Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

[wholewheatchicken]

onawhimfarm, I'm jealous. You are doing great too. If I don't get a very good hatch, I hope one of you guys will give me some advice....this is my first time too.
And I'm excited to have another Ohioan. I was starting to feel very cold being the only one in the midwest....or wherever Ohio is.
I'm curious about the humidity question too. When it goes up that high, is everyone else in danger?
I didn't realize you could/should vaccinate for Marek's until the night before last. Reading about it made me feel very sick to my stomach. I was posting a lot last night on a thread for this very question. It made me realize that I wouldn't just hatch little hatches whenever I felt like it. I would get my eggs all at once and hatch one big one and vaccinate everybody together. It's a shame the medicine doesn't last very long so you could save it and use it up.

 

[ggarratt]

Beautiful chicks BBGG! What breed are they?

And welcome to the thread onawhim! Sounds like an amazing hatch rate for your first try! I would leave the hatched chicks in the incubator as long as you have pips, but I tend to er on the side of caution. I know lots of people open their bators and don't have any problems.

I don't do any mareks vaccinations. We process all our extra roos so i'm not comfotable introducing a disease through a vaccination into a bird that I'm going to be eating.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

ggarratt, I had to look up a picture for a blue laced red wyandotte and they took my breath away. Very, very pretty. Do you usually raise these or are you new to them?

 

[ggarratt]

ggarratt, I had to look up a picture for a blue laced red wyandotte and they took my breath away. Very, very pretty. Do you usually raise these or are you new to them?

Thanks Kim! BLRW are the only birds I raise. Here are some of the mommas of the chicks that are hatching!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Hello all!! I'm on the same schedule as you all for lockdown! I have 6 fuzzybutts in the bator and 10 more eggs (

) that I'm waiting to hatch. 7 have pipped and the other 3 seem to be in the slow side. Now, I should be sure to mention that these eggs aren't due till tomorrow, so the last 10 aren't late yet. Now I'm just trying to decide if I should take the 6 VERY active chicks out of the bator now or just wait till tomorrow? I cant get the humidity below 90% now and I had been keeping it at 65% before they all started hatching... is that going to be a problem??? LOL!! Sorry for all the questions but this is my first hatch also. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome onawhimfarm! Glad you joined, the more the merrier!

Congratulations on your 6 babies and

fingers crossed for all the others to hatch! From what I've read, you shouldn't open the incubator while you have "pips". The humidity can go down and "shrink-wrap" those inside their membrane/shell so they can't turn and continue zipping and hatching. So I'm voting that you leave the 6 wiggleworms in there until either they are all hatched or none have pips.

I'm on Day 22. 2 hatched yesterday and 2 hatched today. I'm still hoping the other 6 eggs hatch. The 6 still in the incubator don't have any external pips yet but my fingers are crossed that they will start sometime tonight and hatch tomorrow. The first incubator I used (old Brower) had many cold spots, so I'm not surprised my chicks seem to have such a staggered hatch.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

ggarratt, sorry, I didn't realize you were in Maine. I thought I was the only one on here towards this side of the U.S. I thought everyone else was in California!
Your flock is absolutely beautiful. I bookmarked your Web page. Tonight my husband has made the very distressing decision for himself to let our RIR roosters go. I myself am doing the happy dance because I don't care too much for them. The only little rooster I like on the premises is my little guy under 2 lbs. I know my DH wants more girls and I have been looking around to see what would be a nice addition. There are so many pretty ones to admire.

 

[California_chickie]

onawhimfarm, I'm jealous. You are doing great too. If I don't get a very good hatch, I hope one of you guys will give me some advice....this is my first time too.
And I'm excited to have another Ohioan. I was starting to feel very cold being the only one in the midwest....or wherever Ohio is.
I'm curious about the humidity question too. When it goes up that high, is everyone else in danger?
I didn't realize you could/should vaccinate for Marek's until the night before last. Reading about it made me feel very sick to my stomach. I was posting a lot last night on a thread for this very question. It made me realize that I wouldn't just hatch little hatches whenever I felt like it. I would get my eggs all at once and hatch one big one and vaccinate everybody together. It's a shame the medicine doesn't last very long so you could save it and use it up.

