March 2018 Hatch-a-long

[PippinChicken]

What!! on shipped eggs is incredible-i don’t even get that on my eggs I hatch from my yard! (Not all are fertile.)

I know! I bought 9 thinking if I was lucky maybe half would hatch...and then out of that maybe half would be boys so I'd end up with just a few pullets to add to my flock. The breeder was very generous with extras and sent 13 eggs, all of which hatched...so now I'm scrambling trying to figure out what to do with 13 chicks until they're old enough to start weeding out the boys! They were from Gypsy Hen Poultry and I would HIGHLY recommend them if you're wanting to add new blood to your flock

 

[mcclucker]

Here are the two. Lavender ameraucana has just lovely shiny feathery down

 

[MolliesDollies]

Tomorrow is lockdown day! My youngest daughter set 6 eggs. 1 was infertile. We could see movement in 4 of the other 5 two days ago. My oldest daughter had taken 1 strange egg to school a few days before we set ours, and the teacher popped it into her incubator, and that one hatched today. So 1 of 7 eggs total so far!

 

[ChickenMath101]

Final tally: 14/19. The two I opened up were late DIS with no rhyme or reason, they just didn’t pip. One of the other 3 was actually swishing around in there and the other two didn’t look right and I was afraid to open them. I’m really disappointed but I suppose I can’t expect perfection. Two of them died after lockdown and the other 3 look as if they haven’t been alive for quite a while.

 

[Kruchti]

I know! I bought 9 thinking if I was lucky maybe half would hatch...and then out of that maybe half would be boys so I'd end up with just a few pullets to add to my flock. The breeder was very generous with extras and sent 13 eggs, all of which hatched...so now I'm scrambling trying to figure out what to do with 13 chicks until they're old enough to start weeding out the boys! They were from Gypsy Hen Poultry and I would HIGHLY recommend them if you're wanting to add new blood to your flock

Where is Gypsy hen poultry located?

 

[PippinChicken]

Where is Gypsy hen poultry located?

Missouri, I think it was? Somewhere around a thousand miles away from me They’ve got a nice website and Facebook page and are very responsive to emails. I feel like I’m basically gonna become their unofficial spokesperson after having so much success

 

[gimmie birdies]

some winter weather and a momma hen with 4 week old roosters.

the rooster chicks were from mail order, I decided to remove the roosters at the age of 4 weeks because they were making the hens compete for food. a diff BYC page said you could not make chicks 4 weeks old and a momma hen bond. This is after one night. There are 6 rooster chicks in pic, but only 3 visible.

 

[tjb]

Lock down day!! Now the waiting begins... 10/11 made it, one was infertile...

1st pip this morning day 19...

 

[Tbird84]

Okay people.
I read a thing just now. My mind is blown. Ready?
In nature, precocial babies who hatch more or less on the same day?...They communicate by clicking inside the shell. They speed up or slow down their clicks in order to synchronize their hatch-AND THEY DO IT within two hours of each other. Here’s the rub:
The eggs have to be touching. If they are even a few centimeters apart, it won’t work.
I just hatched all my babies for the week, so somebody else gets to be the Guinea pig!

That's pretty interesting. When I ran mine in my homemade incubator, they had to touch just because of the room issue. Once I had to yank out the first few overachievers, everything slowed down (maybe due to being all spread out?) I had to add more water and regrouped the eggs together and they zipped right on through with another hatching rush. Maybe there is something to that after all.

 

[tjb]

Pip to zip! Checked 5 minutes ago and was just the pip!!

1st pip this morning day 19...