May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[FortCluck]

Good morning! I missed a good bit of posts again. I'm really bad about reading through them when there are multiple pages, lol.

Yesterday my daughter and I went to help a friend sex what I'm pretty confident was over 100 chickens of varying ages. Once we got to the youngest pen that I was able to pull out the early developing roosters but I was feeling really unsure about one in particular...my daughter of course fell in love with it and my friend gave her the chick as a thank you....so I probably have a 4 week old rooster now. LOL

I also picked up 5 Turkey hatching eggs on our way home...I haven't set them in the incubator yet because 3 of 5 are poopy and I don't want to set them with my peacock eggs. Decisions, decisions...Should I turn on another incubator and just hand turn them? Or should I attempt to wash them? I've never been big on washing hatching eggs but I really don't want to contaminate my already developing peachicks.

Vent sexing or just visual

 

[LONDON HENS]

I am hatching Swedish Flower hens too! I think mine are due to hatch May 6. Make sure you post pics when yours hatch so I can get a preview. I am hoping for lots of different colors!

We have chicks!!! Most dramatic and late hatch I have ever experienced!

I had a look last night and only one had hatched.. this was the end of day 21 so I was worried to say the least!
I then saw the hen pecking at an egg that had pipped and she had taken 60% of the shell off and eating it and the chick was just inside the white membrane but seemed struggling to get out.. against what I had read, I just felt an urge to help.. so helped delicately pull some of the membrane away. This morning the chick was fluffed up and seemed great.. and a few more had hatched too. So I have 5 but one hatched this morning and seems to be a bit behind the others in terms of strength and keeping up with mum.

Now I wait for my first time broody who is sitting on another 4 from this batch of Swedish Flower Hen eggs.. day 20 today... fingers crossed!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Vent sexing or just visual

Visual sexing. I've only vent sexed the little ones, 3-6 days ish. I looked at the older ones but I don't know what I'm looking for once it's big, lol! You would think it would be easier.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

We have chicks!!! Most dramatic and late hatch I have ever experienced! View attachment 2118768View attachment 2118769View attachment 2118770

I had a look last night and only one had hatched.. this was the end of day 21 so I was worried to say the least!
I then saw the hen pecking at an egg that had pipped and she had taken 60% of the shell off and eating it and the chick was just inside the white membrane but seemed struggling to get out.. against what I had read, I just felt an urge to help.. so helped delicately pull some of the membrane away. This morning the chick was fluffed up and seemed great.. and a few more had hatched too. So I have 5 but one hatched this morning and seems to be a bit behind the others in terms of strength and keeping up with mum.

Now I wait for my first time broody who is sitting on another 4 from this batch of Swedish Flower Hen eggs.. day 20 today... fingers crossed!!

Congrats on the hatch!! They're precious!

 

[Knighstar679]

I am officially in lockdown two days early, because I have my first external pip on my black east indie eggs! Also found while candling was an egg that peeped at me but doesn't have an external pip yet.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I am officially in lockdown two days early, because I have my first external pip on my black east indie eggs! Also found while candling was an egg that peeped at me but doesn't have an external pip yet.

Fingers crossed for your hatch! How have your temps been? That sounds super early!

 

[wolfwalker]

Here is where I am at the moment.

Batch 10 - Hatch day 05/04 15 of 16 made it to lockdown
Batch 11 - Hatch day 05/04 6 of 6 made it to lockdown
Batch 12 - Hatch day of 05/09 8 of 8 so far lockdown is in 4 days
Batch 13 - Hatch day is 05/09 6 of 6 so far lockdown is in 4 days
Batch 14 - Hatch day is 05/13 5 of 7 so far
Batch 15 - Hatch day is 05/13 5 of 6 so far
Batch 16 - Hatch day is 05/20 will candle in a week
Batch 17 - Hatch day is 05/20 will candle in a week
Batch 18 - Placed in incubator today

I have eggs to be picked up on the 16th And I have chicks shipping out on the 11th to me.

A lot of the batches are small as they come from my own flocks. But I think after the eggs from teh 16th hatch I am done for the summer as it will be to darn hot. I am already seeing a decrease in fertility from one breeding pen.

 

[Knighstar679]

Fingers crossed for your hatch! How have your temps been? That sounds super early!

I was running it around 100 which was what it said on the temp gauge but the one I put in said 99. It has been running around there the whole time of the incubation. They are bantam eggs so they do sometimes hatch at 26 days on ducks instead of 28. So if these duckies are slow like everyone else's usually are they should actually hatch on May 4th. This is my Star Wars themed clutch of eggs

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Vent sexing or just visual

I'm still really new to vent sexing. I am pretty excited that of the chicks I tried on a few months ago that I was only wrong on 1 out of 5 that I can positively identify now. I'm not sure I'm going to make a habit of vent sexing because I usually sell my chicks straight run or I would be overrun with little roosters but it's handy to know either way!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I was running it around 100 which was what it said on the temp gauge but the one I put in said 99. It has been running around there the whole time of the incubation. They are bantam eggs so they do sometimes hatch at 26 days on ducks instead of 28. So if these duckies are slow like everyone else's usually are they should actually hatch on May 4th. This is my Star Wars themed clutch of eggs

Oh I didn't realize they were tiny ducks! Yay! I can't wait to see pictures!