Mid December Hatch-A-Long!

[diamondsilkies]

Well I've had all my eggs hatch except two. One of the two is a silkie egg, today is day 22 for it and I've seen no signs of movement, so I'm thinking of doing the egg float test on that on. The second one is a serama egg that isn't due to hatch until Sunday or Monday. But out of all the ones that did hatch I have:
-3 black silkies (but 1 or 2 might be blue)
-1 white (but I was told by the breeder it could develop paint feathering later on)
-1 silver partridge, I think?
-3 seramas

I'm very happy with the silkies I ordered ( from @RubyNala97 ). They are beautiful chicks and I love the variety of colors I got. I also got a pretty good hatch rate! I don't order shipped eggs a lot for that reason, but I'm glad I got these.

The seramas are from my own flock, but I hadn't hatched any chicks from this group yet, so I'm really thrilled with them. That (almost) concludes my portion of the hatch-a-long, unless my other two eggs hatch, which I think at least one will. Can't wait to see how everyone else's hatches go! I'll try to get pictures uploaded soon.

 

[Pstock44]

Our hatch started sometime this morning. I found our first Silkie chick a few minutes ago when I checked on them. Wil check again later but meanwhile both mamas are continuing to sit on the nest together.

 

[diamondsilkies]

How sweet! Silkies make the best mothers. Best of luck with the rest of your hatch! @ChickenCanoe How are your chicks doing? Any pics?

Well....there's a bit of a fun twist to my hatch. The serama egg has pipped and is beginning to zip, so I should have another baby when I wake up tomorrow morning. As for the other egg...I candled and did the water float test on day 22 (yesterday). There were a lot of veins for something that should have hatched a day or two before, and it moved around during the water float test. I quickly dried it off and put it back in the incubator. However, after today, there was no more movement or chirping. The breeder also raises call ducks, and this egg was a little bigger than the rest. So much so that I noticed it when unpackaging them, but dismissed it as variety in egg size.

Anyways, I think the breeder accidentally gave me a call duck egg instead, which would explain why it hasn't hatched yet, since call ducks hatch around day 26. I've never raised ducks before, but I'm very excited about the possibility of having one! I love the call ducks, and I'm not upset with the breeder at all. This time of year is busy, and I know I would get all my hatching eggs mixed up if they didn't come in different colors!

It could, of course, be a late hatcher or an egg that isn't going to hatch at all. But I'm hoping for a baby duck! I started a separate thread about it, since I needed some help from some duck experts. Here's the link if any of you want to check it out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-or-duck.1212300/#post-19309878

And, as promised, a couple pics of my hatch (so far):

There's more, I just don't have any photos of them uploaded to my laptop.

 

[Pstock44]

Went out to check them again yesterday morning, nothing. One more time about 4pm and found a very wet, newly hatched little chick! I got a feeling that the cold we had last week (low 20s and some teens) slowed the hatch a little. They're now on day 23. Checking again a little later this morning to see what's happened overnight.

 

[JerzySol]

OOoh I think I qualify

I've got 9 Bantam Silkies hatching Right NOW! (well at least 2 of them) I hear one of them chirping at me so i chirp back . so cute

 

[diamondsilkies]

Cute! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

 

[JerzySol]

Well I hatched 7 out of 9 Silkies on my first try using the Janoel12 incubator. Of the two that didn't hatch the chicks were fully formed but the first two chick were kicking the eggs everywhere and I'm not sure if this had an effect or not. but after every two Silkies were born I took them out and righted the eggs so that the cracked were up top or to the side. The two eggs that did no hatch never had any cracks, they had nice veins one egg i saw it move 2 days before when the others were hatching and left it there thinking it would be a late hatch, bu they never came out. The other egg was very bloody when I inspected it although the bird inside looked ready to be born.
I can say I am happy with seven chicks. They look great, one of them even has pink feet.