BYC's 2021 Spooktacular Halloween Hatch-Along!

[LadiesAndJane]

Came home after being out most of the day to this! Separator system is working.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

View attachment 2873133

If there's a "Worst Photographer" contest, here is my submission

My spooky Welsh Harlequin klings scared me by hatching two days earlier than I expected. Like, I entered the bird room to lock down the incubator, and found 5 of them riding the automatic egg turner ride. Wheeeee!!!

I'll post a proper photo later. Now I'm off to figure out if I screwed something up, or they're just being butts.

Okay, here's my final hatch stats:
6 Rhode Island Red eggs set, 6 hatched.
56 Welsh Harlequin duck eggs set, 22 hatched.
Other than starting early, no significant issues, and the hatchlings all look good after 24-48 hours.

Of the 34 unhatched duck eggs, 6 were infertile and pulled on Day 7, which made room for the chicken eggs.

4 were early quitters, which I define as "more yolk than fetus".

24 were late quitters, which I define as "more fetus than yolk", including one "pip but no zip". Obviously this is a problem, and from my reading I believe it's mostly because the parents are young (6 months when these eggs were laid), and the relatively high 5000' elevation here also contributed.

I plan to separate the species next week. (Heater removed for photo.)

This is my bird room, AKA master bathroom. The budgerigars are waiting to join the coturnix quail in the outside aviary, but I'm finding that stitching and hanging hardware cloth has pushed the limits of my strength, endurance, and dexterity. The shower stall makes a wonderful splash zone for ducklings and yes I need to clean it!

Nice photo bomb!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

 

[muddy75]

little BOO got to come out and play for a few minutes tonight. I will move him to the brooder in the morning. Frankie is starting to stand up and look around. I still haven’t detached the last remnants of the egg but will tomorrow morning if it hasn’t come off by itself. I may have to do some more cleaning to clear off the membrane that stuck on her.

 

[Wyandottebantam]

Welcome!! You can still follow along and watch all the hatchings!
I've been hatching for a while and I still learn things. Everyone has great ideas.

Plus, there are some fantastic contests you can check out!

Yeah thanks. Can't wait to see all the hatchings!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Final tally this hatch 9/10. One was DIS. 3 Polkies/6 Silkies this time. Got two black silkies this go round! Last batch they were all paint. Photo of eight of them in the dryer. One is still in the “hatcher” incubator.

 

[casportpony]

Congrats everyone!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

They will soon be all white. At least they better be.

All white? I couldn't have called that.

I can't predict what color mine are going to be.
The brown chipmunks used to turn out brown. This year they were white with black.
The silvers like your chicks would mean light-colored males...like light-colored silver duckwing oegbs.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Came home after being out most of the day to this! Separator system is working.View attachment 2876265

That seems to work very well! It's like a chick corral.

Final tally this hatch 9/10. One was DIS. 3 Polkies/6 Silkies this time. Got two black silkies this go round! Last batch they were all paint. Photo of eight of them in the dryer. One is still in the “hatcher” incubator.View attachment 2876775

Cuteness overload!
That's a nice variety of colors with the black!

 

[muddy75]

Well my hatch is done and the incubators are scheduled to be cleaned and packed away until next year.

 

[muddy75]

I started with 10 eggs. 2 were clear. 3 were early quitters. 2 hatched early with assistance after external pip. The remaining 3 DIS by the time I started assistance on hatch day. Little Boo unfortunately died in the incubator yesterday tangled up in the shelf liner. Little Frankie is in the brooder but I’m not sure she will make it. I will update her progress.