hatching shipped BCM eggs, PIC heavy. HATCHING started 9/25!!!!

[shelleyd2008]

Good thing that you checked! One tip on 'helping' chicks hatch, don't take them completely out of shell. Open the shell just enough for them to get out the rest of the way (as if they had zipped the shell). Then wrap a warm, wet paper towel around them and put them back in. That would make them absorb the yolk (if they hadn't already). Pulling them out of the shell completely is very risky, you could have pulled the umbilical loose causing severe bleeding. Lucky for you, that didn't happen

Congrats on the babies!

 

[6littlechickies]

Quote:
Yeah, really glad we checked.

and yes, I told DH the SAME THING! with egg 19, it had already zipped all the way around but just couldn't push out since it was so stuck. he took the zipped top off and saw that the head was way down towards the other end so he chipped some more and it just fell right off with just the membrane left and I could see it was pretty stuck on there, not shrink wrapped per se but no way it could have made it on its own, at least I doubt it.

Egg 30 I wasn't there to see what he did but i know it happened way quick...maybe two minutes from the time he took it out to it being out of the egg. NO blood at all and what I thought was yolk was really just the excess when the hatch usually, I didn't have a good angle.


Anyhow, we just looked in on them and they both look pretty good now. both are up and on their feet and starting to dry off, 19 more quickly than 31 but I expected that. Oh and they both have feathered legs so that makes 4 out of the 7.

shelleyd - do you know anything about the leg feathering? isn't that there right from hatch?

 

[shelleyd2008]

It should be there from the hatch. But from what I understand there are feather-legged and non-feather-legged marans.

 

[6littlechickies]

yep, my reading has round that the feathered are the French standard and the clean legged are more American.

I'm just not positive if it's something that would happen later or there from the get go. I would presume since there are SOME with it, it's either there from hatch or not.

I did send the seller an email, just to ask b/c the ad stated feathered lines.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Any feather-legged birds I've hatched had feathers when they hatched

ETA: More like foot and leg 'fuzz', but it was the baby fluff version of feather legs

 

[poultrypatch]

Been watching your hatch from the start !! Very exciting and informative. I got so envolved I went on ebay to look at eggs !!! LOL I don't have an incubator ! Just got caught up in your hatch.
I do have some babies I got...three wks this Thursday...from Ideal. I ordered st. run banties. NO BODY had feathers on the legs when they arrived but towards the end of the first wk they grew...and fast ! I'm assuming...not a chick expert...that they are Cochins ??? Very pretty babies. The feathers got so long so quick that I had one that kept triping on her...I hope...leg/foot feathers.

Liz
Rochester, MA