May 2020 Hatch-A-Long

[dougieee]

Anyone in here have geese? Whats the difference in temperament in general with Chinese and African?

Hi @jolenesdad i notice you havent been active in the hatch a longs this year, thinking of branching out to geese this year?

 

[jolenesdad]

Hi @jolenesdad i notice you havent been active in the hatch a longs this year, thinking of branching out to geese this year?

Hi!

no, I’m just moving this summer. Well hopefully. Our place is going on the market, so I’m pretty maxed out on space!

I’ve got an LGD puppy and im curious about if I keep geese if they’ll serve as an alarm call to the dog.

 

[jolenesdad]

You might get some good info on the gosling hatch-a-long. I have American Buffs. They're pretty chill usually, though they do get first dibs on the food dish of their choice. Now with two of the three girls sitting, they're showing their dino heritage. I'd recommend separate housing for sure. I once had a pair of Chinese. Let's just say I was not sad when a dog killed them. But that's just one pair and I got them as adults from someone who didn't want paying. Very grateful to find someone to take them.

About the Africans, I don't know anything but what I've read and heard, which is that they can be aggressive. If you're looking for kid friendly, from my research and limited experience, I'd go with American Buffs.

Thank you!

there’s a buff breeder in north TX, like a 4 hour drive from me. I’ve entertained buffs cause I think they’d be a great farmyard addition.

I definitely want them to be kid safe, but I also actually want them to be loud. hoping if I raise them right Africans wouldn’t be too mean.

Do your buffs do alarm calls?

 

[Offshoreorca]

My five Wheaton Ameraucanas will be going into lockdown later this evening - eggs have started wiggling well!

 

[TurkenMomma]

Woke up to all 6 of our duck eggs pipped! They are all making progress but I did notice one egg membrane turning a soft yellow. It's been a while since I have hatched... but this egg just pipped overnight, so I am not sure of the coloring and why. I know it is hard to tell in the picture but I'd say it's a nice butter yellow.

Do people mist duck eggs while they are hatching to keep the humidity up? Am I freaking out over nothing?

 

[wolfwalker]

So batch 3 is mostly over. 3 lone eggs in the incubator that I will look at after lunch. 8 out of 11 hatched.

And interesting observation from these hatches. Besides having 5 days between hatches I noticed something that makes me wonder.

1st hatch, the rooster was over-mating the hens and 90 percent of the CCL hatch were female.

2nd hatch, I had removed the rooster to give the hens a break, 85 percent of the CCL hatch were male.

3rd hatch, rooster was back in the pen and better behaved, 100 percent of CCL hatch was female.

This pen has 3 hens to one rooster and when collecting for the 3rd hatch, the pen only had 2 hens due to rooster injuring one of the females. She has since recovered but freaks out anytime a bigger bird approaches her. I like her because she is a golden creole and she lays the largest blue eggs. Sadly, I do think she might find being in with the layers less stressful.

Anyway, this oddity was easy to pick up with an auto-sexing breed, so I plan to try it again a few times to see if I can get a repeat of the data so far. I do have one more hatch with 2 CCL eggs in it and the Rooster was still out of the pen, but next to the pen [ they shared a common wire wall ] so we'll see what happens with those 2 eggs.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Woke up to all 6 of our duck eggs pipped! They are all making progress but I did notice one egg membrane turning a soft yellow. It's been a while since I have hatched... but this egg just pipped overnight, so I am not sure of the coloring and why. I know it is hard to tell in the picture but I'd say it's a nice butter yellow.

Do people mist duck eggs while they are hatching to keep the humidity up? Am I freaking out over nothing?

What do you have the humidity at and what incubator are you using? It's not unusual to see some drying of the exposed membrane where they pip, especially in some dryer incubators, and with slow hatchers like ducklings it's even more common. As long as the duckling has pipped through the membrane and is getting oxygen it will be ok! Most of the time it's just the membrane at the pip location, but I do keep a close eye when I see this and watch for issues once it starts to zip.

 

[TurkenMomma]

They are in a Brinsea Mini Advance... humidity is around 65%. This pic is from our really active egg!

What do you have the humidity at and what incubator are you using? It's not unusual to see some drying of the exposed membrane where they pip, especially in some dryer incubators, and with slow hatchers like ducklings it's even more common. As long as the duckling has pipped through the membrane and is getting oxygen it will be ok! Most of the time it's just the membrane at the pip location, but I do keep a close eye when I see this and watch for issues once it starts to zip.

 

[FortCluck]

all my eggs look good. My polish is now not fertile this chicken will be the cause of all my headaches. So 6 of her eggs got pulled and 1 stayed because it was fertile.

The bantam Brahma eggs look amazing.

Squatch’s offspring Spook and Wednesday have 12 fertile eggs in the bator. They were mated with Deathlayers (the brothers of mine) The colors should be amazing!

 

[Vantic]

So batch 3 is mostly over. 3 lone eggs in the incubator that I will look at after lunch. 8 out of 11 hatched.

And interesting observation from these hatches. Besides having 5 days between hatches I noticed something that makes me wonder.

1st hatch, the rooster was over-mating the hens and 90 percent of the CCL hatch were female.

2nd hatch, I had removed the rooster to give the hens a break, 85 percent of the CCL hatch were male.

3rd hatch, rooster was back in the pen and better behaved, 100 percent of CCL hatch was female.

This pen has 3 hens to one rooster and when collecting for the 3rd hatch, the pen only had 2 hens due to rooster injuring one of the females. She has since recovered but freaks out anytime a bigger bird approaches her. I like her because she is a golden creole and she lays the largest blue eggs. Sadly, I do think she might find being in with the layers less stressful.

Anyway, this oddity was easy to pick up with an auto-sexing breed, so I plan to try it again a few times to see if I can get a repeat of the data so far. I do have one more hatch with 2 CCL eggs in it and the Rooster was still out of the pen, but next to the pen [ they shared a common wire wall ] so we'll see what happens with those 2 eggs.

This is a very interesting find. Only time will tell if it allows you to predict. It may be just that rooster or just those hens as well.