Hey WWC:
Congrats on your successful hatch so far! Between you & ggarratt you've had the most action in your 'bators the past couple of days! Yay!
I would agree with Cali Chick- you should wait a little bit before taking them out- No matter what you do, I'm sure when you do you'll be prepared and super careful- don't stress! Good for you for waiting this long

I'm sorry if I worried you with the Marek's question/survey- I wouldn't stress about that either. I've had Silkies that have been vax'd and some that haven't- I'm just a little bit more cognizant now because my flock is expanding rapidly within the next few weeks and I'm planning on future breeding. f you keep a small flock that isn't exposed to a lot of other birds (like at shows) then you should be absolutely fine. At least I hope so! I am in no means an expert, but I had a lengthly conversation with my original Silkie breeder about this- so I'm feeling pretty confident with my advice to you. I will be vaccinating all my Silkies very soon and plan on doing alot of them myself (I used to be a vet tech a long time ago) and the rest at the vet. Most of them will be over 1 day old. If you're interested, I will be sure to keep you posted with my results. This is only my second incubated hatch, but I've had Silkies for a while...still totally learning & very thankful for all the support & advice!

Oh, and Ggrarratt- your girls are absolutely beautiful! I'm looking forward to checking out your site and future pics of your hatch

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Yes, I am definitely interested in the Marek's issue. I don't want to hijack the thread. Can I pm you to ask questions or how does it work to talk to one person? I'm not "new" here, but this is the most I have ever posted.....maybe I will get out of the brooder soon LOL
Marek's is important enough to me that right now I have the opportunity to buy a partridge pullet who is breeder quality from show lines from a reputable breeder, but I'm stuck on this vaccination issue. I think there is a chance my little guy can make some amazing babies, but he needs a girl for this. I'm not sure if the three silkie girls that I bought with him are siblings, even though two look like twins and one looks like her own self and the cockerel looks completely different. The person I bought them from had recently gotten them and didn't know much about them. I didn't want to chance in-breeding. Thanks for the info.

 

[onawhimfarm]

onawhimfarm, I'm jealous. You are doing great too. If I don't get a very good hatch, I hope one of you guys will give me some advice....this is my first time too.
And I'm excited to have another Ohioan. I was starting to feel very cold being the only one in the midwest....or wherever Ohio is.
I'm curious about the humidity question too. When it goes up that high, is everyone else in danger?
I didn't realize you could/should vaccinate for Marek's until the night before last. Reading about it made me feel very sick to my stomach. I was posting a lot last night on a thread for this very question. It made me realize that I wouldn't just hatch little hatches whenever I felt like it. I would get my eggs all at once and hatch one big one and vaccinate everybody together. It's a shame the medicine doesn't last very long so you could save it and use it up.

I'm just lucky right now cuz I have NO IDEA what I'm doing!! LOL!! I have researched on this site and the web about hatching... but I have never even been interested in this chicken hatching stuff until about 2 months ago. Plus, I started out with a dozen of my own eggs and a dozen of eggs from another chicken horder up the road that I found on this forum. I was extremely lucky to find some good hatching eggs just a couple miles from me. Of course I am now addicted to this hatching thing... so I'm getting a couple dozen hatching eggs from a couple other chicken farms right around me to do the Easter Hatch-A-Long!!

I dont plan on doing the Marek's vaccination as my chickens are just for my own entertainment. No showing or selling for me. I might be giving some away though if this hatching addiction gets to out of control!! LOL!

 

[CALI CHICK]

Here are my babies getting nice and fluffy in the brooder....I'm still hoping the other 6 eggs hatch.