California - Northern

Quote: I bought a scale from Costco and will weight them next time. I especially think it be would helpful on the dark eggs since some of them you can't see in very well. I'm using the Brinsea with the humidity pump so it's stays where you want it and there's no extreme humps and valleys like when you have to add water manually and the incubator doesn't seem to be effected by the outside humidity or temp.
Thank you for the information. I'm setting again this weekend so I'll be spending a little more attention to the eggs weight. I also have noticed that I have a row of eggs that don't produce eggs. I noticed this hatch that the eggs in that row felt cooler then the other rows when I was candling. I'm not sure how that can be but both hatches had none of few eggs hatch in that row. I'll look at my notes but I think all three of the eggs that were prefectly formed chicks who never even pipped were all in that row and I'll know when I eggtopsy these what I have. On my notes from my last candling of this hatch I have one of the two clears and the rest at various stages of early quitting so we'll see.

Leif Errikson has a story to tell if he could! Glad he's back safe! We had a group of juveniles from my Polish pen who decided to pick on my main roo and one day he was gone. Couldn't find him anyway. A couple of days later my husband sees this Polish roo walking up the driveway! I picture him with a suitcase in his hand and not wanting to talk about where he'd been!
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Betty, I'm sorry to hear about your husbands job. I need to have my shoulder repaired also but after back surgeries last year it's hard to take the time for a surgery that has another long recovery time! Especially hard for a construction worker to take the time! My brother never got his fixed because he couldn't afford to take the time, he was a contractor. My husband worked construction all his life before getting a job with Union Pacific Railroad and being promoted into management at around 40. All the guys that stayed in construction are all bent up and crippled from the hard work and not taking care of themselves since most don't have insurance. I'm glad your husband did take the time to get the surgery.

On the legality of disability to unemployment...I'm an employer and had a girl on disability and she didn't keep in touch with me in the 7 months she was gone. She'd pop in every once in awhile and say this or that but never really knowing when she'd have her surgery, let alone be released to work so I hired someone else. From my understanding of the law, she had to keep in touch with me, letting me know release dates with at least 2 weeks notice, etc. for me to have to hold her job. Sounds like your husband did everything he was required to do. I'd have your husband talk to his boss and tell him your husband will file for unemployment if he doesn't have any work. If his boss has not had anyone file then his payroll % should be nice and low....believe me ONE employee filing cost me a 5% increase of all my payroll for goodness knows how long!

I'm so sorry, construction is a tough enough business to make a living in, let alone add what it does to your body! At least he's taking care of himself and construction is picking up in most places so
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he'll get another job!
 
This morning Johnny (my boyfriend) and I were up at 6 "saving" Pita Pinta's. There are at least 4 eggs that pipped and began zipping over 36 hours ago and nothing has happened since. The membrane dried out and was browning. The poor little babies had their beaks sticking out and chirping like crazy to get out :-( We used tweezers to break off the egg shell bit by bit and q-tips to wet the membrane. Once the top of the shell (with the airsac) was off, we put them back in the incubator. It took literally 2 seconds to take out of the incubator and maybe 2 minutes being operated on. OMG I hope this works. This is horrible!

Jason - Beautiful birds!!! I remember that stage.. they are so cute!

Mossyoaklane - Oh no I'm so sorry to hear that! I am sending good vibes your way in the hopes that he finds work soon! My boyfriend has been going to school for 4 years without working so I understand the panic that sets in when the bills are due and no money is coming in. I hope everything goes ok!
Megan it is ok! It is tedious but happens.

When they say opening up the incubator too much they do not mean opening it once to take out chicks. In reality, shrink wrap and stuck chicks happens because of things during the first 18 days. Usually it is temperature related, too much humidity(remember, first 18 days) and shipping stress.

They get stuck because they did not absorb the yolk completely. When they get stuck and can't finish zipping then the membrane dries out. That is going to happen if you open the incubator or not! It is not humidity specific.

Watch the ones you helped--they will probably get pasty butt. I would get them vitamin water, Plain yogurt and give them some chick grit(not parrot grit and nothing with calcium). Yes I know the grit is not necessary to digest the food but it does help get the chicks digestion going.

