June Hatch A Long

[dougieee]

I’m right there with you I lost one egg I could have saved. It’s hard to balance the info of “never assist” that’s so pervasive out there with when to jump in :-/

I know right, the one i saved i had to wrap in tissue and hold with head down as he was literally blowing bubbles and choking on liquid, so much of it came out of his beak i honestly thought he was a gonner but hes motering around quite happily now.
I think what caught me off guard was that the first 5 were quick, clean hatches, i didnt think the other 4 would be struggling with drowning.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

yup!
View attachment 1825471

Awwww, how awesome! Congratulations!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

View attachment 1825473 Chick 4 that I had to assist is thriving! It’s got a lot of spunk and sass. What a stressful couple days it was! Best of luck to all those still waiting for their hatched!

Final count
12 shipped BCM Eggs-
6 clear
1 very early quitter day1 or 2
1 late quitter, long skinny egg
3 hatched chicks
1 assisted chick

1 ended with 0/12 shipped BCM eggs, so you did very well!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Forgot a photo!

I’ve got lots of silver Appleyard, some welsh harlequins, a Cayuga, a chocolate runner, a fawn and white runner, khaki Campbell and who knows what else!

View attachment 1825501

Wow! What a great hatch you’ve had, and you’ve really earned it. Beautiful babies!!!

 

[dougieee]

65874789_343419143016876_6940719742210539520_n

• dougieee
• Jun 26, 2019

Lavender Aruacanas

View through the bater as i still have a few EE`s yet to hatch

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Oh! And my last duckling is almost ready! Look how many fewer veins there are today. They’ve receded a lot since 6am. Little baby is still chattering and chewing. I’m going to check veins every 30 minutes he has been in here a long time!

View attachment 1825503

C’mon baby! He’s clearly in good hands!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

65874789_343419143016876_6940719742210539520_n

• dougieee
• Jun 26, 2019

Lavender Aruacanas

View through the bater as i still have a few EE`s yet to hatch

Sleepy little guys, congratulations!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I’ve been wanting to post pics of Naruto and her babies. Babies are five days old, and I had expected her to have them out before now. Today she stopped acting like she was brooding and started freaking out instead. My guess is that she wanted out but was afraid that the babies would be hurt by our boisterous flock, warring instincts! I’ve kept the door to her nest closed since she was acting so private, but I opened it and tried to coax her out. Nope! Not trusting of me, and when the babies acted interested, she’d peck them until they hid at the back, then peck them some more. I can totally see how hens turn lethal to their babies... She is not the gentle mom that 9 Ball was, though her situation is a lot more stressful with so much traffic around her... I changed food and water but she was pacing and dumped everything. She left the nest for a minute to run crazily around the run, but came back when her chicks called her, and I closed the nest door again. Then 9 Ball came over and challenged her, so they fence fought for awhile while the babies cowered! Whoa! 9 Ball is third from the bottom in rank and Naruto is No 1! Everyone was all up in arms today! I decided to leave the nest door open so Naruto could get out and fight her challengers away from the chicks, and when I came back, Naruto finally had her chicks out in the coop! She’s very nervous and more pecky than I’d like with the chicks, but holding it together! I got a few poor pics.

In other news, 9 Ball laid her first egg in 2.5 months! And... it reminded me why we were trying to add new BCM to the flock with darker egg laying genes. After two months off, I t’s lighter in color than all 12 of the BCM eggs that we tried to hatch! I guess that was the signal that her 6 week old chicks are on their own as she kept chasing them away. Here she is with a wheelbarrow load of weeds that we brought in to try to get our agitated flock focused on something else. This pile was hers! Her chicks were chased off right after this. It will be interesting to see what happens at roost time tonight, and those cockerels are on borrowed time. Sad to see her motherhood go but happy to have her back in the laying flock!

 

[jolenesdad]

Working on my final notes.

Originally I set 36 eggs
19 shipped assorted from Metzer
17 local Silver Appleyards.

4 clears (2 each) and one day 6 quitter from the shipped.

Discarded the cracked egg (Silver Appleyard) and I’ll keep it in my total as a reminder to candle the whole dang egg not the air cell. It quit at day 20 and was gross looking.

Went into lockdown with 30 eggs
16 shipped Metzer eggs
14 Silver Appleyards

DIS:
4 shipped eggs
1 Silver Appleyard
(SA was the first bottom pipper I didn’t see... so with this and the cracked egg... I was on the verge of a perfect hatch!!!)

Assists
Bottom Pippers
1 silver Appleyard (plus the 1 DIS that doesn’t count in assists)
5 shipped eggs

Regular air cell pippers
1 shrink wrap
1 sticky chick
1 my fault last Hatcher I probably dried the membrane with all this helping.

8 total assists and they’re all doing great! 1 splay leg that is handling the brace okay. 1 bottom Hatcher hatched on its own with no assistance.

Totals:
shipped eggs 71% hatch rate
Local eggs 87% hatch rate

At first glance the most interesting part for me is this:

EVERY DIS egg is a side incubated egg.
Some side incubators made it, but this is interesting.

All but ONE bottom pipper is a side incubated egg.

I put 6 eggs in the carton.

A fluid egg hatched on its own which was awesome. 3 other eggs hatched normally. 2 eggs pipped the BOTTOM. One I almost lost I was really late to get it out and on its side I just happened to pull it out.

I’m going to forgive the carton statistic because I took two side eggs and tried to hatch them in the carton. That I certainly will never do.

Photo update coming later with some breed ID questions!

Without the help of this thread I would NEVER have been able to have the confidence or patience necessary. I can’t thank you guys enough.

 

[jolenesdad]

I’ve been wanting to post pics of Naruto and her babies. Babies are five days old, and I had expected her to have them out before now. Today she stopped acting like she was brooding and started freaking out instead. My guess is that she wanted out but was afraid that the babies would be hurt by our boisterous flock, warring instincts! I’ve kept the door to her nest closed since she was acting so private, but I opened it and tried to coax her out. Nope! Not trusting of me, and when the babies acted interested, she’d peck them until they hid at the back, then peck them some more. I can totally see how hens turn lethal to their babies... She is not the gentle mom that 9 Ball was, though her situation is a lot more stressful with so much traffic around her... I changed food and water but she was pacing and dumped everything. She left the nest for a minute to run crazily around the run, but came back when her chicks called her, and I closed the nest door again. Then 9 Ball came over and challenged her, so they fence fought for awhile while the babies cowered! Whoa! 9 Ball is third from the bottom in rank and Naruto is No 1! Everyone was all up in arms today! I decided to leave the nest door open so Naruto could get out and fight her challengers away from the chicks, and when I came back, Naruto finally had her chicks out in the coop! She’s very nervous and more pecky than I’d like with the chicks, but holding it together! I got a few poor pics.

In other news, 9 Ball laid her first egg in 2.5 months! And... it reminded me why we were trying to add new BCM to the flock with darker egg laying genes. After two months off, I t’s lighter in color than all 12 of the BCM eggs that we tried to hatch! I guess that was the signal that her 6 week old chicks are on their own as she kept chasing them away. Here she is with a wheelbarrow load of weeds that we brought in to try to get our agitated flock focused on something else. This pile was hers! Her chicks were chased off right after this. It will be interesting to see what happens at roost time tonight, and those cockerels are on borrowed time. Sad to see her motherhood go but happy to have her back in the laying flock!

Great update!!! Naruto is going to be fabulous. I think it was a good idea to let her fight off the chickens and get that over with.