Hatch-a-long, set March 1, hatch March 21/22

[HomesteadNowhere]

All 22 chicks in the brooder. I'll be posting lots of individual pics as they grow, over in my breeding thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...stainable-flock.1432152/page-24#post-25519063

 

[SarahLadd]

Good god my babies are lazy. I have my first lackadaisical zipper.

 

[Owllea]

All 22 chicks in the brooder. I'll be posting lots of individual pics as they grow, over in my breeding thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...stainable-flock.1432152/page-24#post-25519063

Your chicks dry fast!
Hope the crooked beak guy does ok for you. I know that some are able to make it with special attention.

 

[chickfused]

All 22 chicks in the brooder. I'll be posting lots of individual pics as they grow, over in my breeding thread.

That looks like a ton of roos. Mostly roos even. You going to eat 'em? (Green circles are the probable girls if these are all the same breed. In my experience, the really chipmunky ones tend toward female and the lighter chipmunky ones go male.)

 

[SarahLadd]

I have the camera pointed at a baby being born right now, join my stream!!

twitch.tv/sarah_ladd

 

[Owllea]

Here are the live fluffies over here! I always hope to know who hatches out of what egg, but most of these guys came from green eggs, so I know it is one of two hens.

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

Turns out it was a pretty bad malformation. The upper beak looked like two big buck teeth. Even the sinus didn't seem to be fully closed off. Poor thing was in such a state. It was barely alive and just gasping. I went with my gut, having been around livestock since I was young and now farming myself. Sometimes you see something and alarm bells just go off even though you don't know why yet.
I left it to see if it would gain strength to progress but I think the pip it had made had hit a blood vessel. There was blood and it just seemed like it was suffering.

Definitely keeping that noted if it pops up in the future. Genetic or did that egg happen to be in a cool spot and it was a fluke thing.

Can't win em all. The chicks in the brooder are doing good.

 

[HomesteadNowhere]

That looks like a ton of roos. Mostly roos even. You going to eat 'em? (Green circles are the probable girls if these are all the same breed. In my experience, the really chipmunky ones tend toward female and the lighter chipmunky ones go male.)

View attachment 3034354

That's very interesting! Since they are crosses and I didn't track what eggs came from anyone.. just set all the eggs.. So genetics are all crossed up I didn't know what exactly would come out.
I put individual pics in my other thread so as not to clog up this one with a million pics lol.

I banded the chipmunk stripe chicks one way. Then the blonde chicks got spiral bands. Then there were four that had color but was pretty faint, banded them one way. They seemed like very very faint chipmunk stripe. You could see the more brown shades petting the down.
So we shall see!

This is the test run for my meat bird breeding, so yes, they will be for the freezer.

 

[chickfused]

Looking forward to seeing if the roo theory turns out! What a cool project!

 

[Owllea]

Turns out it was a pretty bad malformation. The upper beak looked like two big buck teeth. Even the sinus didn't seem to be fully closed off. Poor thing was in such a state. It was barely alive and just gasping. I went with my gut, having been around livestock since I was young and now farming myself. Sometimes you see something and alarm bells just go off even though you don't know why yet.
I left it to see if it would gain strength to progress but I think the pip it had made had hit a blood vessel. There was blood and it just seemed like it was suffering.

Definitely keeping that noted if it pops up in the future. Genetic or did that egg happen to be in a cool spot and it was a fluke thing.

Can't win em all. The chicks in the brooder are doing good.

So sorry to hear that. Nature does not always come out the way we hope. Looks like a great little clutch of healthy chicks otherwise, so hope it isn’t anything genetic. It is crazy to think of all the things that have to go just right for a baby chick to become fertilized, develop in the egg the right way, and then have all things set perfectly to hatch. And in nature’s defense, there is usually a different critter relying on some dud chicks to have a meal (snake, coon, etc). Nothing goes to waste.

I’ll be curious to follow your chicks- I think the feather development is so fun to watch! Mine are barnyard mixes too with no real direction yet but we have some freedoms rangers arriving tomorrow so may end up with a similar breeding goal as yours- larger extra Roos and fair laying. Did you insert the link to that thread already?