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

[HortonFarms]

I woke up this morning to 17 fully hatched babies and 1 almost hatched baby.

Hatch count so far:

Shipped eggs # 1: 1/5 hatched (Ameraucana)
Shipped eggs # 2: 7/8 hatched (Frizzled Polish) WCB, WCBl and Blue
Shipped eggs # 3: 1/5 hatched (Blue Bantam Polish)
Razadia's eggs: 9/12 hatched (Gamebirds)

The first 15 chicks...



and the 3 stragglers.....

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:

I thought of misting the cardboard prior to putting them in the bator for lockdown. I don't have any styrofoam cartons. I thought that they may actually HELP with humidity. I planned to put paper towels over the wire and I fully expect them to be damp so would damp (not wet) paper egg cartons be any different?

We're getting some Guinea when I can get together with the local folks that have a bunch for sale. These are 1 1/2 years old. From what i've read I need to keep them penned for a few months before I let them go to do their job. Is that true? We had some last year that we bought as teenagers and some of them disappeared for a few days and came back with 2 white males. Eventually they all ran off. One of the white males went after one of my pearl males and chased him all over the area. We tried to stop them and catch then to put in a pen but they got away. I don't know if that one ever survived the attack because we never found them. None of them ever came back.

So at 1 1/2 years old, how long should we keep them penned up? I want to drag the pen DH put together for them to the edge of the woods where they will be spending alot of their time when they are let loose. "Hopefully" they don't run off when let go.

Em - I would recommend that you leave them penned as long as you can. A year would not be too long. I have found with mine that the radar for "home" is very strong in those birds. They seem to imprint and stay imprinted and at a year and a half, that will be difficult to change. Once you do start letting them out, just let one out at a time. That one will likely stay with the others, just outside the pen that the flock is in, and hopefully get accustomed to the immediate surroundings. It may be difficult to get it back in! Next time, let another one out by itself. After a while let two out at a time. If they don't leave, let out a few more. Try to identify your females and keep them in the coop so the males will want to hang out close by. Make sure you have some hidden nest locations inside the pen and dont collect eggs from them for a long time. If the females feel comfortable with the nests, it may encourage them to return there to lay. My guineas go into the coop to roost every night (they were raised there), but if you can get your's to just stay on your property, you will have done good.

 

[Sphinx]

I love seeing the hatched chicks. I especially loved seeing the chicks with their Icelandic mama.

HortonFarms, congrats on such a great hatch!

I am officially down to 6 eggs. I candled my suspicious BCM egg again, and again, there was no development. I worry about infection and it hurting the healthy babies, so I took it out. Being curious, I sealed it in a bag and then broke it open. Sure enough, it stopped at 7 days along, just as I suspected. I accidentally grabbed one of the other ones, but luckily candled before I did anything. It was in there, wiggling around and getting awfully big. I did take a picture of the deceased chick, but it's not a great shot, and wasn't sure if anyone wanted to see it.

They're getting big enough that I don't think I'll do any more candling.

 

[Pinx]

I woke up to 3 hatched chicks and 1 chick zipping. I'm beginning to wonder about my hatch rate.

 

[Razadia]

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE PRAYERS AND KIND THOUGHTS.

Things are working out...

............temp in the bator when I got home was over 101? YIKES... hope they are not dead.

I think they'll be fine. I'm not so sure about my hatch though. I woke up this morning and it was almost 108 in there. I keep turning the temp down, but it keeps going up. I'm confused.

I woke up this morning to 17 fully hatched babies and 1 almost hatched baby.

Hatch count so far:

Shipped eggs # 1: 1/5 hatched (Ameraucana)
Shipped eggs # 2: 7/8 hatched (Frizzled Polish) WCB, WCBl and Blue
Shipped eggs # 3: 1/5 hatched (Blue Bantam Polish)
Razadia's eggs: 9/12 hatched (Gamebirds)

The first 15 chicks...



and the 3 stragglers.....

Congrats on the cute chickies! Here's hoping ALL of them hatch!

 

[dsqard]

I thought of misting the cardboard prior to putting them in the bator for lockdown. I thought that they may actually HELP with humidity.

This is my understanding as well. There are recommendations on ChooksChick's sheet on how to use papertowels along with the cardboard cartons during lockdown. Since this is the first time I am attempting the dry hatch method, I am going to follow her advice. I don't want to misquote it so please check her sheet for the instructions.

 

[Tanichca]

Saturday cannot come quickly enough!

 

[Razadia]

So I went to the Holy Grounds Battle Field Park yesterday for a bday party and I brought back a whole bunch of pics. I think I'll just post a few though.

I love this pic. The birthday girl is sitting on the table. She turned 1 last week. The little girl at the end of the table is my oldest niece. On the right side is my second cousin, her DH, and their daughter (bday girl). Everyone on the left are friends of theirs.

 

[Pinx]

Ok I have a chick that pipped yesterday around 8pm I'm guessing. It hadn't progressed at 3am, at 8:30am he had half way zipped. He keeps poking his nose out from where he zipped and peeping but not making any progress. How long should I let him try to do it on his own before I help? 2 Other eggs had pipped, zipped, and hatched by 8:30.

I've done real good at sitting on my hands thus far lol. I'm losing will power.

 

[chick-among-us]

CRAP! I candled and look what that got me! ALMOST NO IOWA BLUES! Kari! Only two are developing well and about 5 just quit!the others were clear

shipping was horrid though... ALL the Am/iowas X's are good! didnt pull ANY of those BUt lost my jersey giant!

... ALL my Blue AM's are great! all my fluffy project eggs are good!! Line A's, line Bs, ABs! Lost a few (several) of John's barred rocks and a few bcm...so I think out of 192 eggs we lost about 40 or so with a couple more iffy ones put back in to "See". So that was my candling report for a couple days ago...I had only candled a few for the 10 day since with this sportsman it is hard to candle all those trays of eggs and not cool off the whole thing and we record all developement with eggs and hatching so we can keep track of everything with so many lol....so it is logged...it recovers pretty fast though...which is awesome!
Still looks like I am going to need SEVERAL hatchers....!

OMG the BEST news is that we ordered some polish eggs from illia....Well the foam shippers she used to ship the eggs took a beating on the way, THANKS PO!! and several where lost! ANYHOW I HAD 10 eggs not broken, but some had kinda iffy air cells...wonky...I put them in the incubator for about a day no turning maybe a bit longer with no turner on just sitting upright in the racks...THEN gave ALL ten to a new broody...who is deadly serious about hatching SOMETHING! SHE is an EE...and she took ALL ten after a moments pause and a worried look almost to say "ok well I will TRY,but I dunno"
What I had done was put them in the nest when I took her off to do her morning "thing" when she came back ready to sit there they were! And still warm! she thought another hen added some I guess she hopped right on and had to work to get ten polish eggs covered but is doing a great job since EVERY ONE is developing and shows movement on candling!!

SO THAT is awesome...I didn't count those eggs in the hatch along as they got going a few days later! one of the polish is a CREOLE hope it hatches!

AND WE still have TWO developing Iowa Blues!!!

Kari can I get some Jersy giants? That was SOOO disapointing,I was surprised I was that upset SOOO must have more...just a few.Maybe some iowas?