First “perfect” hatch (shipped eggs)

[Ylva]

A month ago I ordered 12 silkie hatching eggs by mail. I didn’t expect the hatch rate to be great, due to low temperatures in Northern Norway, where I live (it was -5 to 5 C / 23-41 F during shipping).

All eggs looked fine on arrival (only one had a loose and saddle shaped air sac).

I put seven eggs from my own coop in the incubator as well, and yesterday 19 out of 19 eggs hatched! I have never had a 100% hatching rate before, especially not with eggs shipped during winter.

And some questions: Some of the silkies have pink toes, is this common? Their skin is black.
What color are the silkie chicks? I don’t have much experience with silkies. Do they look blue? Splash? White (or white with some dark spots)? The large ones in the pictures are the chicks from my own coop.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Congrats! What kinda incubator?

 

[SilkieChicken123]

A month ago I ordered 12 silkie hatching eggs by mail. I didn’t expect the hatch rate to be great, due to low temperatures in Northern Norway, where I live (it was -5 to 5 C / 23-41 F during shipping).

All eggs looked fine on arrival (only one had a loose and saddle shaped air sac).

I put seven eggs from my own coop in the incubator as well, and yesterday 19 out of 19 eggs hatched! I have never had a 100% hatching rate before, especially not with eggs shipped during winter.

And some questions: Some of the silkies have pink toes, is this common? Their skin is black.
What color are the silkie chicks? I don’t have much experience with silkies. Do they look blue? Splash? White (or white with some dark spots)? The large ones in the pictures are the chicks from my own coop.

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Congratulations! You've got a mixture if blue, black, paint, gray, and maybe splash. It's fine that they have pink toes, it's just not desired. But, the two of the ones in the first picture that are the biggest and kinda in the front are not silkies, they do not have crests, beards, feathery feet/toes, they're too big, coloring if off, etc.

 

[Ylva]

Thank you for your replies!

The large ones are not silkies, but marans/silverudds/brahma mixes. They are from my own flock

The incubator is a Brinsea Ovation 28 advance. I bought it this year, it is really user friendly compared to my old one. 37,6 C / 99,68 F. I kept humidity around 45-50%, and raised it to 65-70% for the last three days. I was a bit careless with the humidity, and it dropped to 16-30% several times (once or twice during the last three days as well). This (obviously) didn’t seem to affect the hatch rate.

 

[Ylva]

All the chicks are doing fine! I tried to get better pictures of them to get some help determining what color they are. How do you see whether a chick is paint or splash, or blue or grey? Are they bearded or not?

(Some of the chicks look a bit unkempt, sorry about that! They got food stuck on them after stumbling around in their food and stepping in the waterer. Is this a silkie thing as well? None of my other chicks do this)

 

[LadiesAndJane]

All the chicks are doing fine! I tried to get better pictures of them to get some help determining what color they are. How do you see whether a chick is paint or splash, or blue or grey?

(Some of the chicks look a bit unkempt, sorry about that! They got food stuck on them after stumbling around in their food and stepping in the waterer. Is this a silkie thing as well? None of my other chicks do this)

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Congrats on your chicks! So adorable!
I only see white and blue chicks in your photos.
Blue can range from so light it looks lavender to so dark it looks black.
Splash can start as white, as some of your chicks are, so some could be splash, especially number 7. You will be able to tell as the wings start to feather in, you should start to see some blue "splashes" start to develop.

 

[Ylva]

Thanks!
The rooster who sired them are blue, is it possible to get white chicks from a blue rooster? The hens in the flock were blue, white, splash, buff, paint and black, I think.

 

[Chicken poppy]

Spoiler: Poppies egg hunt 2022

Poppies egg hunt 2022, will be deleted after easter! Digital egg hunt.

 

[MACCanadianCoop]

Spoiler: Poppies egg hunt 2022

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Poppies egg hunt 2022, will be deleted after easter! Digital egg hunt.

Found it

 

[MixedFlock23]

Thanks!
The rooster who sired them are blue, is it possible to get white chicks from a blue rooster? The hens in the flock were blue, white, splash, buff, paint and black, I think.

If the white hen was a dominant white, yes… I think, if I’m understanding chicken genetics right this time. I got many different colors of chicks from shipped Silkie eggs. I can’t even find a name for one pullet’s color. Similar to red Pyle, but not quite. I just called it mixed color.
Looking forward to seeing any updated pics you post.