California - Northern

[CackleJoy]

I ended up with 23 hatched, which is a little greater than 30% success. Will have to work on that. One died and I'm watching 2 more that are little and not as vibrant as the others. I helped 6 and four of them are running around like little monster trucks so that was totally worth doing! The other two are the iffy ones.

3 Light Brahma's, a fertility test for a lady in town. I'd say her eggs are good


A little yin and yang. (Is that right?) The black is SO black! We THINK this is an EE topped by the Brabanter as he has black skin.


The far left is a GLW x ? Myster, and then the Brahma's and the black ones. They have to be Brabanter crosses. He's the only cockerel we have with black legs.


A pretty little Dark Brahma EE.


A whole line up of striped and freckled chicks. There is a GLW somewhere in here.


Here, from the top you can see one, maybe two GLW. That was a fertility test for them too.

 

[PetRock]

This is a long hatch drama post so feel free to skip it!

Okay, this was a frustrating hatch and I do not want a repeat. I was determined to keep my hands off and not intervene in hatching but I broke my rule last night. I set 8 Pita Pinta eggs, 7 Pita Pinta/Cream Legbar mix eggs, and 10 black Langshan eggs from my new trio. 6 of the PP mix eggs and 6 of the PP eggs hatched on days 20 and 21. Finally, a few of the Langshan eggs had pips on day 22. I quickly took out the hatched chicks that had been in there for around 24 hours climbing all over all the other eggs. I added warm, wet paper towels when I took them out in order to keep the humidity up. By yesterday morning, some of the Langshan eggs had started zipping. I was gone all day so that kept me from intervening. When I came home 8 hours later, they had not made any progress and the membranes around the pips/zips was turning brown. Two of them happened to be under the vent hole on the top of my Genesis. I was able to use a skewer with a Q-tip taped to the end to put some moisture on the membranes and also to break the shell a little around the opening. Five hours later, there was still no progress. I made the opening a little bigger and made sure that they were still breathing and went to bed. This morning, a different chick had zipped and hatched. Also, one more mix chick pipped last night and hatched this morning. One at a time, I took the ones out who were shrink wrapped, broke the shell a little more, wrapped them in warm, wet paper towels and laid them back in the incubator on their sides. 6 Langshan chicks have now hatched and are running around the incubator but I don't know if they will end up having problems because I assisted them. How stressful! I still have one that pipped yesterday but has made no progress (still breathing) and 3 that have not pipped at all.

I have two more sets of eggs incubating that are a mix of chicks including more Langshans. Ron, would you hatch the Langshan eggs in a separate incubator or just leave all the chicks in there for 48 hours while the Langshans are hopefully hatching? I'm also wondering if I need to supplement my Langshans diet at the farm. They are in a breeding pen and are eating King Freedom feed with access to oyster shell. Their egg shells are nice and hard and the membranes seem very strong. My birds here in town free range my backyard, are fed sprouted grain daily, and I supplement their morning Freedom mash with cayenne pepper, kelp powder, alfalfa powder, and milk thistle powder.

One more question. I am getting 3 doz eggs for the Easter Hatch Along. 1 doz each BBS Langshan, FBCM, and Cream Legbars. I'm starting to worry about hatching those 3 breeds together. What happened to my stress free hatching?!!!

 

[PetRock]

I ended up with 23 hatched, which is a little greater than 30% success. Will have to work on that. One died and I'm watching 2 more that are little and not as vibrant as the others. I helped 6 and four of them are running around like little monster trucks so that was totally worth doing! The other two are the iffy ones.

3 Light Brahma's, a fertility test for a lady in town. I'd say her eggs are good


A little yin and yang. (Is that right?) The black is SO black! We THINK this is an EE topped by the Brabanter as he has black skin.


The far left is a GLW x ? Myster, and then the Brahma's and the black ones. They have to be Brabanter crosses. He's the only cockerel we have with black legs.


A pretty little Dark Brahma EE.


A whole line up of striped and freckled chicks. There is a GLW somewhere in here.


Here, from the top you can see one, maybe two GLW. That was a fertility test for them too.

Adorable chicks! Love chick line up shots!!!

 

[sewandgrow]

I think we are close enough. We have a small window to inseminate after the vial thaws.

Oh my the things we do for the chickens!

Ron & Debi, How long will you keep the pullets from your own roosters before you use your ill gotten vial?? I have heard conflicting reports. I separate for 3 weeks before counting on a new guy.

