June Hatch A Long

[thelastrabbit]

These babies squeaked in the 30th! We had 7 on the 30th and 8 on the first. I went out after work to change water to count 9 and 10 coming out of an egg slowly. I believe there are 3 more eggs to go under mama.

 

[dougieee]

I'll have to try and get a picture of it for you it's not very far down the leg like less than 1/2 inch and very scraggly. I saw it when they first hatched and it seems they have all fallen out and now they are all bare legged. Not keeping these guys for breeding to the SOP hoping to do this with my Creles but they are gorgeous birds and will lay beautiful eggs. I think the same can be said for the blue legs on lavender I have had just about everyone tell me that is not a good thing and you shouldn't breed them but then I see them all over the place with blue legs instead of pink.

I guess it has a lot to do with how widespread the genepool is and availability, i just hatched some lavender araucanas and they have a mix of leg colour, surely a pure strain would all be the same colour right? I think we have a different breed standard over here for those as well.

 

[LilyD]

I guess it has a lot to do with how widespread the genepool is and availability, i just hatched some lavender araucanas and they have a mix of leg colour, surely a pure strain would all be the same colour right? I think we have a different breed standard over here for those as well.

I would definitely think so although I'm less of an expert and more of a lover of the breed. My goal is more to create a sustainable dual purpose flock for meat and eggs and hatch my own babies each year so I don't have to purchase eggs or chicks as often.

 

[LilyD]

These eggs are going to be stubborn until the end today is only day 20 but not seeing any pipping or hearing anything from them. Hoping they are okay and will hatch for me. No pips still day 21 begins tonight at 8:08pm

 

[dougieee]

I would definitely think so although I'm less of an expert and more of a lover of the breed. My goal is more to create a sustainable dual purpose flock for meat and eggs and hatch my own babies each year so I don't have to purchase eggs or chicks as often.

Same, I bred the brahmas and araucanas for that very reason, my wife loves the blue eggs and the brahmas are a lovely meat bird, i will keep a few of each but sell the rest to subsidise my hobby

 

[CluckNDoodle]

So, better late than never! Here are some of my babies... significantly grown up from hatching. All but the last pics (one of my BCMs) are my Olive egger over either a red layer or my Columbian Rock. Huge color variation, as you can see. And I’m seeing lots of little cockerels in here... sigh... so many boys, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s somehow me! Please excuse the mess, I’ve just gotten home from the long weekend and I’m going to be cleaning the brooder/barn tomorrow!
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The one “with the makeup” a girl! View attachment 1833028
This handsome little gent might replace his daddy, but then again, daddy was quite sweet until 21-22 weeks too!
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I’m pretty sure these next two are ladies as well, but the second might be a guy...View attachment 1833031View attachment 1833033
And my Marans are super small by comparison, but I think I might have two females.
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As you can see they are getting quite adept at escaping when the brooder lid is up, time to build even more chicken tractors I suppose!
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Don’t worry! I didn’t take pictures of all 29 of them... most follow these color patterns, some are clearly boys, others are still questionable on gender. They are now off heat, as DH gave up on maintaining my battery rotation for their plate. Lots to do now that I’m back home. DH managed to do an ok job taking care of all 67 chickens while I was away. I did lose one of my older rescues, but I’m not sure my being there would have helped much for her.

I’m probably going to do another order for chicks instead of hatching for July, (100 birds!), though I might do an August hatch if my luck with boys on straight runs holds true!

Thank you all again for the wonderful thread and all the support. I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my ability to hatch this time, and I credit my success mostly to all you awesome people that helped me out along the way!

I love follow up photos!! I'm so glad they're all doing well! I will never get over how quickly they grow!

Wow! 100 chicks!? Well I still
hope to see you in a future hatch-a-long! Lol

 

[Compost King]

Fun Time, I get to see the feathering and figure out which ones get selected for further breeding.

 

[SueT]

Today, Moonshine and her 3 chicks got to re-meet the abandoned-egg chick and its adopted sibling, in a see-no-touch situation. So far so good. The orphans are out of the house now and will live side by side with the others. 3 weeks old.

 

[Compost King]

I wish I had Silver Seabrights, every time I get them in an assortment I get gold.

 

[LilyD]

It's day 21 as of 8:08pm tonight. I am starting to hear chirping coming from the incubator so I think someone is getting ready to attempt to get out. Fingers crossed that they do well. I had to share something else. I know everyone struggles with how to put water into the incubators without opening the lid and shrink wrapping your chicks. This is my solution. It's a 40ml injector tube for the dehydrator I bought and a stiff bit of hose. I can put it right into the wells under the grating to fill the water up if needed through the air vent without opening the lid.