EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[meltel]

dawwwww


MELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLll
How are you and hubs and birds ??? wrist???
No farts burps but the cat farts horrible guess what they named the poor cat?


DALE! lol I was like how did you come up with that for a cat? gotta love kids!

Hubs is tired but good-going to feed store for me now. tore down the breeding pen for the new coop coming on Halloween for the laying/free range birds. I keep getting that darn cocci virus in a couple batches of my birds. Bleaching everything and moving them to containers until then. Facing the dreaded cull on some of my seramas-long backs... Bill says to just keep them as "pet" birds with the polish and silkies since we are gonna insulate the coop and possibly heat it. He doesn't agree with the cull. I am gonna see if my friend Jenn wants them as pets for her kids but she got hooked at the last show and wants to start to show too. My biggest issue is now that I am over the hump and entered into the competitive world, I dont want to give my birds away to just anyone and have them try to breed and sell them as part of my line.... people see serama and think money but you couldn't have a more worthless bird if its not quality-not good for meat or eggs. But I have a few duds that I love and keep as broodies and pets. Got any suggestions??? How are you feeling????? I see the dr tues & will know more then-hurts like heck

 

[AlilSassy]

@Sally Sunshine
Day 14, Dark Brahma, started as "dry" incubation, started humidity bump 2 days ago when air cells were growing too fast (to me). For turning, tilting whole incubator, sponge for humidity(so no spilling/leaking worries)... took multiple frames(pictures, just hold button down and 20 taken easily)... kept the two to show the movement. Huge healthy veins
[all the info just in case for the information page with pics]

...and the bottom

 

[ChickenCanoe]

howd you know i was hungry when i went? lol

That's the way it works. I learned 50 years ago that if you shop hungry, you'll buy 3 times the amount of food.

Good morning all!

I wonder if my crazy chickens learned a lesson last night about sleeping on top of the run instead of going inside since they are likely drenched from all this rain?

It is a heavy rain which we need so badly!

I hope and pray you'll retrain them to bond with the building at night.

Nope, haven't heard a word. I just hate it when people ask me questions and I can't help them, and I hate to tell them "I just don't know" but I'd darn sure rather send them to people who can help than give them stoopid advice that may well cause more harm than good!

That's for sure.

Anyone read this... Chickens vaccinated against Marek’s disease rarely get sick. But the vaccine does not prevent them from spreading Marek’s to unvaccinated birds.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tthis-chicken-vaccine-makes-virus-dangerous/

In fact, rather than stop fowl from spreading the virus, the vaccine allows the disease to spread faster and longer than it normally would, a new study finds. The scientists now believe that this vaccine has helped this chicken virus become uniquely virulent. (Note: it only harms fowl). The study was published on Monday in the journal
PLOS Biology.Abstract

This may come as a surprise but I'm not a believer in vaccines for poultry. This article is disturbing because vaccinating against Marek's is so widespread.
I've never vaccinated for anything. I believe in breeding for resistance. Just as all bacteria have elements of the population that are naturally resistant to an antibiotic, there will be chickens naturally resistant to Marek's. Some humans survived the bubonic plague and their descendants are more resistant to disease and early death from various causes. Breeding for resistance is how we defeat these diseases.

...
yer just so gentle Paddler

Every time I opened the incubator a chick would shoot across the table, drop to the floor and keep on running.
I figured they would be better off dropping the 2 feet into the box and I wouldn't have to traumatize them by chasing them around.

Ok, this might be pic heavy, however I candled again this morning, and see a big difference. Now I am thinking it maybe day 15-16? Honestly, I don't know what draw down looks like. I will look it up and see.
I am putting the pics of yesterday and today. See the difference?
YESTERDAY:





TODAY:





And this one is of the bottom of egg this morning:
Ok, what day do you think it's on now?
Thanks everyone.

I'm not a big proponent of stopping turning at exactly 18 days or raising humidity then either. The humidity only has to be higher at pipping. Turning becomes less important in the third week. I would leave them 2 or 3 more days. If they look sufficiently full by then, I'd raise humidity, lay them down and let them do their thing.
Sometimes I'll set them on a smooth flat surface and let them roll. When they stop, I mark that as the top when I set them back in the incubator. The high side should be where to larger portion of the air cell is.

Did anyone see this question a few pages back? I haven't seen an answer so I'll take a stab at it...

