we both had rough ones. My bators are empty too, at the moment, but I still have customers wanting more lav orps! I really don't want to set any more (omg, did I just say that?!?) but I think I just told someone I'd set some more. I think I'll try my big cabinet, and set some mutt eggs with them.

I don't know how people brood 30 chicks at a time. I had to split these guys up. They were playing pile on, kinda like Red Rover, Red Rover, and actually killed 2 chicks! Not fun.

I've had chicks crushed when there are too many. There may have been other reasons, but that is what it appears to be. Now I have 3 brooders that I rotate them through.


I've had way too many hatches recently. I am not sure which ones happened while byc was down.

On the 5th of May, I hatched 7 Sebrights and only 3 of the replacement Biels that Gotro17 got. On the 7th, I hatched 3 Seramas,. On the 10th, 9 Maran eggs for Gotro17 hatched (I think - I'm confused). I also hatched 4 Lav Orps and 10 Tolbunt Polish. On the 16th I hatched 4 Birchen/Splash/Blue Maran eggs (I got 2 bluish, 1 blackish and one splash). I still have AC eggs and a dozen of Gotro17's olive egger eggs. They are on day 12. Gotro17 just got a dozen (maybe more) Isbar eggs I'll be picking up tonight. All of her broodies are currently playing Momma to the eggs I already hatched for her. So, these are going to join the AC/OE eggs.

Of all the chicks hatched, only the Seramas, the most recent Sebrights, the Lavs and the Polish are the only ones still inside. The seramas and the 2 day old Maran chicks are in 1 brooder. The 2 smallest Sebrights are still hanging with the Seramas. The bigger chicks are all in another.

Unfortunately, I don't have ready buyers for any of these chicks. I find it way too difficult to let them go before I know how many boys and girls I have. By then, I want to keep them all!!!

 

[WVduckchick]

that's alot of chicks, different ages! But I have a bunch of broodies raising different aged ones also. I think I only have one pen that doesn't have any babies in it. Lol

now my customer for 19 of the lav orps wants me to keep them another week! I am not prepared for that many to get that big. But I guess I'll figure it out.
delivering the other 7 chicks at 7:00am tomorrow, so I'm off to bed shortly...

and it looks like I'm going to have to cull one for a slipped tendon. I hate those!

 

[Jessimom]

I"m so sorry about the slipped tendon. I had one of those last month. I went a bit crazy from Feb to now. I think I hatched a few chicks almost every week for 3 months....I'm overrun with cute widdle chicks.....I have to find homes for some. I'm already trying to rehome 6 roos - that have started crowing....

 

[orrpeople]

I"m so sorry about the slipped tendon. I had one of those last month. I went a bit crazy from Feb to now. I think I hatched a few chicks almost every week for 3 months....I'm overrun with cute widdle chicks.....I have to find homes for some. I'm already trying to rehome 6 roos - that have started crowing....

We did our first processing day - birds I had been specifically raising for meat plus a few very non SOP BCM boys. That enabled us to move my two "adopted boys" (ACx and SRB) up to the main free range flock. They will love it!!
And, I won a couple of auctions on the Rare Breeds Auction from GFF...so it looks like I will be brooding up another couple of batches of chicks. (hopefully the post office doesn't mess it up!) AND then maybe, just maybe, I will have enough birds to choose from to start a nice little breeding program!?!?