April Hatch Along

[tao chick]

Hooray! The last egg is out of the incubator! I'm so relieved. As expected hatch rate for my eggs was better than shipped eggs. I have 52 little chicks. After selling some I still have 11 older chicks. I sold part of my older flock and now have 9 adult hens. I have room for ~40 this winter (should be less though), so the next 6 months will involve evaluating my flock and space. I wanted a better group after Brabanter but no such luck. I have other breeds to evaluate for development. Maybe y'all can help me decide.

 

[orrpeople]

Hooray! The last egg is out of the incubator! I'm so relieved. As expected hatch rate for my eggs was better than shipped eggs. I have 52 little chicks. After selling some I still have 11 older chicks. I sold part of my older flock and now have 9 adult hens. I have room for ~40 this winter (should be less though), so the next 6 months will involve evaluating my flock and space. I wanted a better group after Brabanter but no such luck. I have other breeds to evaluate for development. Maybe y'all can help me decide.

I am in the same boat! Lots and lots of chicks, and trying to narrow it down to about 6-7 per breed. I'm not terribly stressed because I learned how to process my unwanted roosters - but I may have to part with some hens, and that makes me sad because I pretty much love them all!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Same here! Way too many chicks. And was at Rural King yesterday and they have several bins for 75 cents each! Chicks for under a dollar!! Good grief, they kill my business. lol

But I'm considering getting rid of all of my Seramas and possibly even the OEGB's. Although.... surprise of all surprises... of the 9 silver duckwings that hatched a few weeks ago, 7 are female!! I never have that good of luck! So maybe I'll sell the adults, and start over with these babies! Cochins aren't appearing so lucky, several boys are already showing themselves, as is the case with the chocolate orps.

And then there are broodies. The broody bug is still rampant at my place.

ETA - @orrpeople how are you processing the males?

 

[orrpeople]

Same here! Way too many chicks. And was at Rural King yesterday and they have several bins for 75 cents each! Chicks for under a dollar!! Good grief, they kill my business. lol

But I'm considering getting rid of all of my Seramas and possibly even the OEGB's. Although.... surprise of all surprises... of the 9 silver duckwings that hatched a few weeks ago, 7 are female!! I never have that good of luck! So maybe I'll sell the adults, and start over with these babies! Cochins aren't appearing so lucky, several boys are already showing themselves, as is the case with the chocolate orps.

And then there are broodies. The broody bug is still rampant at my place.

ETA - @orrpeople how are you processing the males?

We are so blessed to have friends with all the "stuff" for processing. I took 8 of my boys over last Saturday to learn (although another person who came to learn how to process with us bought one of them from me!) They have a brilliant 4 cone set up with a slanted draining base, a scalder (which was having a malfunction, so we struggled a bit to keep the water at 140 degrees - they fixed it after), a brilliant plucking machine (Wow! When they come out, they look so much like grocery store chickens that doing the gutting is no worse than Thanksgiving morning!) And they have a couple of those portable fish processing tables with drains, clips for holding a hose and a trash hole. They just use big home depot buckets under the drains and trash. It was not nearly as bad as I was preparing myself for. I even think (except the plucker, I love the plucker) I would feel comfortable doing it at home and I might have to... my big BCM roo has all-of-a-sudden decided he wants to fight me in the morning.

 

[sc000000bysnack]

Alrighty! The count so far is 4 quail babies and 15 bantam cochin babies!

Ducks are du in 6 days!

They are so precious! Congrats!

 

[wildknives]

Hi, sorta new here, my question is: How many peeps do you lose to crushing? I swear it looks like they were stepped on with a boot. They are just ...Flat...and dead. its the third time its happened to me this season. Last time I lost 4 older chicks but I think it was cold and I didnt put out the heat lamp. And I had a lot of babies that clutch (20+).

 

[orrpeople]

Hi, sorta new here, my question is: How many peeps do you lose to crushing? I swear it looks like they were stepped on with a boot. They are just ...Flat...and dead. its the third time its happened to me this season. Last time I lost 4 older chicks but I think it was cold and I didnt put out the heat lamp. And I had a lot of babies that clutch (20+).

Where are your peeps? Broody hen? Brooder? How crowded? I am really sorry for your losses! I haven't lost any to crushing, so I'm not entirely sure what's happening with your little ones. If you give us some more details, we can maybe help better. Yes, they need warmth for the first few weeks (depending upon your weather conditions).

 

[orrpeople]

Okay folks... almost like hatching, right?? My shipment came!!! 28 55s and 12 SRBs!!

And, lest you think I'm made of $ (bwahahah!!) I won two auctions I never thought I could possibly win!!

 

[WVduckchick]

Hi, sorta new here, my question is: How many peeps do you lose to crushing? I swear it looks like they were stepped on with a boot. They are just ...Flat...and dead. its the third time its happened to me this season. Last time I lost 4 older chicks but I think it was cold and I didnt put out the heat lamp. And I had a lot of babies that clutch (20+).

i lost 4 of 29 lavender Orpingtons a couple weeks ago, just looked smashed in the brooder box. I think it was twofold... too crowded and they were late hatchers with slight navel problems. Humidity messed with me this time, I've never lost so many after hatching before. But I've also never hatched so many large chicks (i do mostly bantams) at one time before. They like the play pile-on in the corners. I think the weak ones lose out.

Where are your peeps? Broody hen? Brooder? How crowded? I am really sorry for your losses! I haven't lost any to crushing, so I'm not entirely sure what's happening with your little ones. If you give us some more details, we can maybe help better. Yes, they need warmth for the first few weeks (depending upon your weather conditions).

x2

Okay folks... almost like hatching, right?? My shipment came!!! 28 55s and 12 SRBs!!
View attachment 1020859 View attachment 1020860 View attachment 1020861
And, lest you think I'm made of $ (bwahahah!!) I won two auctions I never thought I could possibly win!!

holy smokes! Congrats!
be sure to post more pics!

my incubators are turned off for a change. But still have plenty of broodies going. 2 are due any day now! Likely see some chicks today. Felt at least an external pip under one.

 

[orrpeople]

i lost 4 of 29 lavender Orpingtons a couple weeks ago, just looked smashed in the brooder box. I think it was twofold... too crowded and they were late hatchers with slight navel problems. Humidity messed with me this time, I've never lost so many after hatching before. But I've also never hatched so many large chicks (i do mostly bantams) at one time before. They like the play pile-on in the corners. I think the weak ones lose out.



x2



holy smokes! Congrats!
be sure to post more pics!

my incubators are turned off for a change. But still have plenty of broodies going. 2 are due any day now! Likely see some chicks today. Felt at least an external pip under one.

I love my broodies and their babies - Buffy is still doing great - I'm gradually giving her more freedom around more birds. She is crazy protective! I still don't trust our dogs with the little ones (for some reason they're awesome with the middle to Biggs, but view the littlest as something to chase and snack!) so she is still restricted to the garden area I didn't get around to planting this year.

Skipper - who while we were in our BYC blackout lost all her eggs to the aforementioned dogs (didn't realize they could squish their bodies through my pop door - ) while she was out doing her daily poop and eat - has two of the 55s I hatched from Candace. She is also doing great.