I use a Q tip and warm water to get the poo off of the chicks vent. You need to be careful that you do not hurt the chicks vent getting the poo off. My last hatch was shipped eggs, both from the same State, shipped on the same day and with the same breed but from two different breeders. The nicely packed eggs hatched 6 of 8 with no problems at all. The poorly shipped package had 1 of 7 make it to lockdown. It zipped and did not get out so I had to help it. Today it had a bad case of sticky butt. There were 6 bantam eggs in the same package and of the 4 that made it to lockdown, 2 hatched fine but one pipped and had amber goo come out and by the time I tried to clear the pip, the chick had drowned. All of these eggs were incubated and hatched together.
 
I have 14 pages to read to catch up and am not sure that will be possible so I will do what I can but wanted to let you know that I put my eggs in lockdown this morning. 12 look good 5 look questionable but I left them all in. Since I have no sense of smell DH gave the questionable ones the sniff test and gave them the OK.

Of the shipped eggs 7 of 23 made the good list and of 13 home grown eggs only 5 did. Every egg I have tossed so far has been infertile or never developed to the point of veining. It looks like I won't be getting a baby from Ray
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which ironically was the reason I decided to hatch in the first place.

Speaking of Ray his comb flopped over the other day and yesterday his crow was hoarse. He isn't coughing or anything so should I be worried. He is eating and mounting and bustling around being bossy like normal. He is over 10 years old but we don't know how much.

Lastly. It has been 5 days since my last "weak shell on the poop tray" egg. My two jailbirds have been isolated for over a week and have not bothered one another's eggs at all. No one else has been caught with a yolky beak. At what point can I put the jailbirds back with the others?

On a happy note I am going to pick up babies from Deann in a few weeks and my Part Rocks, CA Greys. EEs and SS arrive on Friday!
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Go chickies! I hope you have a great hatch!

It sounds like you have the problem under control so go put the back in and see how they do! Chickens are reset after 3 days so expect some pecking order adjustment--which may help with breaking the eggs too.
 
I think the hatch is done. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when there were 4 more chicks instead of the three I expected.

So my stats went:
5 of 13 shipped hatched 38% hatch rate
6 of 10 traveled by car, hatched 60% hatch rate.
And my one egg from my Blue Copper Marans hatched, we'll give me a 100% haha
50% overall hatch rate :( but it could have been worse so Ill take it. Everyone looks healthy and I'm off to a good start with Black/Blue (hopefully Splash someday) Marans!
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I bought a scale from Costco and will weight them next time. I especially think it be would helpful on the dark eggs since some of them you can't see in very well. I'm using the Brinsea with the humidity pump so it's stays where you want it and there's no extreme humps and valleys like when you have to add water manually and the incubator doesn't seem to be effected by the outside humidity or temp.
Thank you for the information. I'm setting again this weekend so I'll be spending a little more attention to the eggs weight. I also have noticed that I have a row of eggs that don't produce eggs. I noticed this hatch that the eggs in that row felt cooler then the other rows when I was candling. I'm not sure how that can be but both hatches had none of few eggs hatch in that row. I'll look at my notes but I think all three of the eggs that were prefectly formed chicks who never even pipped were all in that row and I'll know when I eggtopsy these what I have. On my notes from my last candling of this hatch I have one of the two clears and the rest at various stages of early quitting so we'll see.
Chiqita has given you great advice and I am happy to hear you will with them!

Brinsea specific: Turn on the cooling cycle on day 7 for 2 hours. Turn it off on day 14. Close the vent(brinsea has a slider) half way for the first 7 days and then open it up all the way for the rest of incubation and hatching. I set my thermostat control to 100.3 to get the temperature to 99.6 at egg level The Brinsea spot check goes through the vent and down to egg level.

General: Death at the end of incubation can be caused by carbon dioxide poisoning. Dead air around the incubator can cause this. I am not complete convinced that temperature caused the one row to die. Was that side closer to a wall or something that may have caused dead air?

Finally you are dong very well with Marans! If you were hatching EEs they all would have hatched! What you are doing now is fine tuning with little adjustments. This is great!
 
I think the hatch is done. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when there were 4 more chicks instead of the three I expected.

