June Hatch A Long

[jolenesdad]

What DO you all do with so many chicks? Are you selling them on a regular basis? We have a poultry swap here, and there are regulars who sell big batches chicks every month.
I have a buyer lined up for my 4 chicks. I don't want to increase the flock now, or deal w cockerels.
Here's mama showing her bitties the food. She has rolled the remaining egg closer to the feeder so she can still incubate it. She's a multitasking mama....so far so good!
View attachment 1810486

Good question! Awaiting responses.

I sold most of my first batch this year on Craigslist. EVERYONE wanted Legbars. My marans, not so much. That was weird. I’ve sold a few pullet marans for 30 bucks a piece. Chicks... none. I finally gave away most of my marans grow outs to a sweet deserving family I found on Craigslist.

I just put a post up about ducks to find families that really want them so I can maybe line up potentials BEFORE they hatch.

 

[jolenesdad]

All 31 eggs still cooking!

Most of my weights were SPOT on for day 14! Humidity will stay st 48%. No egg had lost too little, but a few had lost more than I was expecting. Just a couple shipped eggs, so I’m ignoring the weights, the air cells look okay.

Thought this was interesting. Here is one of two worst saddled eggs. Has lost exactly 8% on day 14, so that’s good. I outlined in red the original saddled air cell. If you tilt the egg, the air cell can still reach into that area.

I marked the current air cell in green. You can see it’s geowing normally. (A tad large but I think that’s from the displacement originally.) those green lines mean it can still get there if you rotate the egg. But as you can see, in another week, the air cell should have taken over the entire saddle and be secure.

 

[forevercamismom]

I don't think I could keep track of all the eggs and babies and who belongs to who!!!!!

Not really trying to keep track but so far the live chicks are easy
Cotton has 3, Red has 2. There is a week size difference between the babies so it is noticeable currently. but Cotton and Red are friends and top of the pecking order so I am sure the babies will be well cared for.
the remaining 8 eggs must have been added after cotton started setting. If they don't hatch by Sunday IDK? Might see if I can get some recent hatchlings locally and try to foster them into those nests to break the broodies.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

HI, late to the party but we have chicks!
Our Cotton (French Cuckoo Maran hen) was co nesting with Red band (also a French cuckoo Maran hen)
1st 2 hatched June 4th. Cotton got out of the nest box and moved to the coop floor with the babies.
Then the 3rd on the 5th. #3 was either pushed or jumped to going other on the floor of the coop
co-nester, Red band, hatched one on the 8th but still born or something. We found it on the floor of the coop in the litter on June 9th.
Our next chick hatched by Red band on June 9 and another on June 10th.
Red band just decided in the last hour or two to abandon the remaining 8 eggs in the clutch. So I put 4 eggs each under green band and purple band, who decided to be broody at some point along the way but haven't had anything but 1 ceramic egg each.
fingers crossed that the remaining 8 hatch some and soon because green and purple haven't been able to be dissuaded from being broody at all! Will try to upload soome pictures later.

PS I know its odd that only of few chickens have names and some have colors but...Kids nough said!
our flock is 4 maran hens 1 rooster all hitting 1 year from TSC last summer. Named members: Cotton, Red band, messy butt (I believe she is a green band) Purple (band color, and the Rooster is seven (because we originally got 7 pullets wanted 4 had to buy 6, and there was 1 left so Seven came home also.) We culled the other 2 roster, Dopey and General (Pullets my arse!) in April because they loved to attack our 8yr old son.
Also in our flock were 15 buff orpies also from TSC in March of 2019. After they were moved to the main coop and settled in we believe a dog attacked and lost 9 of them plus 2 were injured and nursed back to health to rejoin the flock. The 6 remaining buffs (straight run) 2 roosters, Green and Red, 4 hens: Gimp, Bubble, Purple and Yellow.

I should add that this is our 1st time at hatching anything. we chose to trust nature. our broodies stayed with the flock and our babies our still in the main coop. fingers crossed!

Welcome! And the first hatches can be so nerve-wracking and yet SO exciting! I'm glad to hear it's going well so far and I hope the others hatch successfully for you soon! So far I have had zero issues with my broody moms raising their chicks in the main flock. They will protect the chicks during initial introductions but this doesn't usually take long because nobody wants to get beat up by an angry momma. lol
This is a couple of my broodies, one displaying to the others that they shouldn't mess with her peeps, this was the first day I decided to let her out of the separated area and was the only day I saw her posturing and none of the other hens actually did anything to the chicks, they just looked and the other is free ranging with her few week old chicks with the rest of the flock. I never even bothered separating her and I felt like both methods went smoothly.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

What DO you all do with so many chicks? Are you selling them on a regular basis? We have a poultry swap here, and there are regulars who sell big batches chicks every month.
I have a buyer lined up for my 4 chicks. I don't want to increase the flock now, or deal w cockerels.
Here's mama showing her bitties the food. She has rolled the remaining egg closer to the feeder so she can still incubate it. She's a multitasking mama....so far so good!
View attachment 1810486

