June hatch-a-long!

[KittyCat13]

Well, I'm out. I worried & checked on my chickens all night after the raccoon incident yesterday. When I went out last night my broody was sleeping on the ground outside the coop which was a first ever occurrence. I figured my egg hopes were dashed at that point but put her in the coop & closed the door not wanting to cause her any more stress. This morning when I went out to feed there is no sign of the post-raccoon eggs from yesterday. I cleaned the entire coop out & found no shells, nothing. I don't know if something came back to get them later in the day or the chickens destroyed them or kicked them out of the coop....maybe knowing they'd been damaged in the scuffle or thinking the raccoon would come back for them? No clue.

My first foray into hatching was a bit of a disaster but I did learn a lot. Maybe next year. Good luck to those still on your hatching journey!

That's such a shame, sorry that you lost all the eggs

Racoons sound like a nightmare!

 

[ldawntaylor]

I have a new chick too. I haven't gotten to see it yet, but I heard it when I took care of my birds this morning.

I got a glimpse a little while ago. No picture yet.

One of my May 26th chicks is having trouble. I have her separate from the other. But where she can still hear them. I am hoping since most of the others are full size birds that she just hasn't been getting enough to eat.

 

[ldawntaylor]

I got a couple of pictures. The dark baby is really hard to see.

It is there beside the light color chick. Rather blurry though.

 

[Lifeiseasy]

She ate one. Two days before “lockdown” and she ate another one. We’re down to 11 now and I’m going to put them into an incubator because when I kicked her out of the nest, she stopped puffing up at me. I also don’t trust her to not eat any more of them. Hopefully everything else goes smoothly but I’m not expecting a great turnout now.

 

[Ms Biddy]

She ate one. Two days before “lockdown” and she ate another one. We’re down to 11 now and I’m going to put them into an incubator because when I kicked her out of the nest, she stopped puffing up at me. I also don’t trust her to not eat any more of them. Hopefully everything else goes smoothly but I’m not expecting a great turnout now.

My word, if it isn't one thing it's something else. Do not eat the babies!

 

[chicken4prez]

d'Uccle is alive! It was stressful helping it but it's all good now.

 

[MadChickenMama]

Incubation is all done. The last 2 eggs just...stopped. I don't know when or why. Not shrink wrapped, didn't bleed out. All I can think is something was wrong genetically. *shrug* They were slightly malpositioned when I opened them up after float testing them.

10 chicks out of 18 viable eggs, 14 of which made it to lockdown.

They're all so cute and sleep in the funniest ways.

 

[Ms Biddy]

Incubation is all done. The last 2 eggs just...stopped. I don't know when or why. Not shrink wrapped, didn't bleed out. All I can think is something was wrong genetically. *shrug* They were slightly malpositioned when I opened them up after float testing them.

10 chicks out of 18 viable eggs, 14 of which made it to lockdown.

They're all so cute and sleep in the funniest ways. View attachment 1430008 View attachment 1430009 View attachment 1430010 View attachment 1430012

Congratulations and thank you for giving me an idea of what to expect. I'm on day 14 and have 19 viable eggs. I don't want to lose any of them, but I know it's likely.

 

[MadChickenMama]

Congratulations and thank you for giving me an idea of what to expect. I'm on day 14 and have 19 viable eggs. I don't want to lose any of them, but I know it's likely.

What breed(s) are you incubating? Mine are Seramas which are known to have a genetic issue that makes them just stop during incubation.

I also could have opened the incubator less, but once the chicks got a certain size and because the eggs were so small they were turning around with the air cell down or getting pulled up onto the sides of the turner with the air cell down. So I was having to open the thing every hour to reposition the eggs.

It just came down to possibly genetics for the ones that didn't make it. Three were malpositioned, four stopped between days 5 through 10, and then one was just shrink wrapped.

I'm sure you'll do great!

 

[Ms Biddy]

What breed(s) are you incubating? Mine are Seramas which are known to have a genetic issue that makes them just stop during incubation.

I also could have opened the incubator less, but once the chicks got a certain size and because the eggs were so small they were turning around with the air cell down or getting pulled up onto the sides of the turner with the air cell down. So I was having to open the thing every hour to reposition the eggs.

It just came down to possibly genetics for the ones that didn't make it. Three were malpositioned, four stopped between days 5 through 10, and then one was just shrink wrapped.

I'm sure you'll do great!

Thank you, mine are pretty standard I think. EE's, Ayam Cemanis and Hmong Chickens. The eggs were collected over a long period of time so some were fresh and others were older. Some air cells were tiny others, large. One egg is cracked. My fingers are crossed for a good hatch!