So my stats went:
5 of 13 shipped hatched 38% hatch rate
6 of 10 traveled by car, hatched 60% hatch rate.
And my one egg from my Blue Copper Marans hatched, we'll give me a 100% haha
50% overall hatch rate
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but it could have been worse so Ill take it. Everyone looks healthy and I'm off to a good start with Black/Blue (hopefully Splash someday) Marans!
Your chicks look great Pam.
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Congratulations!

Did you eggtopsy the rest to see where they quit?
 
OK, thanks. I'm just surprised that coming on 22 days I have one pip.....and only half were shipped so the other 12 I had thought would be popping by now. Not even the egg from my own hen and those went on day 22, early morning. Ok, where's my wine......

Pam that is/has been me over the last week and I am only on day 18!

Burnt Out. I could not bring myself to finish painting the trim or install the roosts today. Jeez..... motivation has tanked.

Beautiful! I am impressed that you did this on your own I have two left hands and no concept of space...It's documented
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The chicks are coming the chicks are coming! So far 1 Pita Pinta and 1 Basque have made their debut. 3 more are zipping and 6 more have pipped. This is nuts!! (Disclaimer: this is the first time I'm hatching my own eggs from my chickens I had as eggs. Crazy!)
So happy that your hatch started and ended as well as it has. Nice work!

Hi Everybody.

Well, I have here two chicks out of my first test run of the refurbished Sportsman incubator. These are from the Silky Rooster "Owl" that I got from Chiqita at the Stockton show.. and the Silkies/Sizzles I got from SilkesForever.

Anyway - my math must have been off, because they were "due" to hatch Tuesday - I thought. One hatched yesterday and the other hatched this morning. I have one more pipping in there, and I think UP (the first out) is looking for his cheeping buddy because he is LOUD!

CUTENESS OVERLOAD WARNING!


One more pip and 5 more eggs in there.. we will see..
Precious!!!


Ok I have 3 eggs due Monday. One hatched today. 2 still have not pipped. That chick is there peeping it's head off. It's in my bedroom in the bator still. Oh Lordy is it loud. Is it going to be ok in there alone? And should I be worried that the other 2 have no pips yet?

Here is a pic of what i guess is my bantam Wyandotte and sizzle cross. Darn sneaky sizzle rooster.

Trying not to be too bummed.

Really sweet and cute little one. Sorry for your disappointment you know your sizzle is struttin a little more than normal today right?

Yeah! Woke up to these three! One is from the shipped eggs. Another one of the shipped eggs is pipped and the one OE from my Blue Copper Marans covered by my Silver Ameraucana has also pipped. The four that hatched last hatch were all Blues with nicely feathered feet so I wanted another (I only kept one).

Yay for hatching Marans! Excellent work and what a great thing to wak up to!

I took my Australorps and Black Penes outside yesterday!

The little one in the middle is a two week old Black Pene. The Australorps are three weeks old.



What a Ham this one is!



A week makes a big difference in Size!



I have a video encoding and will post it when it is ready!(kidding here--The Australorps are big old Show Quality birds. The Black Pene on the right will get big for a Pene but will not be like an Australorp).


Blue Australorp =
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Loving everyone's coop pics and baby chick pix!

I can't believe how fast ours are growing! We made them a chicken playpen and got them a larger feeder and waterer so they aren't so crowded and we don't have to fill them 2-3 times a day anymore. We have found a home for one of our 2 roosters, when he grows up.

Our friends lost their rooster, The Fonz. He died valiantly protecting his girls from a fox and somehow managed to escape the coop and go after it. Glad I took photos of him when I did.

R.I.P. Fozny.




Ohhhhhhh. What a great and beautiful roo. I love roo stories like his. True gentlemen roosters are the best!


first two (of six) chicks have hatched! got home early from work and found TWO little chicks wobbling around, I'm pretty sure one is one of the four SFH, the other seems to be the SFH/CL cross -- so excited to see them!


eleanor and her new baby chick!



the only picture i could get of the two babies without upsetting eleanor too much -- the chipmunk stripes of the one on the left suggest it's the CL/SFH cross, and if the auto-sexing traits hold with a mutt, she should be a little girl!



the SFH chick, while mama in the background tries to show it how to eat -- it prefers to pose!

four more eggs to go!
Wooot Woooot! I can not wait to get a broody. Hope whomever she is does as well as yours!


