June Hatch-A-Long

[FortCluck]

Hey you guys !
I have an quail egg with the air cell at the wrong end ! What should I do ?
I have the pointy end ( end with the air cell) down , should I point it up ?

You can point it up. You might have to assist it because it could be trying to go the correct end where there is no air cell. Keep an eye on it by candling.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I want my Mommy!

Went to bed about midnight last night with one external pip and tracking showing the hatchery chicks going out of Iowa Wed morning.... still sitting in Iowa and not due until next Monday.

Woke up bright and early to "Mom! There's more!!" I stumbled to the incubator to see 3 more had pipped overnight with one having a little hole and some movement under the hole. Yay.
I somehow managed to make a cup of coffee and check my phone hoping for some updates on tracking.
A slew of texts came in between 2 and 5:00am that shows the chicks are at my local PO. Whew.
Get another text, chicks are out for delivery? ??? They have done this before, deliver the box of chicks to the house. But there was a mix up that time and I was at the PO trying to pick them up and they could not be found. Took about 30 minutes of calling and checking but they finally figured out someone grabbed them and took them for delivery. Which is supposedly against PO rules and the head postmaster had a fit about. Also not good because I'm more rural and there are plenty of feral cats, raccoons, opossum, and critters around that frequent my place often enough. (They ended up leaving those chicks on the porch on top of something in a precarious position, and I was very NOT pleased, but that's another story for another day. )

Figuring they might actually be delivering them again, I decided o sit tight and wait for the delivery. Which is good, I can keep an eye on the incubator this way.

I sit down to sip my coffee and wake up, and to make some notes on the eggs in the bator.
*ring ring*
Come pick up your chicks!"

Go to the PO, check inside the box to make sure all bodies are alive, and they are. However I didn't actually count them, just verified life. Get home, look for the "supposed" ID marks I asked for...yeah GRRR...only 2 had some sort of mark, and was accessing babies and dipping beaks while putting them onto the brooder.
Ohm and another external pip BTW while we were at the PO.

As I'm going...something looks odd. I asked kiddo to keep count of bodies because something doesn't look right but I'm still sans coffee and can't put the puzzle pieces together.

Were both are counting and recounting and two bodies are missing? Like gone. Like never there to begin with. The box says 15 chicks. The packing slip says 15 chicks. But there is only 13. So I'm going to have to contact Hoover about it.

Meanwhile I'm watching and checking the incubator and seeing the pip with the hole's beak moving around and poking out to say Hi.

...and since I remembered how to type and make sentences, I've gotten at least half a cup of coffee in me now. Didn't say it was effective communication though..... I need two full cups for that.

 

[FortCluck]

I want my Mommy!

Went to bed about midnight last night with one external pip and tracking showing the hatchery chicks going out of Iowa Wed morning.... still sitting in Iowa and not due until next Monday.

Woke up bright and early to "Mom! There's more!!" I stumbled to the incubator to see 3 more had pipped overnight with one having a little hole and some movement under the hole. Yay.
I somehow managed to make a cup of coffee and check my phone hoping for some updates on tracking.
A slew of texts came in between 2 and 5:00am that shows the chicks are at my local PO. Whew.
Get another text, chicks are out for delivery? ??? They have done this before, deliver the box of chicks to the house. But there was a mix up that time and I was at the PO trying to pick them up and they could not be found. Took about 30 minutes of calling and checking but they finally figured out someone grabbed them and took them for delivery. Which is supposedly against PO rules and the head postmaster had a fit about. Also not good because I'm more rural and there are plenty of feral cats, raccoons, opossum, and critters around that frequent my place often enough. (They ended up leaving those chicks on the porch on top of something in a precarious position, and I was very NOT pleased, but that's another story for another day. )

Figuring they might actually be delivering them again, I decided o sit tight and wait for the delivery. Which is good, I can keep an eye on the incubator this way.

I sit down to sip my coffee and wake up, and to make some notes on the eggs in the bator.
*ring ring*
Come pick up your chicks!"

Go to the PO, check inside the box to make sure all bodies are alive, and they are. However I didn't actually count them, just verified life. Get home, look for the "supposed" ID marks I asked for...yeah GRRR...only 2 had some sort of mark, and was accessing babies and dipping beaks while putting them onto the brooder.
Ohm and another external pip BTW while we were at the PO.

As I'm going...something looks odd. I asked kiddo to keep count of bodies because something doesn't look right but I'm still sans coffee and can't put the puzzle pieces together.

Were both are counting and recounting and two bodies are missing? Like gone. Like never there to begin with. The box says 15 chicks. The packing slip says 15 chicks. But there is only 13. So I'm going to have to contact Hoover about it.

Meanwhile I'm watching and checking the incubator and seeing the pip with the hole's beak moving around and poking out to say Hi.

...and since I remembered how to type and make sentences, I've gotten at least half a cup of coffee in me now. Didn't say it was effective communication though..... I need two full cups for that.

I would call them because I’m sure they miscounted. Hoover has had a bunch of doozies this year... trust me. Some of those doozies are at my house. They sent TSC the wrong chicks a few times that meant I got a bunch of silkies and light brahmas because the manager didn’t feel comfortable selling them to someone else. The light brahmas all look to be pullets... score for me since I only paid $.50 for all of them.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

The Australorp roo will give you a green egg. If she has 2 blue genes, it’s 100% chance of green, and if she has one it’s 50/50.

I don’t think Hoover sells actual Ameraucana, they’re all really Easter Eggers so there’s no way to know if she has two blue copies.

YASSSSSSS


Wrong end pips are the take a glass of wine pips. Malpositions where they cannot pip are next to impossible for anyone but the most experienced to save, and those are usually the ones where it has a reason to not hatch. If it pips it should be fine, but it will take twice as long to hatch usually.


