Bay Area BYCers!

[wolftracks]

Sunny I had BCMs shrink wrapped bad. I lost 2, 1 hatched and the others were clear. I know which hen that is and I'm caging her with my roo for a day or two, so he doesn't miss her. LOL

These eggs were so dark, I had a really hard time trying to see the aircells, but I could see enough that I knew something was wrong. I pipped the tops and sure enough, they were stuck. I tried to help them, but one was so weak by the time I decided to help it was barely breathing. The other was full of liquid. One dry, one wet and still in the inner membrane. Perfectly formed.

I got several OEs and BCMxGames, so I have some to sell for feed money. LOL I did get one BCM, but had to help it out in the end.

Truevalentine I'm always the one with my nose to the bator. The kids will watch a bit, but then they just check here and there. I'm the hatchaholic! Hope you get losts of chicks!

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Ok give me a couple of minutes to upload some of my pics...
Silver boys...

Silver girls (although the boys and girls both look like this to start).

A wheaten pair. The boys are much darker by 3 and a half weeks. These pics were taken today so they are around 4 weeks old. Blue wheatens would just be lighter than this pair (both boys and girls).

The silvers take longer to show the male coloring than the wheatens do. I'm afraid you might have to be a little more patient to tell for sure with them.

Good luck!

Kim I'm so sorry you are having so much trouble with your FBCMs. I wish I had more ideas on how to help but that was all I could think of. Maybe someone else has an idea what the problem might be?

 

[Truevalentine]

Two out

, three pipped and one zipped! Started worrying about humidity (don't have a gauge) because the one who is zipped was the first one zipped hours ago and thought the membrane was looking a little dry so I tried to add some water in on the sponges through the vent. POP!

goes the lightbulb

Threw a near by blanket over the box and ran to get another. Only lost one degree celsius (accidentally changed my therm the other day and can't figure out how to get it back!), but now I'm REALLY worried that I've messed up the humidity for the ones who are working cause I had to move the top to change the bulb and pick up the glass fragments.

Kids are SUPER excited and wanting to look at the progress almost constantly. MY three year old has stood there for 5 minutes or more at a time watching and has decided to be their mommy. DCB decided to be their daddy and DCG decided to be their grandma! lol.

 

[CowgirlJules]

My last batch of eggs for a while goes into lockdown tomorrow. They're olive eggers from really dark eggs.

But working with chlorine for so long has deadened my sense of smell. I could tell something with off, and thought it was either the trash or the compost bowl, so took both of those out. I did stick my nose in the incubator but didn't notice anything off. Well, when I went to candle on Saturday night, it was obvious what I'd missed. I'd had one explode all over everything, and long enough ago that it was all dried up on the floor and gross. Gagged my kid from across the room. Guess that's the advantage of losing my sense of smell - didn't bother me much at all. I pulled it and the one it had oozed on, changed the turner to my other one, and put the eggs that didn't candle clear back in. I know there's a possibility that they'll be contaminated, but I had to try.

I've been having decent incubations but horrible hatching rates, so I'm using chookschick's advice for styrofoam bators, which I use for a hatcher. I used to always keep the plugs in but have them out now, and it's stabilizing fine. They go in tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed, but I'm also ready to stop incubating and get my power bills back down to normal. Once the brooder lights are off, it will be even better.

 

[PetRock]

Thank you, Sunny! These are our first Ameraucanas and we are having fun guessing! The two 4 wk old Silvers have very similar coloring in their feathers but one has feathered out so much slower than the other. He/she is also the one who is always watching us and sometimes pecks the other birds. He/she has earned the name Trouble!

Trouble and Amelia.

Trouble and Amelia. Notice how small Trouble's tail is.

Amelia Earhart aka Number 1 and Trapeeze due to her high flying antics.

We also have two of Jeremy's Blue Wheatens. Lemon Drop is just over 3 weeks old and Cosette is around 2 weeks old, I think. We are so hoping that at least 1 of them is a girl!

But have started to wonder about Lemon Drop with every dark feather that grows and the way his/her comb is starting to develop.

Lemon Drop

Cosette

 

[PetRock]

I just want to share one more pic of our two hatchery chicks. When our 3rd little Silver Am died, we met Jeremy at the Concord feed store to pick up Lemon Drop. My 9 yr. old daughter and I went in to check out the chicks. I don't know how it happened but we came out with a Blue Langshan and a Buff Brahma from the pullet bins!

We've named the Langshan Bijou which means Jewel in French. She is a crazy little bird and I like her because of it! She picks up pine shavings, drops them in the waterer, then fishes them out and eats them.

I was worried about her eating too many of them but she eats lots of starter crumbles and poops big poops! Today, we were letting all the chicks have a turn playing out of the brooder on a rug by the backdoor. Monet was holding the Buff Brahma who will be named either Sasquatch or Chewbacca. (She is Monet's favorite!) Crazy Bijou flew and landed on top of Sasquatch! She just stood there while I snapped pics and Sas did not seem to mind at all! All the chicks seemed to want to perch on Monet today! The Silvers were especially bad as they both wanted to be on her head! They are definitely a high maintenance pair!

 

[wolftracks]

Quote:
Noooooooooo

What else ya got canned?????????????? LOL

BTW everyone. Debi's daughter is even cuter than the chicks. She's a beautiful girl.

 

[wolftracks]

Quote:
OH

How goes the hatch?

Did everything work out?

 

[cherylcohen]

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are your old english BANTAMS??? I have someone that needs some

 

[PetRock]

Thank you, Kim! Your granddaughter is beautiful, too! It was fun to meet her! Did she end up having a fun weekend with your daughter?