Welcome, much more going on with this thread. I envy you living close to the center of this group.

Yes Janet but it works both ways good & bad. Good , we have access to a lot of breeds...........and....................Bad, we have access to a lot of breeds........LOL
So tempting....................you end up wanting everything....!!!!!

 

[tommysgirl]

I think we are close enough. We have a small window to inseminate after the vial thaws.

Oh my the things we do for the chickens!

So are you guys serious? You are going to get a vile and hensemenate? I look forward to the day when you are at the point where you can start to share Megan must working very very hard in school how close is she to her DVM???

I ended up with 23 hatched, which is a little greater than 30% success. Will have to work on that. One died and I'm watching 2 more that are little and not as vibrant as the others. I helped 6 and four of them are running around like little monster trucks so that was totally worth doing! The other two are the iffy ones.

3 Light Brahma's, a fertility test for a lady in town. I'd say her eggs are good


A little yin and yang. (Is that right?) The black is SO black! We THINK this is an EE topped by the Brabanter as he has black skin.


The far left is a GLW x ? Myster, and then the Brahma's and the black ones. They have to be Brabanter crosses. He's the only cockerel we have with black legs.


A pretty little Dark Brahma EE.


A whole line up of striped and freckled chicks. There is a GLW somewhere in here.


Here, from the top you can see one, maybe two GLW. That was a fertility test for them too.

Cute Cute Cute....hope your Brabanter mixes get nice little crests...I love nice little crests

This is a long hatch drama post so feel free to skip it!

Okay, this was a frustrating hatch and I do not want a repeat. I was determined to keep my hands off and not intervene in hatching but I broke my rule last night. I set 8 Pita Pinta eggs, 7 Pita Pinta/Cream Legbar mix eggs, and 10 black Langshan eggs from my new trio. 6 of the PP mix eggs and 6 of the PP eggs hatched on days 20 and 21. Finally, a few of the Langshan eggs had pips on day 22. I quickly took out the hatched chicks that had been in there for around 24 hours climbing all over all the other eggs. I added warm, wet paper towels when I took them out in order to keep the humidity up. By yesterday morning, some of the Langshan eggs had started zipping. I was gone all day so that kept me from intervening. When I came home 8 hours later, they had not made any progress and the membranes around the pips/zips was turning brown. Two of them happened to be under the vent hole on the top of my Genesis. I was able to use a skewer with a Q-tip taped to the end to put some moisture on the membranes and also to break the shell a little around the opening. Five hours later, there was still no progress. I made the opening a little bigger and made sure that they were still breathing and went to bed. This morning, a different chick had zipped and hatched. Also, one more mix chick pipped last night and hatched this morning. One at a time, I took the ones out who were shrink wrapped, broke the shell a little more, wrapped them in warm, wet paper towels and laid them back in the incubator on their sides. 6 Langshan chicks have now hatched and are running around the incubator but I don't know if they will end up having problems because I assisted them. How stressful! I still have one that pipped yesterday but has made no progress (still breathing) and 3 that have not pipped at all.

I have two more sets of eggs incubating that are a mix of chicks including more Langshans. Ron, would you hatch the Langshan eggs in a separate incubator or just leave all the chicks in there for 48 hours while the Langshans are hopefully hatching? I'm also wondering if I need to supplement my Langshans diet at the farm. They are in a breeding pen and are eating King Freedom feed with access to oyster shell. Their egg shells are nice and hard and the membranes seem very strong. My birds here in town free range my backyard, are fed sprouted grain daily, and I supplement their morning Freedom mash with cayenne pepper, kelp powder, alfalfa powder, and milk thistle powder.

One more question. I am getting 3 doz eggs for the Easter Hatch Along. 1 doz each BBS Langshan, FBCM, and Cream Legbars. I'm starting to worry about hatching those 3 breeds together. What happened to my stress free hatching?!!!

I know NOTHING! So keep that in mind but it seems to me that if the Langshans are appearing to hatch later and you have the ability to do so you may want to hatch them separately just so you can eliminate the variables of rowdy early hatching chicks and their removal from the bator. I am sorry you were frustrated this go around but kudos to you for getting the results you are getting.

 

[ronott1]

Ron & Debi, How long will you keep the pullets from your own roosters before you use your ill gotten vial?? I have heard conflicting reports. I separate for 3 weeks before counting on a new guy.
Yes Janet but it works both ways good & bad. Good , we have access to a lot of breeds...........and....................Bad, we have access to a lot of breeds........LOL
So tempting....................you end up wanting everything....!!!!!

