First baby to hatch- the down looks gray for now, and he has a flattened comb area- no spikes.
Icelandic Chickens
- Thread starter The Sheriff
- Start date
First baby to hatch- the down looks gray for now, and he has a flattened comb area- no spikes.
CONGRATULATIONS!First baby to hatch- the down looks gray for now, and he has a flattened comb area- no spikes.
New babies! They are still hatching out though. I had one get stuck in the shell and it died, but everyone else has been doing great. Love the stripes! They remind me of EE chicks at this age.
New babies! They are still hatching out though. I had one get stuck in the shell and it died, but everyone else has been doing great. Love the stripes! They remind me of EE chicks at this age.
Good lookin' chicks
Ok- the hatch is over (I think). I originally set 20 Icelandic eggs, 16 Marraduna Basque eggs, 12 Australorp, 4 EE pullet eggs from my favorite hens, and 2 green speckled eggs from the health food store that I couldn't resist all in two different incubators. One was an Incuview and one was my homemade ice chest one that I really intended to use as a hatcher but ended up using because I had so many eggs. This was actually a hard hatch. I don't know why. I ended up discarding a lot of eggs about day 14 because they were duds or had formed blood rings. The health food store eggs were supposed to be fertile, but both were duds. The Basques were shipped eggs that I bought before I got the Icelandics from Mary, so I knew they would be in rough condition. The Australorps were purchased from a guy at my husbands work. When I candled them before I stuck them in the bator, all their air cells were quarter sized or larger, which means they were old (in my experience)
. The Icelandics were stressed from being driven around and being in quarantine, so I was worried about them as well.
On hatch day (officially yesterday, but a lot started Friday), we ended up with several problem chicks, unfortunately. One Icelandic pipped and zipped but got stuck and died before I could pull him out. Lesson learned: when the yellow goo inside the egg is covering too much of their faces, they can and will suffocate. Sad lesson to learn. We also had one Australorp born with part of her yolk sack outside and her belly open a bit. She is still fighting. We may have to cull her, but we did a little chick surgery and bandaged her up so now we are just waiting to see how she does before deciding one way or the other. We had a Marraduna pip and not zip- he just made a dime sized hole in the shell and then got stuck. I ended up pulling him out and helping a little. He popped out and I though he had died, but when I went to pull his little body out of the bator this morning, he was just stuck to the floor with the yellow goo. I bathed him and dried him and he is doing great! Finally, we had a second Icelandic also get stuck. Again, I pulled him, helped a little bit and put him back in to hatch. He is also doing well today.
We had 34 eggs go into lockdown (as I said, I discarded A LOT- more than I ever have before). Of those, we have 8 that have not hatched (only 1 Icelandic though). I will give them a couple more days before doing eggtopsies. Our final hatch count is 10 Icelandics, 8 Basque, 2 EEs, and only 1 healthy and 1 sick Australorp. I have three brooders set up in my spare bedroom and except for the Australorp, everyone seems to be doing well this morning.
I most excited about the Icelandics. I have 6 that are a dark chipmunk stripe and 4 that are blond chipmunk striped. I'll post some group shots later if I can get the babies to cooperate.
As far as why our hatch rates were so bad, I think it was a combination of the hatcher being used as an incubator (first time for the homemade one) and the fact that we opened the bator several times to pull out dried chicks that had hatched early. It might have been only a few seconds, but I think it affected the eggs with larger pips. Also, we incubated eggs upright in cut down cartons this time since we had shipped eggs. This is the first time we've ever done this, and I don't know if that also affected development. As always, it was a learning experience. I'm REALLY looking forward to having a broody or two. We have never had any broody hens, and I would love not to be in charge of monitoring the hatch for once! I added three new nest boxes yesterday and I'm hoping Hetta, Happ, or Harpa will go broody for me! Our EEs could not care less!
I'm still planning on hatching eggs from Lyle Behl in May, so after that, my flock is going to be FULL! Chicken math is taking over! I have spring break this week. I may be building a new coop... Anyone have construction experience? Lol
On hatch day (officially yesterday, but a lot started Friday), we ended up with several problem chicks, unfortunately. One Icelandic pipped and zipped but got stuck and died before I could pull him out. Lesson learned: when the yellow goo inside the egg is covering too much of their faces, they can and will suffocate. Sad lesson to learn. We also had one Australorp born with part of her yolk sack outside and her belly open a bit. She is still fighting. We may have to cull her, but we did a little chick surgery and bandaged her up so now we are just waiting to see how she does before deciding one way or the other. We had a Marraduna pip and not zip- he just made a dime sized hole in the shell and then got stuck. I ended up pulling him out and helping a little. He popped out and I though he had died, but when I went to pull his little body out of the bator this morning, he was just stuck to the floor with the yellow goo. I bathed him and dried him and he is doing great! Finally, we had a second Icelandic also get stuck. Again, I pulled him, helped a little bit and put him back in to hatch. He is also doing well today.
We had 34 eggs go into lockdown (as I said, I discarded A LOT- more than I ever have before). Of those, we have 8 that have not hatched (only 1 Icelandic though). I will give them a couple more days before doing eggtopsies. Our final hatch count is 10 Icelandics, 8 Basque, 2 EEs, and only 1 healthy and 1 sick Australorp. I have three brooders set up in my spare bedroom and except for the Australorp, everyone seems to be doing well this morning.
I most excited about the Icelandics. I have 6 that are a dark chipmunk stripe and 4 that are blond chipmunk striped. I'll post some group shots later if I can get the babies to cooperate.
As far as why our hatch rates were so bad, I think it was a combination of the hatcher being used as an incubator (first time for the homemade one) and the fact that we opened the bator several times to pull out dried chicks that had hatched early. It might have been only a few seconds, but I think it affected the eggs with larger pips. Also, we incubated eggs upright in cut down cartons this time since we had shipped eggs. This is the first time we've ever done this, and I don't know if that also affected development. As always, it was a learning experience. I'm REALLY looking forward to having a broody or two. We have never had any broody hens, and I would love not to be in charge of monitoring the hatch for once! I added three new nest boxes yesterday and I'm hoping Hetta, Happ, or Harpa will go broody for me! Our EEs could not care less!
I'm still planning on hatching eggs from Lyle Behl in May, so after that, my flock is going to be FULL! Chicken math is taking over! I have spring break this week. I may be building a new coop... Anyone have construction experience? Lol
Just reread that post and realized how long it was. Sorry about that! I just had to share with someone. None of my other friends undertand- they all just think I'm a crazy chicken lady (which I am, of course!).
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