BallsElven First Hatch Along

[BallsEleven]

I’ll go ahead and explain my username first! I was in the Air Force as an aircraft maintainer for C-130s. The first plane that I was assigned to had the tail number “0011.” So naturally, everyone called it “Balls Eleven.”

Now onto the show…

This is my first hatch period. I’ve had my chickens about a year and a half now. It started with my sister having an unexpected hatch. They thought they had lost a hen and after a couple of weeks it showed back up with 14 chicks. I had been wanting some so we took half of them in.

After having some of them go broody here and there I decided to add to the bunch and let them hatch. I ordered some Blue Australorp eggs last week and they came in yesterday. I let them sit for 24 hours upside down and went ahead and stuck them under my most vocal and protective broody hen. I plan on trying to keep her with the rest of the flock.

I meant to get pictures while I was placing them but the recent cold front has pissed the mosquitos off to no end. I will get some tomorrow and again when I candle in the next couple of eggs.

This should be a fun couple of weeks, especially for my 4 and and 5 year old boys. They are pumped.

 

[sourland]

Good luck for a successful incubation and hatch.

 

[BallsEleven]

Ok so first issue.

I put all the eggs under my production red in box A last night. I’ve also got 2 leghorns broody that were in box D last night (those 2 always sit next to each other).

Well I just went to check that everything was ok and my red moved to box B with no hatching eggs and now the 2 leghorns are in box A with the hatching eggs split 4 a piece between them.

Should I leave them alone and let them sit?

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Did anything happen? I see no one replied about the eggs and the leghorns.

 

[BallsEleven]

Yes! A lot of learning has gone on to say the least.

So originally I started out with 8 eggs and put them in the box I decided to leave them under the 2 leghorns since they had kicked out the red out of the box.

After a few days I candled to see what was going on. I could see development in some, but not others. I decided to leave them all since it was my first time candling and am still learning.

Around day 8 I candled again. I saw zero development in 3 eggs and very little in 2 more so I removed those. I cracked them open to see what was going on and 2 of those first 3 looked like normal eggs, nothing odd. The last of the group of 3 was completely scrambled, yoke not intact. As for the other 2, from what I could tell they looked like they quit around day 3. This left me with 3 hopeful eggs.

Around day 10 tragedy struck. I got busy and failed to check on the coop and gather laid eggs that day. When I went out there the following day, the hens weren't sitting on their nest. They had apparently gotten lost and both squatted in a closer box that had a laid egg in it. The hatch eggs were cold and I briefly thought I should go ahead and throw them out but I decided there was no harm in sticking them back under the girls just in case.

I'm glad I did this because a few days later I checked again and 2 of the 3 were alive, or so I thought. I could see movement in the 2 but not the third. It also looked like it was lagging behind the others so I removed it. I went to crack it to investigate like I had done before and out pops a goopy chick, still alive.

I. Felt. Like. Crap. I learned a hard lesson that day. When in doubt, just leave the egg another day or 2. So this left me with 2 eggs remaining.

Fast forward and I did one last candle last night and both eggs had moving chicks in them. If I'm right, I should have chicks tomorrow or Thursday. I will be prepping the pen, run, and coop tonight for the chicks. All the other girls are getting the boot out to the perimeter fence to give momma and her chicks room but still have a fence to interact. The broody hen is pretty high up on the pecking order so I will let the flock start interacting pretty shortly. If I have any issues with that or during hatching I have a makeshift brooder on standby. I wish I knew when it would happen so I could be there but oh well, not much I can do about that.

I hope the next few days are easy on me!

 

[BallsEleven]

Oh shot! They’ve pipped!

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Oh man! How exciting that they pipped!

I'm so sorry. I've totally been there with the gut wrenchin feeling of cracking an egg I thought had quit, only to find the chick was still growing. I too learned the hard way that "when in doubt wait it out" is the way to go. At the same time, it is very educational to open failed eggs to see what might have gone wrong. There was no ill intent in what happened, you didn't have reason to believe the chick was still alive.

 

[BallsEleven]

Yeah, I just have to take it as a learning moment.

The chicks that made it to the end are doing great though. I realized my coop/pen is great for keeping chickens in, but not chicks so I moved them inside. Momma wasn't happy about that. I'll have to remember to take a picture next time I'm at the house.