If it was me, I'd eave them alone yet. If your incubator is kinda "junky" in your words, your temps might have been a little low and slowed development slightly. If you do try the water candling (and there is a distinct difference between water candling and float testing!) then check every egg first for hard-to-see cracks or tiny pips before you put them in the warm water. Put one in at a time -- you aren't testing for freshness, you are checking for signs of life, which would be little ripples around the egg on the surface of the water that indicate movement inside the egg. Give it a few seconds in there for the water to settle from the egg going in, then watch. Dry the egg, mark it with your finding, and get it back in the incubator. Then do the next one.

X2

...

Not in goose eggs. Chicken eggs are hard enough.

...

You know I'm not a big candler. I've only hatched goose eggs once. They were from a Canada nest that had been taken down. After floating them, it was realized they were about to hatch so instead of killing them, we put them in my hatcher. They hatched about 4 days later and then gave them to the Canada Goose welfare place.

 

[Honora]

Nice article, helps to keep your flock gene pool diversity

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Clan+Mating.html

Very interesting! I plan to get into breeding in a few years so I will definitely keep that handy.

 

[meltel]

Thanks
@Sally Sunshine
@Blooie -nice to meet you.
I went about to do the float test since I didnt see a whole lot and as I picked one up I heard chirping!!!! so quickly closed the bator. Now I wait....... iam thinking you are both correct that the temps may have been low-last time it was reading higher so i took it down a notch because they were hatching really early. going to recalibrate when this is done. I bought all my breeders winter chicks and eggs-#9 pens were running about 5 days behind but she said half had hatched yesterday and the rest were on their way! yay more babies!!!! I've got 2 really nice chicks from the last batch of eggs she gave me-one blue and one tri-both hens-still young but nice short backs, big chests and strong tails so far. It's amazing when you really get into it how you can start picking up little things and not just focusing on how pretty the bird is! I have a beautiful black silkie cockerel with a great chest but his back is just too long....

Trying to figure the Frizzle hens out-they are more shy so its hard to get them up straight to tell-a pure white, a buff and a chocolate.

 

[kajira]

That's the way it works. I learned 50 years age that if you shop hungry, you'll buy 3 times the amount of food.

I hope and pray you'll retrain them to bond with the building at night.

That's for sure.

This may come as a surprise but I'm not a believer in vaccines for poultry. This article is disturbing because vaccinating against Marek's is so widespread.
I've never vaccinated for anything. I believe in breeding for resistance. Just as all bacteria have elements of the population that are naturally resistant to an antibiotic, there will be chickens naturally resistant to Marek's. Some humans survived the bubonic plague and their descendants are more resistant to disease and early death from various causes. Breeding for resistance is how we defeat these diseases.

Every time I opened the incubator a chick would shoot across the table, drop to the floor and keep on running.
I figured they would be better off dropping the 2 feet into the box and I wouldn't have to traumatize them by chasing them around.

I'm not a big proponent of stopping turning at exactly 18 days or raising humidity then either. The humidity only has to be higher at pipping. Turning becomes less important in the third week. I would leave them 2 or 3 more days. If they look sufficiently full by then, I'd raise humidity, lay them down and let them do their thing.
Sometimes I'll set them on a smooth flat surface and let them roll. When they stop, I mark that as the top when I set them back in the incubator. The high side should be where to larger portion of the air cell is.

X2

You know I'm not a big candler. I've only hatched goose eggs once. They were from a Canada nest that had been taken down. After floating them, it was realized they were about to hatch so instead of killing them, we put them in my hatcher. They hatched about 4 days later and then gave them to the Canada Goose welfare place.

Did you know you can have canadian geese as pets... if you get a special license and they are tagged? ;o

 

[Nksg75]

I know, right?
I would have thought from yesterday I had more time until lockdown, now I am just not sure!!

 

[Honora]

dawwwww


MELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLll
How are you and hubs and birds ??? wrist???
No farts burps but the cat farts horrible guess what they named the poor cat?


DALE! lol I was like how did you come up with that for a cat? gotta love kids!

Dale is a cool name. Is it a girl or a boy? My son just named one of the pullets "Umbreon."

Seems like I only have 2 pullets out of 11 chicks but I am still in denial about a few of them, haha! The blue frizzled chicks are gorgeous so of course they are cockerels.






I think the black one on the right is a pullet at least. They are almost 5 weeks & almost all have pink combs. :-( 2 of the orpingtons still have orange combs but they have pink wattles already so I think they are probably boys too.

 

[Nksg75]

Ok, then. If today it looks like day 14 then This Thursday would be about day 18. So Hatch day would be next Sunday. 1 week. Thank you very Much Sally!

 

[BullChick]

who is this "spider"?

A stolen rubber spider I found hiding in the box her toddler swing came in. It says age eight and up. She is a teether, but won't put it in her mouth.