Did anyone else set eggs today on Valentine's Day?

[Jake1297]

Compton & Skippy

Out of my 18, 9 have hatched giving me a 50% rate which I think is good since losing the power on day 11. Eight were shipped 1400 miles, of those only two hatched. So I ended up with 5 Silkies, 2 EE, 1 Cochin, & 1 Cochin-Bard Rock mix.
I also just set another 8 eggs. Three Silkies and five Cochin.

Check out a picture of my twins on another post called "Check This Out" here on Incubating & Hatching Eggs.

And Congrats to all.

 

[Jake1297]

I forgot to mention, I had on cochin that pipped and zipped about 1/4 way and gave up, after checking it looked like he/she didn't have enough humidity and was stuck and couldn't move enough to get out. I had a EE that started zipping and after 6 hours I was thinking he may have the same problem, but he was still trying. Anyway, I carefully helped break the shell away, and yes it was sort of glued to parts of the shell. I managed to save it slowly removing the wrap and left over egg shell with warm water. Giving her breaks to stay warm and keep her energy up. I never did check the other unhatched eggs to see what went wrong.

 

[comptonsgonecountry]

For the life of me I cant figure out how the one egg left in the bator is still chirping and wiggling but hasn't pipped. I thought for sure if it didn't pip through the night that it would be dead in the morning. Well, it's still peeping and wiggling around. It's peeping up a storm as I'm typing this out. Needless to say, I want to help it out in fear that it can't get out but part of me is saying let nature take it's course. Ughhhh!

Looks like everyone had a pretty good hatch for being newbies

Jake, I'm gonna check out those twins of yours. I'm so glad everything went well with your hatch! Its amazing what animals can overcome.

SkippyRoo, is your brooder and inclosure system one piece? I'm trying to figure out a tractor system seeing that I don't want a bunch of babies brooding for 16 weeks in our mud room. I have so much scrap lumber around the farm that I should manage to scrounge something up, but my creative juices left when I hit my 30. Do you have wheels on yours?

 

[SkippyRoo]

Compton,


my brooder is separate from the moveable pen. It butts up against it. The pen is 3 ft. by 10 ft.by 2 ft. high. I made this because the first coop i built was a tractor and it was way to heavy. I really dreaded moving it because I didn't want to hurt my back doing it. The pen can work with my coop if i need my chickens to be confined for some reason instead of free ranging or it works with my brooder.

yes I know what you mean about the creative juices. it takes me a while looking at coops to get ideas to formulate into a plan. Then by the time i finish the coop I have a better idea for next time which i forget by the time next time comes around.

Jake,

i saw your coop on your profile and it looks big. But what will you do with your new chicks until you can incorporate them into your flock?


i need to look at coop designs now. My coop now is 6ft. by 4ft. by 5ft. tall. I have 9 hens and one roo in there. It has a suspended wire floor and a door below to scoop out the manure. I can't go in it ,just reach in. It has 6 nesting boxes but they only use two. I like the slanted rolling nest boxes though!!!!! that would be nice.

 

[Jake1297]

Skippy,

My coop is big enough to house the new ones. I'll just make their own private fenced section so everyone can see each other. By the time they are big enough to go out they will be used to everyone and should all get along. Of course option two is: I have been thinking of building another coop about 10x10 or 12x12. Then I can start the new ones in their own coop. I don't know what will happen when they free range. Will all go to their coops, or go to which ever coop they want to. FIY, right now I have 21 Hens and 3 roosters. Have to make room for my 9 chicks that just hatched.