July 2023 Hatch-A-Long

[Magda12]

Can you keep the door open but put a screen or net/fence in front of it to keep airflow but other chickens out until later?

I made the mistake of propping both side coop doors open while we went out for a couple of hours. Cho managed to get out the one door into the run but couldn't get back in. When we got back, both hatching chicks were dead. The one that had already hatched would have been fine had she been sitting on it, but it dipped down to 74 and it was cold and stiff. No idea if the rest of the eggs got too cold. Really mad at myself for leaving.

 

[Magda12]

I made the mistake of propping both side coop doors open while we went out for a couple of hours. Cho managed to get out the one door into the run but couldn't get back in. When we got back, both hatching chicks were dead. The one that had already hatched would have been fine had she been sitting on it, but it dipped down to 74 and it was cold and stiff. No idea if the rest of the eggs got too cold. Really mad at myself for leaving.

This morning I stapled up some plastic "netting" over the coop entrance and left Cho with food and water by herself in the coop. I am praying the other eggs will hatch and we'll get some chicks. I've learned some hard lessons in this process! 1. Move her to the new coop BEFORE getting eggs. 2. Know when the chicks are hatching and don't plan birthday outings. I don't like to interfere, but I also like to keep an eye out and I wasn't able to do that yesterday. Not sure if leaving it so the other chickens could still get in would have yielded a better result... Given that one of the eggs was somehow displaced from the nesting box (presumably by.one of the other chickens). I will give it a few days. If they don't hatch, I will remove them and try again another time.

 

[Magda12]

We've got 7 live chicks and the other three eggs are trying to hatch! I am going to see what state the eggs are in at bedtime and either move the whole brood and carefully move the eggs with them or I will have to relegate the other 9 chickens to a 4 chicken capacity coop. They won't be happy but it's not going to hurt them for one night. Mama is doing a great job now that she's being left alone by the other chickens.

Chick tax! We successfully moved everyone and the other three eggs to the new coop, secured by a reinforced fence inside the main run. Hoping they can acclimated that way with being in danger of the others.

 

[Magda12]

7 happy little babies this morning. Not sure of the status of the other three eggs yet. Mama broke up some grubs for them and showed them how to get water.

 

[Magda12]

We've got 10 babies! The last one just kicked the remnants of its shell off. Here's hoping the two newest ones dry off and get on their feet soon. Thankfully it's about 85F here, so no worries about them getting too cold. Thanks for following along everyone. Even though we lost the first two, we learned some valuable lessons for next time.

We also had an amazing hatch rate. I was given 17 eggs. One got broken. 4 were not fertile. And only one died prematurely (red ring at about 10 days). Of the 12 remaining eggs, all of them hatched, but the first two died because mama couldn't sit on them and it got down to around 70F.

It's crazy that I went from 10 to 20 chickens in one day Glory to God for all things, even little chicken miracles

 

[PrettyCoolChicks]

We've got 10 babies! The last one just kicked the remnants of its shell off. Here's hoping the two newest ones dry off and get on their feet soon. Thankfully it's about 85F here, so no worries about them getting too cold. Thanks for following along everyone. Even though we lost the first two, we learned some valuable lessons for next time.

We also had an amazing hatch rate. I was given 17 eggs. One got broken. 4 were not fertile. And only one died prematurely (red ring at about 10 days). Of the 12 remaining eggs, all of them hatched, but the first two died because mama couldn't sit on them and it got down to around 70F.

It's crazy that I went from 10 to 20 chickens in one day Glory to God for all things, even little chicken miracles

Congratulations! A very successful hatch all in all then. Thanks for sharing - both the hatch, pics and the learnings.

 

[Indaria]

Congratulations! That's a great hatch!

I'm still staring at 9 eggs in the incubator. Locked and loaded. Day 21 for them all is this weekend. They are staggered. But since they developed before I put them in the incubator it's guess work. Friday is day 21 in the incubator for three of them, And Sunday is day 21 in the incubator for the other six. No pips yet.

 

[Honora]

Bia means “food” in Irish!

I am going to name them in birth order...
Alek, Tor, Opho, and Bia.

 

[Indaria]

I came home from work to a pip!

 

[tranquiliti]

7 eggs with dark tips, and the first one (labeled “close”) has also been the first to pip internally with chewing sounds & chirping!
This has also been, incidentally, my first time to hear the chirp before the chew