Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[Lady Chickadee]

Great to see you again- please post pics of your Brahmas!

Never fear, there's bound to be a new, odd contest running any time now

Great to see you- I'm likely going to have some broodies to use, as well, as it appears all of my Silkies are glued to the floor again...

Fortunately I hatched almost every egg they laid for the last 6 weeks, so I'm rolling in Silkie chicks.

Mahonri, do wait for the cops- they would really prefer not to have to scrape you up, and we would prefer that, too. REALLY. I'm very glad you're okay, and that DS is home. You should have had him bring you some eggs!!

Hey!
Some of the chicks from your eggs that you sent me hatched out but I'm not sure which ones are from you and which ones are from the other person(because I had two shipments from two different places in my incubator). They're all mixed together so I'm not sure how many hatched out from yours(and I threw the egg shells away), but I do know that its a lot and I still have some that have just started peeping.Its day 20 by the way. I have 9 eggs left in the incubator out of 19, all the others have hatched out. I'll post pictures on here once they've all hatched out.

 

[gussie398]

I would truly love to do this, but we don't have enough room for any more chicks. We already have 2 more that we originally wanted. I know I couldn't keep hatched ones and I don't know who to give them away to if I ever did hatch any. Any ideas? But go chickies!

Edited for stupidity.

 

[crazyeggs]

I seemed to have migrated north without my knowledge

I am back in the state of Vermont. Wish I could remember my time in Quebec....

 

[champer]

My second lav AM pullet started laying a few days ago. Nice blue egg too, but she's smaller than my other LF lavs. I hope I get lots of her eggs and the next generation grows much bigger and the color stays like these.

I have a little lav Am that I hatched for New Years and she's a sweet little thing. I've read that poor feather quality can be a prob with these birds and mine has feathers that look kind of like a tissue that's been hanging around in your coat pocket for a while, sort of frayed looking. Do yours look like that?

 

[debs_flock]

I'm on the map! So to speak.

Deb

 

[buckabucka]

Quote:


SCG, your snowflake is obscuring my tree! I guess I should have chosen the martini glass, since it's bigger.

 

[Arielle]

Chooks CHick--Thanks for the hints on the marans. I'm a little lost on how much of the egg to sand. Do you remove half the color around the egg or all the color? Any risk of filling the pores with egg dust?

Are marans eggs thicker than other eggs? Would the kind of pellets make a difference? Breeder pellets are a lower (2.? % Ca v. 3.25% in layer) . Does this help reduce the egg shell thickness??



ChooksChick wrote:

5. DARK COLORED EGGS-- from ChooksChicks - I only sand until I'm just through the color, and then I mist the eggs with betadine-water, mixed to the color of iced tea. This covers the contamination that could occur now that I've removed the bloom.

The idea is to promote evaporation to allow the chick to grow smaller than it would if it contained all of the moisture it started with. I have had too many chicks large enough that they couldn't pip or hatch properly- fully formed chicks that didn't make it at hatch. Once I started using this method (got it from an Emu farmer!) I have had significantly better success with shipped eggs. It doesn't seem to really be necessary with local eggs (my own) and I'm not certain why. When hatching in a really nice incubator, like a Sportsman or an rcom, it also doesn't appear to be necessary, but with most affordable models, it's a helpful method.

I do increase humidity at the end of my hatch, as per my Incubation Cheater, the same for Marans as for other eggs. My feeling is that if you have evaporated the proper amount during the first 18 days, you can't drown them with humidity at the end. Humidity merely prevents evaporation, it doesn't make eggs 'take-on' water.

This works well for me, but like most on BYC, I don't consider myself and egg-spert... I just like to share my egg-speriences to help anyone else who might be able to learn from them!

MORE - Regarding sanding the Marans (or Penedescenca, or Wellies, etc.) eggs, I use an emery board or 400+ grain sandpaper. I use a circular motion and make sure I'm moving the hand with the sander, not the egg.

I then put the eggs on a paper towel and mist them with a 30% povidone iodine to 70% water blend

I then wait for it to dry, turn, repeat, dry, turn, repeat. You can't be too careful about making sure the whole thing gets lightly misted, but don't

saturate it.

 

[happyhensny]

I would truly love to do this, but we don't have enough room for any more chicks. We already have 2 more that we originally wanted. I know I couldn't keep hatched ones and I don't know who to give them away to if I ever did hatch any. Any ideas? But go chickies!

Edited for stupidity.

Hatch and sell on BYC or Craigslist or give them away!

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote:

happyhensny's is a good idea or find someone that does not have the ability to incubate their own eggs and offer to do it for them. I am incubating some silkie eggs that will be for a Poultry Workshop on April 12th. Where there is a will, there is a way......and I will be participating in this Easter Hatchalong!!

 

[Arielle]

LOL

Enabler! Have you considered joining Incubators Anonymous? Your enthusiasm for enticing and enabling would fit right in!!

Thinking about getting the BO pens set up. DH will have a hemorhage if I put one more pen on the to -do list! Guess I'll put it on my to-do list.

Love those buff fluffy butts!