July Hatch-a-Long (including 4th of July hatch-a-long)

[Hucklekree]

Chick number 3 was another pullet. She hatched out last night with a cherry sized unabsorbed yolk. I scooped her out of the incubator and placed her in a clean, clear container with a paper towel in the bottom. But she just kept getting worse and worse as the unabsorbed yolk grew and started to pull her instestines out. Everything I could fine about unabsorbed yolks pointed to this progression being unsavable.

 

[Hucklekree]

Out of the 3 eggs in lockdown. One has a chick trying to pip, two are silent. Of the two silent ones, one of them I am pretty certain is a quitter the other may have been resting.

I have three healthy chicks so far. One cockerel and one pullet for sure. And one that needs to dry off more.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning all. I candled eggs last night. 3 have veins and 3 appear to be infertile but I left them in for now. Have a great day!

 

[AgnesGray]

Chick number 3 was another pullet. She hatched out last night with a cherry sized unabsorbed yolk. I scooped her out of the incubator and placed her in a clean, clear container with a paper towel in the bottom. But she just kept getting worse and worse as the unabsorbed yolk grew and started to pull her instestines out. Everything I could fine about unabsorbed yolks pointed to this progression being unsavable.

Sorry about your yolk baby.

That is one wonderful thing about bielefelders (and my welsh harlequin ducks, for that matter). That autosexing feature is amazing.

 

[TheBajan]

Day 21 update.

I was pretty excited three days ago when my eggs went into lock-down. Out of a total of 47 shipped eggs, 29 made it that far. On day 19, two of the Bielefelders (both boys) hatched with no issues. Yesterday, 13 more hatched. No one needed any assistance hatching. Only a single BCM hatched and shortly after hatching began bleeding from the belly button. I put some cornstarch on it and left it alone. It's doing fine. I still have eggs in the bator but I don't think any of them are viable and I'm disappointed that out of six BCM that made it to lock-down, only one hatched. Here's the final count.
BCM- 1 of 18
Bielefelders- 8 of 14
Cream Legbars- 6 of 15
So, while my numbers are much less than I expected, I'm happy to still have some of each. I guess I will be searching for more BCM eggs to hatch. Any recommendations for eggs or live chicks in the Michigan area?

 

[CindyinSD]

So many people on here have had problems with hatching the BCMs. I had three; a male & three females from Cackle. I have one female left & she's not laying any noticeably dark brown eggs. I got maybe two or three of the pretty eggs from the two females who made it to laying age. I'm just not sure they're all that viable. Have they been bred for their beautiful eggs and other health issues put in second/third place?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Chick number 3 was another pullet. She hatched out last night with a cherry sized unabsorbed yolk. I scooped her out of the incubator and placed her in a clean, clear container with a paper towel in the bottom. But she just kept getting worse and worse as the unabsorbed yolk grew and started to pull her instestines out. Everything I could fine about unabsorbed yolks pointed to this progression being unsavable.

Yikes! That's terrible. Did you have to cull her? I hate doing that.

 

[FortCluck]

So many people on here have had problems with hatching the BCMs. I had three; a male & three females from Cackle. I have one female left & she's not laying any noticeably dark brown eggs. I got maybe two or three of the pretty eggs from the two females who made it to laying age. I'm just not sure they're all that viable. Have they been bred for their beautiful eggs and other health issues put in second/third place?

I’ve lost all but 1 of mine that I hatched from a local breeder. It looks like a female. I’ll never do BCMs again.

 

[FortCluck]

Yikes! That's terrible. Did you have to cull her? I hate doing that.

Same here. I had to cull 12 chicks last hatch after some got cocci and were not getting better with treatment. I had nightmares about killing things for over a week because of it.

 

[TheBajan]

I’ve lost all but 1 of mine that I hatched from a local breeder. It looks like a female. I’ll never do BCMs again.

I'm too stubborn (fool-hardy?) to give up just yet. I have to try again but I will say that if my next hatch doesn't work out... that's where I will cut my losses and move to another breed.