Bone Bunny
Chirping
- Mar 16, 2022
- 63
- 280
- 93
So I need some advice!
I have never hatched anything before, by myself. When I was a kid my papa use to hatch quail, but he def did not do how they say you are supposed to do it. And that was SOOO long ago I don't remember how he did it. So please stick with me.
A friend of ours inherited a mix flock a few months ago, that included a 3 breeding pairs of Ayam Cemani's, a brahma rooster, a couple of naked necks, and a few breeds I don't know, and a few ducks. They have always free ranged, so that's what he has allowed them to keep doing once they had settled. The AC coop is seperate from the rest of the flock. (The roosters are ok with the others when free ranging but do not like them in their coop) Something attacked the AC pen at the beginning of April. All that is left is 1 AC hen and 2 AC roosters.
The single AC hen started laying again at some point, but on June 9th the flock had been attacked again but by a hawk. The AC stopped sitting on over a dozen eggs she had and the duck in the other pen started trying to crack all the eggs in the other pen (chicken and duck alike). July 10th I was brought about 2 dozen various eggs from both pens. He had saved what he could and asked me to incubate them to see what would happen.
I only have 1 incubator. We literally just started collecting things we would need to breed, because we figured we had a year to do it in. So I hastily made a make shift incubator to accommodate what I couldn't fit in the store bought one and have been have been turning those every few hours by hand. I know which ones are the Ayam Cemanis, but I have no clue what the other ones are. The female duck had been sitting on chicken eggs too. The AC ones that looked like they were fertile I put in the store bought one incubator (magic fly -self turning- and it only holds 9 eggs) and the others I put in a makeshift one, and its actually working I think, several of the eggs have grown in weight.
Here's my problem. He had no clue how long they had been sitting on the eggs. I had read that hens will keep them a certain way so they all hatch roughly in the same time period. I was going to do the hatching tray changes in a couple of days, because I had weighed the eggs 2 days ago. They were at 1.6 oz. Almost all the eggs are roughly the same weight, with a few I am pretty sure have nothing in them. I thought it would be at least another few days before moving them to the hatching tray, but low and behold one of AC's in the magicfly popped out about an hour ago. Not gonna lie, I panicked, and I went ahead and pulled out the autoturn tray so the rest of the eggs from the magicfly are now on the hatching tray.
I was told not to remove the chick from incubator till the others hatched, but I am worried it may be days. as I don't know how far along the rest are since they are from a mixed bunch. Should I go ahead and move the single to a small brooder close to the incubators? The little thing is having a fit just chirping its beak up. Then it will go silent for a few min and I have to go running, hoping nothing happened to it. Its taking me like 45 min to write this port because of that. It is very feisty! Already trin to escape if the incubator is even cracked and pecked my hand while i was trying to remove the tray.
Please great chicken people, what should I do, I'm a little overwhelmed.
(Adding a pic of the wee one)
I have never hatched anything before, by myself. When I was a kid my papa use to hatch quail, but he def did not do how they say you are supposed to do it. And that was SOOO long ago I don't remember how he did it. So please stick with me.
A friend of ours inherited a mix flock a few months ago, that included a 3 breeding pairs of Ayam Cemani's, a brahma rooster, a couple of naked necks, and a few breeds I don't know, and a few ducks. They have always free ranged, so that's what he has allowed them to keep doing once they had settled. The AC coop is seperate from the rest of the flock. (The roosters are ok with the others when free ranging but do not like them in their coop) Something attacked the AC pen at the beginning of April. All that is left is 1 AC hen and 2 AC roosters.
The single AC hen started laying again at some point, but on June 9th the flock had been attacked again but by a hawk. The AC stopped sitting on over a dozen eggs she had and the duck in the other pen started trying to crack all the eggs in the other pen (chicken and duck alike). July 10th I was brought about 2 dozen various eggs from both pens. He had saved what he could and asked me to incubate them to see what would happen.
I only have 1 incubator. We literally just started collecting things we would need to breed, because we figured we had a year to do it in. So I hastily made a make shift incubator to accommodate what I couldn't fit in the store bought one and have been have been turning those every few hours by hand. I know which ones are the Ayam Cemanis, but I have no clue what the other ones are. The female duck had been sitting on chicken eggs too. The AC ones that looked like they were fertile I put in the store bought one incubator (magic fly -self turning- and it only holds 9 eggs) and the others I put in a makeshift one, and its actually working I think, several of the eggs have grown in weight.
Here's my problem. He had no clue how long they had been sitting on the eggs. I had read that hens will keep them a certain way so they all hatch roughly in the same time period. I was going to do the hatching tray changes in a couple of days, because I had weighed the eggs 2 days ago. They were at 1.6 oz. Almost all the eggs are roughly the same weight, with a few I am pretty sure have nothing in them. I thought it would be at least another few days before moving them to the hatching tray, but low and behold one of AC's in the magicfly popped out about an hour ago. Not gonna lie, I panicked, and I went ahead and pulled out the autoturn tray so the rest of the eggs from the magicfly are now on the hatching tray.
I was told not to remove the chick from incubator till the others hatched, but I am worried it may be days. as I don't know how far along the rest are since they are from a mixed bunch. Should I go ahead and move the single to a small brooder close to the incubators? The little thing is having a fit just chirping its beak up. Then it will go silent for a few min and I have to go running, hoping nothing happened to it. Its taking me like 45 min to write this port because of that. It is very feisty! Already trin to escape if the incubator is even cracked and pecked my hand while i was trying to remove the tray.
Please great chicken people, what should I do, I'm a little overwhelmed.
(Adding a pic of the wee one)