My first attempt at hatching

[Egg Snatcher]

Hope your little eggs all hatch!

 

[Silkiesaz]

I hope your hatch goes well! My Buff Oprington Betty just hatched 6 babies.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well this is getting weird now. It still looks like there are two that are way ahead of all the others developmentally. It's day 9 right now and the two Dingus eggs look more like day 12 based on most charts I've looked at, while the others look more like day 7ish. There really appears to be a little bean shaped creature with limb buds wiggling around in the two Dingus eggs, while the other two light eggs from Buddy are still more like a pulsing fuzzy dot. Very hard to tell with the brown eggs but I assume they'd be more like the Buddy eggs if they are moving along. The difference with the Dingus eggs is so striking at this point that I'm worried about having a staggered hatch. So...I caved and ordered a small incubator to have as a backup in case I end up in a tough spot with this hatch.

 

[Silkiesaz]

That happened to me. I had on chick hatch on the 21st day and the rest hatched 3 days later. I just removed the one chick for a few days and put her back once her siblings hatched. I don't know if that helps or not.

 

[DonyaQuick]

That happened to me. I had on chick hatch on the 21st day and the rest hatched 3 days later. I just removed the one chick for a few days and put her back once her siblings hatched. I don't know if that helps or not.

How quickly do the chicks have to be removed after they hatched to keep the hen sitting on the other eggs?

 

[Silkiesaz]

I left her with her mom for about and hour and a half until she was becoming annoying and distracting then I took her away.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Hmm...where did Dimple go?

 

[ButtonHoarder]

How quickly do the chicks have to be removed after they hatched to keep the hen sitting on the other eggs?

I had a chick with the mom for a few days before she stopped sitting on the dead egg, but I brought food and water right up when the chick hatched so she didn’t have to take the chick out of the nest.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Scary event today. Dimple is fine but I'm probably going to have trouble getting her to dust bathe for a while. Took her out this morning for the usual dust bath, snack, and poop routine. She went to dust bathe and then all of a sudden put her feathers down and just wanted a hug super badly. My rooster had been going nuts alarming and roaring at something but he often does that over robins, crows, etc. when he sees Dimple is out (her favorite spot is within sight of the coop and run). I eventually picked her up and turned to go back in the house and bam - there was a bald eagle coming in low. The eagle turned around and left but that was a lot bolder than I'm comfortable with. I was standing no more than a few feet from Dimple the whole time! When the time comes I guess I won't be letting her out with her chicks except in a covered tractor. Anyway, I tried again later in the day with Dimple and she will eat and poop out there, but I have to be crouched down gently petting her the whole time. She won't touch the dust bath area. Thankfully she's still broody so the scare didn't harm anything in that regard. I might see if I can get her to eat and poop in the house for a bit...maybe just taking her to a different room or something. I probably won't have that incubator until Monday so I don't want to risk spooking her into not wanting to sit on the eggs.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

Scary event today. Dimple is fine but I'm probably going to have trouble getting her to dust bathe for a while. Took her out this morning for the usual dust bath, snack, and poop routine. She went to dust bathe and then all of a sudden put her feathers down and just wanted a hug super badly. My rooster had been going nuts alarming and roaring at something but he often does that over robins, crows, etc. when he sees Dimple is out (her favorite spot is within sight of the coop and run). I eventually picked her up and turned to go back in the house and bam - there was a bald eagle coming in low. The eagle turned around and left but that was a lot bolder than I'm comfortable with. I was standing no more than a few feet from Dimple the whole time! When the time comes I guess I won't be letting her out with her chicks except in a covered tractor. Anyway, I tried again later in the day with Dimple and she will eat and poop out there, but I have to be crouched down gently petting her the whole time. She won't touch the dust bath area. Thankfully she's still broody so the scare didn't harm anything in that regard. I might see if I can get her to eat and poop in the house for a bit...maybe just taking her to a different room or something. I probably won't have that incubator until Monday so I don't want to risk spooking her into not wanting to sit on the eggs.

Aww poor Dimple, that’s scary.