We should keep them separate for 30 plus days. 6 weeks would be best. The theory from Dr. Bramwell is that a new rooster will "push" out the old rooter stuff. He admits that it is not 100% so one needs to not try this with important breeding.

Hens have had a small amount of fertile eggs more than a month after removal of a rooster.

 

[CackleJoy]

I have a severe problem with the genesis 1588. This is hatch #3 and a new problem. The temp is just spiking like crazy!
Started last night. Looked ok.

This am = 104!!! So I turned it off, opened it and let it sit.

Got home from taking kids to school.

Eggs are down to 99 so I turned it back on.

In one hour it is up to 108!

I just turned it off again and opened the lid.

What do I do? Should I just smash all the eggs and start over? This one had 20 of the MFL eggs and I really wanted them to hatch as there are people wanting to buy them!

 

[tommysgirl]

We should keep them separate for 30 plus days. 6 weeks would be best. The theory from Dr. Bramwell is that a new rooster will "push" out the old rooter stuff. He admits that it is not 100% so one needs to not try this with important breeding.

Hens have had a small amount of fertile eggs more than a month after removal of a rooster.

So do you henseminate over the course of several days? Can one event lead to a month of fertile PP eggs?

 

[CackleJoy]

This is a long hatch drama post so feel free to skip it!

Okay, this was a frustrating hatch and I do not want a repeat. I was determined to keep my hands off and not intervene in hatching but I broke my rule last night. I set 8 Pita Pinta eggs, 7 Pita Pinta/Cream Legbar mix eggs, and 10 black Langshan eggs from my new trio. 6 of the PP mix eggs and 6 of the PP eggs hatched on days 20 and 21. Finally, a few of the Langshan eggs had pips on day 22. I quickly took out the hatched chicks that had been in there for around 24 hours climbing all over all the other eggs. I added warm, wet paper towels when I took them out in order to keep the humidity up. By yesterday morning, some of the Langshan eggs had started zipping. I was gone all day so that kept me from intervening. When I came home 8 hours later, they had not made any progress and the membranes around the pips/zips was turning brown. Two of them happened to be under the vent hole on the top of my Genesis. I was able to use a skewer with a Q-tip taped to the end to put some moisture on the membranes and also to break the shell a little around the opening. Five hours later, there was still no progress. I made the opening a little bigger and made sure that they were still breathing and went to bed. This morning, a different chick had zipped and hatched. Also, one more mix chick pipped last night and hatched this morning. One at a time, I took the ones out who were shrink wrapped, broke the shell a little more, wrapped them in warm, wet paper towels and laid them back in the incubator on their sides. 6 Langshan chicks have now hatched and are running around the incubator but I don't know if they will end up having problems because I assisted them. How stressful! I still have one that pipped yesterday but has made no progress (still breathing) and 3 that have not pipped at all.

I have two more sets of eggs incubating that are a mix of chicks including more Langshans. Ron, would you hatch the Langshan eggs in a separate incubator or just leave all the chicks in there for 48 hours while the Langshans are hopefully hatching? I'm also wondering if I need to supplement my Langshans diet at the farm. They are in a breeding pen and are eating King Freedom feed with access to oyster shell. Their egg shells are nice and hard and the membranes seem very strong. My birds here in town free range my backyard, are fed sprouted grain daily, and I supplement their morning Freedom mash with cayenne pepper, kelp powder, alfalfa powder, and milk thistle powder.

One more question. I am getting 3 doz eggs for the Easter Hatch Along. 1 doz each BBS Langshan, FBCM, and Cream Legbars. I'm starting to worry about hatching those 3 breeds together. What happened to my stress free hatching?!!!

My last hatch was very stressful too. It's awful! Now this one is incubation issues from the get-go. I'm about to hire incubation services again! It is sooooo scary helping chicks! Well done on getting them to hatch themselves. I waited too long and ours were stuck for good.

 

[AmyPaperlady]

Yes Janet but it works both ways good & bad. Good , we have access to a lot of breeds...........and....................Bad, we have access to a lot of breeds........LOL
So tempting....................you end up wanting everything....!!!!!

Well, yeah, but those of us on the edges end up wanting everything, too, but can't do anything about it

(I'd been doing well about the PPs, but then Ron said their eggs are pinkish...)

Then again, I've got a smaller limit than a lot of you, so maybe it's just as well...