Isa's Homestead Happenings and Hangout

[ColtHandorf]

Yikes! No water critters for me.

The ducks aren't that bad. At least not usually. My Muscovy and Khakis hatch just fine. Calls are another kettle of fish entirely and you can get Meemaw to tell you about 72-hour assists because we've made their faces so stupid they can't hatch on their own. The geese have no problems hatching naturally. But artificially you need to mimic the hen getting off the nest to eat and drink and then returning to the nest after a quick dip with wet feathers. It helps the eggs lose moisture.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Nope. I screamed and gnashed my teeth about them helping a Buttercup chick a few weeks ago. It looked awful. It hadn't finished absorbing the yolk sack and all the other chicks were picking on it. I told them it would die and then they got upset when it did. I had to tell them that I'd rather the baby die trying to hatch than suffer for days after hatching or worse struggling along for weeks or months just to die. It's annoying. If they aren't going to make it, I'm not babying them. I don't have time for that. If I had piranhas, I'd drop every cross-beaked, one-eyed, deformed chick in there instead of using the Santa Fe. I don't need re-rees running around diluting the bloodline and finding creative ways to die later. Bad enough I have an Orpington pullet out there with a wry-tail. I'm going to put her in the kitchen flock when they start laying or sell her as a non-breeding bird.

Yeah, usually the ones that I do manage to help don't seem to display any issues (none of my FtT chicks have been assists, they've all hatched on their own just fine, same with one that didn't absorb the yolk, some how he or the broody got him out on their own). It's really not common here, I think usually it's that they get booted away when mama gets up to leave with her babies and they start to dry out.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thankfully none yet have been incubator babies, that will be a whole other story probably

 

[ColtHandorf]

Yeah, usually the ones that I do manage to help don't seem to display any issues (none of my FtT chicks have been assists, they've all hatched on their own just fine, same with one that didn't absorb the yolk, some how he or the broody got him out on their own). It's really not common here, I think usually it's that they get booted away when mama gets up to leave with her babies and they start to dry out.

Late hatchers are different. Broodies will sometimes mess stuff up. And if incubator conditions are off that's fine to help because it's your fault. But if I set 100 eggs and 89 chicks come out just fine and there's one more struggling. It better figure it out. I'm not helping. Unless, as I've said, it's something really special, like a Blue Silver-laced.

The deformity issues I had over the summer I think resulted from eggs incubating outside in nestboxes inconsistently due to the high temps and then being put in the incubator. I could have kissed the snake that got into that tub of chicks through an open door and eating all of them. There were as many problem children as there were normal ones.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Late hatchers are different. Broodies will sometimes mess stuff up. And if incubator conditions are off that's fine to help because it's your fault. But if I set 100 eggs and 89 chicks come out just fine and there's one more struggling. It better figure it out. I'm not helping. Unless, as I've said, it's something really special, like a Blue Silver-laced.

The deformity issues I had over the summer I think resulted from eggs incubating outside in nestboxes inconsistently due to the high temps and then being put in the incubator. I could have kissed the snake that got into that tub of chicks through an open door and eating all of them. There were as many problem children as there were normal ones.

Yeah. That's all fair. Thankfully the worst deformity I've had didn't make it to hatching. Second one did and developed it a few days later, but it wasn't an assist either.

We did have one chick we think break it's leg in the incubator. That sucked, but we're not sure if it actually was that or if it happened while it hatched

 

[ColtHandorf]

Yeah. That's all fair. Thankfully the worst deformity I've had didn't make it to hatching. Second one did and developed it a few days later, but it wasn't an assist either.

We did have one chick we think break it's leg in the incubator. That sucked, but we're not sure if it actually was that or if it happened while it hatched

I had a one-eyed cross-beak. and then a handful with cross-beaks or missing eyes.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I had a one-eyed cross-beak. and then a handful with cross-beaks or missing eyes.

Yikes.

The nonhatcher had a hernia and a 90° (maybe a bit less, I'll have to look again when I replace the alcohol) cross beak. But it's eyes were still there. That batch of quail didn't turn for the first week or so because I didn't realize the turner wasn't going, so that probably didn't help. Took almost 4 days to get the ones that did hatch to hatch. Only had one hatch with issues though out of the 12 or 13

 

[WallyG74]

The ducks aren't that bad. At least not usually. My Muscovy and Khakis hatch just fine. Calls are another kettle of fish entirely and you can get Meemaw to tell you about 72-hour assists because we've made their faces so stupid they can't hatch on their own. The geese have no problems hatching naturally. But artificially you need to mimic the hen getting off the nest to eat and drink and then returning to the nest after a quick dip with wet feathers. It helps the eggs lose moisture.

Yeah I already told Meemaw what I think about that. Ain’t happnin! And Muscovy has to be the ugliest birds known to man.

 

[sdm111]

Nope. I screamed and gnashed my teeth about them helping a Buttercup chick a few weeks ago. It looked awful. It hadn't finished absorbing the yolk sack and all the other chicks were picking on it. I told them it would die and then they got upset when it did. I had to tell them that I'd rather the baby die trying to hatch than suffer for days after hatching or worse struggling along for weeks or months just to die. It's annoying. If they aren't going to make it, I'm not babying them. I don't have time for that. If I had piranhas, I'd drop every cross-beaked, one-eyed, deformed chick in there instead of using the Santa Fe. I don't need re-rees running around diluting the bloodline and finding creative ways to die later. Bad enough I have an Orpington pullet out there with a wry-tail. I'm going to put her in the kitchen flock when they start laying or sell her as a non-breeding bird.

Great! How it should be to better the breed. kudos my friend

 

[Isadora]

Piper stuck her head and neck through the fencing in an attempt to bite a thug