She's such a good momma!
I like to leave a few chicks with my hens because I feel bad that they went through all that effort. 3 Seems to be my number of choice, I take the other chicks on hatch day and put them in a brooder so it's not as traumatizing for hen or babies (this is a personal choice, not everyone does this but I don't like to hear the babies crying out for the hen and they will if you wait too long). I rehome the brooder babies and I often have a waiting list for the chicks before they even hatch. There are also a lot of people that want pre-started chicks, either because they want to be certain which are hens and roos or because they don't want to fuss with a brooder set up, either way, once the broodies stop tending to their peeps, I keep some and rehome some.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Tomorrow afternoon/evening should be the beginning of hatch day for the goslings but I can already hear "weep-weep" coming from the incubator! I think it's this egg but no external pips.

I may need @LilyD 's expert assisting advice if they're going down a similar path to her early pipped ducklings. Has anyone else hatched ducks or goslings in an IncuView? Is there a preference of hatch day humidity? It's not helping that this is a new incubator to me because I'm not feeling very trusting of it. I had to drop the temp significantly before putting the goose eggs in it since the digital thermometer on it was so far off and an internal pip a day early makes me think it may have still been a bit on the hot side...Fingers crossed for no issues from the temp if that's the case!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

What DO you all do with so many chicks? Are you selling them on a regular basis? We have a poultry swap here, and there are regulars who sell big batches chicks every month.
I have a buyer lined up for my 4 chicks. I don't want to increase the flock now, or deal w cockerels.
Here's mama showing her bitties the food. She has rolled the remaining egg closer to the feeder so she can still incubate it. She's a multitasking mama....so far so good!
View attachment 1810486

We have Marek’s disease in our flock so we don’t sell or give birds away. If you’ve seen any of my previous posts about our grumpy “mean girls”, we are hoping that the intro of lots of chicks in a short span will have a positive effect on the flock dynamics. We will have to process the cockerels, at about 4 mo I expect, which my daughter is really not looking forward to. However, it’s her breeding project and the reason I spent my winter building her a rooster coop/run! That’s at capacity and these new cockerels will need to go, unpleasant though it will be. Of the remaining pullets, I’m expecting that we lose about half to Marek’s. If we lose less than that I’ll be thrilled! After all is said and done, I don’t expect that we will be adding that many hens to our flock, despite incubating 30 eggs so far this summer.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Tomorrow afternoon/evening should be the beginning of hatch day for the goslings but I can already hear "weep-weep" coming from the incubator! I think it's this egg but no external pips.
View attachment 1810645
I may need @LilyD 's expert assisting advice if they're going down a similar path to her early pipped ducklings. Has anyone else hatched ducks or goslings in an IncuView? Is there a preference of hatch day humidity? It's not helping that this is a new incubator to me because I'm not feeling very trusting of it. I had to drop the temp significantly before putting the goose eggs in it since the digital thermometer on it was so far off and an internal pip a day early makes me think it may have still been a bit on the hot side...Fingers crossed for no issues from the temp if that's the case!

I haven’t hatched goslings and don’t have that incubator so I’m no help. Best of luck with your hatch, CluckNDoodle!!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

We have Marek’s disease in our flock so we don’t sell or give birds away. If you’ve seen any of my previous posts about our grumpy “mean girls”, we are hoping that the intro of lots of chicks in a short span will have a positive effect on the flock dynamics. We will have to process the cockerels, at about 4 mo I expect, which my daughter is really not looking forward to. However, it’s her breeding project and the reason I spent my winter building her a rooster coop/run! That’s at capacity and these new cockerels will need to go, unpleasant though it will be. Of the remaining pullets, I’m expecting that we lose about half to Marek’s. If we lose less than that I’ll be thrilled! After all is said and done, I don’t expect that we will be adding that many hens to our flock, despite incubating 30 eggs so far this summer.

Oh my goodness, I'm soooo sorry you're contending with Marek's disease! I'm so very careful about not bringing in outside chickens to my flock because I'm terrified of contamination. I will hatch a dozen chicks when I just want one of a specific breed or color just to avoid contamination. Is there not a way to get it under control or is it something you would have to have an empty coop for a period of time to get past?

 

[jolenesdad]

Tomorrow afternoon/evening should be the beginning of hatch day for the goslings but I can already hear "weep-weep" coming from the incubator! I think it's this egg but no external pips.
View attachment 1810645
I may need @LilyD 's expert assisting advice if they're going down a similar path to her early pipped ducklings. Has anyone else hatched ducks or goslings in an IncuView? Is there a preference of hatch day humidity? It's not helping that this is a new incubator to me because I'm not feeling very trusting of it. I had to drop the temp significantly before putting the goose eggs in it since the digital thermometer on it was so far off and an internal pip a day early makes me think it may have still been a bit on the hot side...Fingers crossed for no issues from the temp if that's the case!

You’re stressed, and I’m excited! isn’t that how it goes with sideline coaches?!?

Have you been rotating positions in the new incubator? Ugh I keep forgetting, myself. Baby steps.