March Hatch-Along Thread- Come Hatch With Us!!!!!

[Cynthia12]

Cynthia12,
Probably not a Serama. Most hatcheries (actually all that I know of) don't have Serama's because of their small size and the lethal leg gene they carry that causes them to die in the hatching process. She's a real cutie though!

Hey! Maybe it's a Japanese Bantam..check out this video..scroll down, and it shows the babys..you probably already know what they look like, but those chicks look like my little one. Guess I'll see. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/japanesebantams.html

 

[hokankai]

Yes, that looks like a black Japanese to me

 

[BantyChickenLuv]

Yes, that looks like a black Japanese to me

x2! Japanese bantams are great. My friend has some SQ ones, and her hen went broody this winter. She was a great mama, even better than an OEGB broody. Her roo is super tame and I've never heard him crow once.

 

[PugBug]

Oh NO! That is one of my worst fears. I keep mine in the house for the first week just in case, so that I can hear their distressed chirping if something were to happen.

Congrats on the rabbits!!! What kinds are they? Are they just pets or something else? We need pics! I have 2 myself: Theodore who is a 2.5 year old 2.5 lb Holland lop, and Ariadne who is a one year old mini rex/lionhead mix that I've had since she was born

Sorry to hear about the chicks. What kind of bunnies did you get?

I keep all my young chicks (hatch - 4wk) in my house too. I never heard them, but I sleep pretty hard too.
The bunnies I got, the male is lionhead/lop cross & one of the females is the same, just a diff color. The other female is a NZ/Rex cross. The plan was to breed them for meat ... Of course after we get home DH said I should have gotten 'ugly' rabbits since we're breeding for meat. I have personally never seen and 'ugly' bunny. And since the 'breeders' will be pets to me anyway, I wanted cute bunnies

 

[PugBug]

Oh honey!! No!!! This makes me so sad for you!!! I can't believe that!!! ((((Hugs)))) I can't imagine how upset you must be, have fun with your bunnies!! Our TSC doesn't do rabbits. We have them, but we have to cut back on them til we move. We are way maxed out bunny wise, lol.

Thanks Peachy!
I didn't get the bunnies at TSC, I went back to my old feed store that I shopped @ for yrs. TSC is good for some stuff, but I still like the local feed store the best. And he carries rabbits all yr round & has a nice healthy selection.

 

[PugBug]

So interesting and confusing. Had tons of chicks hatch but almost NONE of my silkies made it past lockdown. All were moving on lockdown day, I think only 2 hatched??? What gives???

I'm still trying to figure that out myself. How come some to great all the way to lockdown, then die? My duck eggs did the same- had other hatches the same... So how many did you end up with?

 

[hokankai]

I think silkies are hard to hatch from what I've heard. This is my opinion, but I think that silkies' genetics really act against them in a lot of ways. They are not hardy at all and very fragile from incubation to adulthood. A couple years ago I talked to my parasitology professor about chickens because he did his Master's research on coccidiosis in chickens. I told him I had silkies and he just laughed . Just like bulldogs and other highly bred breeds, they just don't have the vigor that comes with a mixed gene pool.

 

[bellah1]

Looks like you're gonna have a good hatch! And NO don't panic

My call ducks didn't hatch, opened up this morning- all dead. The 2 eggs I never could tell about were fully formed ducks- so I lost all 3. I won't try ducks again...

Im so sorry to hear about your babies.

Call ducks are incredibly hard to hatch because of there little bills and all. If you want to try it again with ducks do a larger breed for sure.

 

[Book]

Set Date: Feb 20th
Estimated Hatch Date: March 11th




Kids got to explore the farm and found 24 still warm eggs to bring home to hatch. What kids? WHO KNOW! Not us! This is a homeschooling project, we did duck eggs the last two years, first year doing chicken eggs. We rent the incubator from the farm. Filling the outer ring with water every time it runs dry and so don't really know the humidity. The farm lady says she has not found it to matter with these incubators as long as you keep water in the outside ring. (Last year we used a digital but gave it to the farm not thinking we should keep it for this year!) Temp is about 100

So far, egg "m" was not fertilized and we just found egg "i" stopped growing what looks like a week ago.

Today we need to go on lock down I believe! Some of the eggs are too dark to see anything into beyond an air sac, other eggs we can clearly see movement. Nothing smells bad though so hopefully none of those so very dark eggs are bad! Anyone care to guess what kinds of chickens might be in those eggs?

 

[Book]

Oh oh oh, this is egg "x" from about a week ago, now I can not really see into the egg much. I am rather worried given that red ring and how porous the egg is, it however does not smell bad.



What do you think?