They’re not breathing at all until they break into the air cell. If they break into the small end of the egg, that’s where cluckndoodle mentioned it’s an internal and external pip. At that point, they’re breathing the outside air just the same as a regular chick in internal pip stage is breathing the air in the air cell. Does that make sense?

also those chicks will all be different, some will draw down (the marked change you’re seeing) really quickly and pip and then wait and some will be slower but will pip and zip and hatch very quickly together.

Day 19 isn’t bad for an external pip. I would be surprised if that chick comes out before 24 hours, which means your hatch would start at the end of day 20.... right on time. Even if it’s out before that, I often have my hatches complete by the actual exact time of day 21.

The first pips are usually the ones that wait the longest to hatch.

Thank you, I read that right before I nodded off and it helped me to sleep better.

I checked Hoover's site and though I got the chicks through TSC at the time, the Ameraucanas I thought I got are listed as Americanas now. I get the two confused but they don't have a listing of EEs. They may have a couple of years ago when I got these but I know EEs were not what I wanted because I had Blue Ameraucanas at my old farm (from a local breeder) and wanted those again. I like the bright blue eggs over green or olive eggs.

Anyway, I tend to mix up Amaraucanas and Americans anyway...kinda like Blue Plymouth Rocks vs Plymouth Blue Rocks (which I have, but don't know which they are) and wish some of the chicken names/hybrids/and /or breeds would not be named so similar to one another, especially when the birds look identical.

Since the Aussie roo cross I was talking about before is with an Americana, so long as she gives a blue gene I could get green eggs and if she gives a white gene I'll get brown eggs? Any knowledge on the Americana vs EEs? It's my understanding EE is a catch all label.

edit: major typos. I blame a lack a of coffee

 

[gimmie birdies]

I am happy for you snap! better 13 at your house then 15 sitting in Iowa!

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I am happy for you snap! better 13 at your house then 15 sitting in Iowa!

Most certainly, and thank You!
I'll be fine with only 13 so long as they refund for the difference and did not charge shipping because it was actually less than 15.

I worked very hard not to ask the PO clerk...."What's the point of having tracking for the customers if nothing gets tracked until after it arrives to the customer?"

 

[jolenesdad]

Thank you, I read that right before I nodded off and it helped me to sleep better.

I checked Hoover's site and though I got the chicks through TSC at the time, the Ameraucanas I thought I got are listed as Americanas now. I get the two confused but they don't have a listing of EEs. They may have a couple of years ago when I got these but I know EEs were not what I wanted because I had Blue Ameraucanas at my old farm (from a local breeder) and wanted those again. I like the blue eggs over green or olive eggs.

Anyway, I tend to mix up Amaraucanas and Americans anyway...kinda like Blue Plymouth Rocks vs Plymouth Blue Rocks (which I have, but don't know which they are) and wish some of the chicken names/hybrids/and /or breeds would not be named so similar to one another, especially when the birds look identical.

So, since the Aussie roo cross I was talking about before is with an Americana, so long as she gives a blue gene I could get green eggs and of she gives a while gene I'll get brown eggs? Any knowledge on the Americana vs EEs? It's my understanding EE is a catch all label.

Yes that's right!

Yes, it is a catch-all label for ANY chicken with the CHANCE of carrying one blue gene. They can lay ANY color of egg, from white to tan to brown to green to blue. USUALLY an Americana or any spelling other than the official is an Easter Egger based off an original breeding with an actual Ameraucana. (Cackle hatchery, Meyer, and MPC sell actual Ameraucanas I believe where you can get blue ameraucanas....)

Easter Egger can be inclusive of literally any breeder bird that lays an egg with a blue egg gene. Some places have started using cream leg bars in the pens as well as Ameraucana. The issue gets when they start using Easter Eggers or Americana, Ameracana, etc in the pen. You've lost the part of two blue gene layers breeding to other blue gene layers guaranteeing a blue egg. Somewhere along the line, they have been bred into a production line of birds that does not carry a blue gene because the hatcheries want more production. It is FAR more economical for them to just throw the higher producing "maybe" blue layers together and sell the overwhelming amount of eggs laid as 3.00 EEs than to keep actual breeding flocks of Ameraucanas, that lay far less than an EE.

Does that make sense?

 

[mandi427]

All four of my fertile eggs hatched! I went to the store with two bopping around in the incubator yesterday and came home to two more. Yay!

In the brooder with some buddies from McMurrays.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I'll get better pics when I'm fully caffeinated.

 

[chickiebaby1]

Thank you, I read that right before I nodded off and it helped me to sleep better.

I checked Hoover's site and though I got the chicks through TSC at the time, the Ameraucanas I thought I got are listed as Americanas now. I get the two confused but they don't have a listing of EEs. They may have a couple of years ago when I got these but I know EEs were not what I wanted because I had Blue Ameraucanas at my old farm (from a local breeder) and wanted those again. I like the bright blue eggs over green or olive eggs.

Anyway, I tend to mix up Amaraucanas and Americans anyway...kinda like Blue Plymouth Rocks vs Plymouth Blue Rocks (which I have, but don't know which they are) and wish some of the chicken names/hybrids/and /or breeds would not be named so similar to one another, especially when the birds look identical.

Since the Aussie roo cross I was talking about before is with an Americana, so long as she gives a blue gene I could get green eggs and if she gives a white gene I'll get brown eggs? Any knowledge on the Americana vs EEs? It's my understanding EE is a catch all label.

edit: major typos. I blame a lack a of coffee

I’m still waiting for my call. They were supposedly shipped Wednesday!