February 2023 hatch-a-long

[Kikilu]

Makeshift lab!

I made it official.

 

[kat1066]

I was planning on getting an incubator and some eggs to hatch for the first time. I am wondering if most people are vaccinating their 1 day old chicks for Mareks? After loosing hens to Mareks I am afraid of having any not vaccinated. Especially Silkies since they are more likely to get sick. My Vet recommended I just purchased chicks from the large hatcheries to be sure they are vaccinated. I purchased the ones who died from Mareks from Feather Lovers Farms and paid extra for the vaccine but something must have gone wrong. They did refund me my money but I want to avoid that again if possible.

 

[WallyG74]

In the time it took me to take and offload these pics from the camera, a second baby hatched from one of Blackies eggs, and it's Mottled too! I can't believe it!

First baby:


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I’m still here to learn and not just give people a hard time, so I’ll ask this. I’ve hatched a lot of chicks that look like this that were not mottled. What has you convinced that these freshly hatched ones will be mottled?

 

[junior67]

The chick still wont walk and has it eyes closed, we've tried honey, sugar, electrolytes, egg yolk, I just dont know what to do. Chirps a whole ton though.

sorry I can't remember. when did it hatch again? hmmmm we had one that was like that and I had some nutridrench so I mixed some of that, water and brown sugar. my daughter used a medicine dropper and put it on its beak a bit at a time so it drank it that way. We did it a few times just a bit at a time over about an hour or so and she kept it bundled in her hands with a blanket and heat pad to keep it warm. After about an hour or so it perked up quite a bit. but I think she did a few drops every 10-15 min to get it into it. Good luck!

 

[junior67]

Here are the chicks! We’ve got 8 in total.
They’re just over a week old now.

All of the siblings have a picture together, except for the chick in the last picture, which is actually the NNs’ sibling, but it didn’t get the gene for the naked neck.
We got 1 red bantam Cochin cross, 3 NNs, and 4 EEs.
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I LOVE the one in the 6th picture!!!!!!! it is just so cute!

 

[junior67]

I’m still here to learn and not just give people a hard time, so I’ll ask this. I’ve hatched a lot of chicks that look like this that were not mottled. What has you convinced that these freshly hatched ones will be mottled?

ya sure we all know you are here to just give people a hard time. (Just kidding)

 

[GemmaGA]

So it's been a minute or two since I have been out here to the backyard....

Just finished up another successful hatch of my own chicky-poos. They were blue eggs from Ameracaunas, but the jury is still out on who the baby daddy is. I have several roos.

I had a couple unhatched eggs (day 21 was Mon and I have 4 fluffy babies out of 6 eggs). I was going to clean out the incubator because being the CRAZY chicken lady that I am, hatching my own eggs is not enough noooo... but much to my surprise, one of the remaining eggs was peeping at me, so excited to see that baby hatch.

So I have about 38 more hatching eggs coming that I ordered on eBay (yea I know...been there done that with the abyssmal hatch rate)

Here's what I am hatching next:

• Dominiques - new breed for me, any interesting info on this breed??
• Golden Comets/ISA browns - love these rockstar egg layers
• Polish - My pet Muppet needs some of her own kind of people....
• Silkies (some evil, EVIL critter ate all my silkies...RIP Mr Nugget, Cotton, and QTip)
• Ayam Cemanis (I have a Roo already)
• Wheaten Ameracaunas
• Wheaten Marans

Excited to add to my flock!!

 

[Kikilu]

Is there a thread/article somewhere that someone is aware of that lists chick first aid supplies? I’ve looked into the first aid topics but wondering what people keep on hand for chicks specifically.
I’m in Canada so I’m guessing there will be a difference in what is available here but even general advice on common chick issues and treatment.

 

[SourRoses]

I’m still here to learn and not just give people a hard time, so I’ll ask this. I’ve hatched a lot of chicks that look like this that were not mottled. What has you convinced that these freshly hatched ones will be mottled?

No worries! I totally understand where you're coming from because chick down seems to tie to different colors quite often.
In this case it's the genetics. Daddy is a Black Mottled English Orp (see my avatar) and this is what he looked like as a chick.
Mommas are Black pure Ameraucana. Their breeder was including chicks from a longstanding mottling project as well as straight black chicks to use improving them. Satin (avatar) and Blackie were straight black with dark legs, so I didn't expect them to be splits. One that grew into a mottled rooster had this same pattern too. Two others were black with panda faces that I thought were the splits and grew into black cockerels I didn't keep.

But the real clincher is the mottled skin. The legs have patches of black above the white feet that don't really show in that pic because she's not standing up yet. But you can see the black spot on her beak. 5 more chicks have hatched since, all mottled, and some have black lipstick or bigger patches on their beaks.
I LOVE Mottled because of the variability, it's my favorite color.

 

[AusHen]

6 chicks hatched so far, 3 left for this batch.