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

[Arielle]

Quote: THanks Kathy, I think I had moved from anxiety to dread, but Happy News!! Peeping!!! one maybe two!

My mind is gone. I've been picking up and moving hatching cages for over a week and just did it again! I forgot to use them at lockdown

If these actually hatch, how will I know what I have???

Up until first pip, I fiddle and check and touch. At pip is when I put in the wet warm sponges to increase the humidity too. SO if you want, get in there and put the eggs in the hatching cages, just maintain the orientation of each egg.

 

[Arielle]

Arielle.... no feathers on my first little peep's legs ~~~ but the second one has feathered legs!!!! First one came out of a beige egg, second one dark tan... oh goodness, just tell me already what you think! DH is asking and I am clueless!!!!

I'll take a stab at it> First chick: the black chick from the beige egg could be BSL x BA or BSL x RIR , see if any barring develops. The second chick with the feathered legs is fathered by the FBCM !! THe eggs will be a brown egg with a thin layer of chocolate coating, that's what mine do anyway. I love the barnyard beauties mix--each is unique!

 

[Arielle]

I have chicks

I have 5 Icelandics and 2 from each bath of Ameraucanas, one of the marans is nearly finished zipping too.

 

[Mahonri]

All 4 silkies now hatched. Small, but 100%!

AWESOME!!!

 

[Arielle]

Pip to Zip to Hatch is being very consistent.... two in the brooder with two more pipped... told DH to go to bed without me

because last time I hatched, I went to sleep with pips and woke up to ten chicks!!!! Not wanting to miss that again!

But they are hatching when I leave... I think the hovering is giving them "performance anxiety".... LOL!!!!!

Watched pot never boils . . . .

So... when I went to put the eggs into lock down I found out that my incubator was too small

You see, I was a bit over zealous when acquiring eggs for the hatch so I have 4 different breeds that I wanted to be sure and keep separate. The baskets took up a bit too much room and in the end I had to not use one because I couldn't fit it in with all the other eggs. So I had two baskets, one for each AM batch (So I could tell which chicks came from which breeder) and then I had the mega-millions of Icelandics in carton/holders without baskets, that left me with 6 Marans eggs with now where to put them. So I put them in the baskets. I figured I'd be able to tell them apart from the Ameraucanas. Now that they are all hatching, I've realized I don't know what kind or color of Marans I have in there so I don't know what the chicks might look like. And I don't know what color AMs I have so not sure what to expect those chicks to look like either.

So now, after all the trouble to keep everyone separated I may end up guessing who is who after all. Somebody just

me.

Cheer up! Here's your answer.
THe marans are French black copper marans = black and white chicks with feathered legs. THe AM don't have feathered legs. You will see the tiny feathers down the leg when you pull them to go in the brooder.

 

[EnnisLakeFarm]

All 4 silkies now hatched. Small, but 100%!

At 9:05 I noticed my first pip and it cheeped while I was sitting there! This is of a Australorp that I had marked as a possible quitter - sure glad I didn't trust my judgement and kept everything that wasn't obviously clear or stinky (non of those thankfully)
I am having a booger of a time with my humidity. It kept falling to below 50% so I kept adding water through the vent then it shot up to 99%! I hope I didn't kill them!

There is going to be no sleeping tonight!

 

[kathyinmo]

OMG ! ! ! This one lonely chick is driving me crazy! I swear it has not stopped chirping for a single second!

Does not even help!

 

[stone_family3]

Well my 4th chick is almost hatched, seems like it's taking forever I still see movement so all is good, but I'm keeping a close eye on it. Unfortunately no other eggs have pipped at all

Hope all the chicks rolling the eggs around didn't do any damage.

 

[craz e laid e]

Ah all these early hatchers are killing me!! I don't see anything happening yet with my eggs

By the way today is my 21st birthday and I got the bet present ever - a 101 on my organic chemistry exam!!!

(belated) and

 

[Tanichca]

We had 6 out of 7 EE eggs hatch today!!!