Thought I would share some pictures of the lavender Ameraucana chicks and one BCM chick I hatched for my friend Cyndi (Zoichick) over the weekend. They are beautiful!

They would not pose as well as my other chicks though! Frisky little suckers!
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These are sooooo beautiful!


Chiqita, I am glad your bad boy came back. Maybe no more fence hopping for him!

Here are some more grandkid pictures for Owl's other mommy. Owl now has 5 babies out, but these are from yesterday with four..

CUTENESS OVERLOAD WARNING (again).

Top two are first two out from Saturday. Lying down silver one and Buff one were out yesterday morning. When the ones that got out last night dry off I will get pictures of those too (there is one Sumatra last nights hatchers - not from Owl).

I have been trying to figure out how I could get these white/yellow chicks that I have been told are probably Silver Partridge. If you can give me any more information on who Owl's parents were it would help figure out this puzzle..

And HOORAY for everybody elses' chicks too! ITS SPRING!
Those markings are stunning!
I think the hatch is done. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when there were 4 more chicks instead of the three I expected.

So my stats went:
5 of 13 shipped hatched 38% hatch rate
6 of 10 traveled by car, hatched 60% hatch rate.
And my one egg from my Blue Copper Marans hatched, we'll give me a 100% haha
50% overall hatch rate
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but it could have been worse so Ill take it. Everyone looks healthy and I'm off to a good start with Black/Blue (hopefully Splash someday) Marans!

I think you did fabulously with them. Congrats!


Ron thanks for the advice re reuniting my jailbirds. They appreciate it. Thanks also for the hatching hand holding. From now on I think I will have all shipped eggs sent to YOU
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to maximize their chances...all other eggs wil be via car trip and hatched under a broody. This hatch has had me
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and
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Good morning everyone! How is everyone holding up in the heat? Our chickens would have had plenty of shade, if the neighbors hadn't cut down the shade tree last week
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hubby put up some emergency shade until we can get something permanent up. I love seeing all the chicks, and am so jealous! I wish we could have more chickens. Great coops! I may have to have hubby start a new one! I need to rant for a moment. My hubby is a carpenter. In January we made the very hard decision to have his rotator cuff repaired. He was in pain all the time, and it needed to be done. His boss said it was a great time, as things were slowing down through the winter. Todd (hubby) told him he would be back in 5-6 months. No problem. Now, his boss is a very good friend of ours. I have known him since my teens. He is like family to me. My husband has worked for him for 13 years. We have talked to him at social functions, and kept in touch during Todd's rehab. Not one word was ever said about the lack of work or being laid off. Todd tries to call him 2 weeks ago to let him know that as of the 1st of May he is cleared to go back to work.. His boss never called back. Todd called again yesterday. His boss said there is no work right now.
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In 13 years this would be only the 2nd time he has been laid off temporarily. I am just a little frustrated that he could have let us know sooner so we could prepare, and try to line some things up. I don't know what we are going to do. Can you go from disability to unemployment? I am just in tears. Being on disability has been a financial struggle, to say the least, If he goes on unemployment? I don't want to even think about it. Thanks for listening.....Now back to your regularly scheduled program.
that sucks and is scary. I hope it works out for you.
Hope they do as well as mine have. I've had to step in at every hatch. The chick in my avatar almost stood up in the shell as soon as I removed the top shell and wet the membrane that had dried on her.
I do open and close the bator more then I should and get sticky chicks. I help. As long as the yolk is fully absorbed its fine. If is not they can get bacteria and its bad. I blame grabbing quail, its not quick! On owls parentage, here is my guesses. His mother was mahogany red partridge pullet. His father was either! Ginger a red silkie or Iggy a white showgirl. I'm about 90% sure Iggy underlining genes are blue partridge.( Iggy also is missing one of his silked genes but that didn't get passed on so its a moot point here.) I get chicks in the colors you have there on occation. They are more red then black as adults like flame. Not sure if I have a pic of flame he was defanitly ginger/mahogany chick.
 
Ron - I only took the top half of the egg off. Two of them have two chicks with heads and necks exposed. Should I take the rest of the egg shell off?
 
Here's some pics of some of the stuck ones:
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http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/24/eby7a8a3.jpg[/IMG
I read to put them on damp paper towels so that's what I did. The second pictures eggs made a ton of progress since then.
 

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