NY chicken lover!!!!

[LuvMyChicks1491]

so my first ever duck hatch and this little guy has his foot stuck out of the egg half way zipped. He has made no progress since. Like a half hour or so. Is this normal for ducks?

My duck eggs seem to take forever! I like it when they do it at night and I just get to wake up to a little one in the incubator instead of worrying and checking all day long..

 

[Gramma Chick]

I have been treating a chick for the past couple of weeks with "wry neck.". The chick was doing great and I thought I was out of the woods (5 weeks old and no symptoms). This afternoon when I went out to the grow out brooder the chick was on its back with it head pinned to its back and the other chicks were just walking on it.

how are you treating it ?
This is what I have on Wry neck
A bent neck can be a genetic condition or can be the result of a vitamin deficiency. When it is the result of a genetic condition, there is no treatment. Some breeds, such as silkies, are more prone to getting it genetically. Vitamin treatment is still worth a try. If the wry neck is a result of vitamin deficiency, the vitamin treatment should clear it up.
Vitamin E gel caps with Selenium - give the chicken the liquid from the gel caps. Make sure to get the kind with Selenium for proper absorption.
Polyvisol without iron - this is a liquid vitamin supplement labeled for infants. Get it at the drug store or some grocery stores. Can be used in addition to vitamin E when treating wry neck.
First week:
Twice a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E
Once a day
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)
For the second week:
Once a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins
Every other day
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)
For the following weeks:
Once a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins
Every third day
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)
Do not abruptly stop prednisone, the swelling rebounds, decrease dose gradually.
Vitamin E recovery can be slow; continue the vitamin E for several weeks at least.

 

[Garden Witch]

Have you givin any thought to what breeds you are interested in? By pair do you mean 2 hens or a boy and girl?

Preferably 2 plymouth rock hens. But any other breeds winter-durable are fine by me!

 

[Desiree Brown]

I

My duck eggs seem to take forever! I like it when they do it at night and I just get to wake up to a little one in the incubator instead of worrying and checking all day long..

I had two hatch over the night. I was hoping all of them would hatch too. I'm going to check on them all day lol.

 

[Purpletie3]

I
I had two hatch over the night. I was hoping all of them would hatch too. I'm going to check on them all day lol.

Good luck with them. I have my first duck eggs in the incubator right now...Hoping for a good hatch in a few weeks! Very exciting!

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

I had two hatch over the night. I was hoping all of them would hatch too. I'm going to check on them all day lol.

Good luck with them. I have my first duck eggs in the incubator right now...Hoping for a good hatch in a few weeks! Very exciting!

Good Luck with your hatch!! I love baby ducks..Can't wait for all mine to hatch!

I always get impatient with my hatches (not that there has been that many yet). I think it is more so when it is with the ducks. They just always seem to take forever and you get so invested in them I feel because it takes so long for them to hatch...

I have 3 duck eggs under my unbreakable broodies...The twins have been broody for months! I used to toss them in the snow bank to see if the shock of the cold on their bare bellies would break them..no such luck so I finally gave in and gave them some duck eggs. They are due around Chickenstock! so very excited!

Oh and talk about excitement...I think that I may have a broody duck!

Lately the little nest area that they lay their eggs in had been accumulating more feathers lately so I have left 6 eggs in there. Last night when I went out to check and mark the eggs one of my girls, Maryanne was sitting on the eggs. She didn't get up when I opened the back door. All the other ducks bolted out the front door like usual, but she stayed...until I reached in a little then she got up, but was watching me closely from the outside looking in...I'll try to disturb her as little as possible, but the girls all like to la their eggs there so I'm glad that I marked them last night. This morning there were 3 more eggs in there. I am down to 4 girls after the fox got 2 of them so the fact that I only had 3 eggs seems to be a good sign...keeping fingers crossed!!

Have some Orp and some bantam eggs in the incubator..5 day till due day and all are looking good. The other day when I candled them one of the sizzle chicks decided that it needed to show me it's feet...It was so cool that I could see its feet so well. Can't wait till the hatch...

 

[myfivegirls]

No thunder here, clear sky, bet we don't get any rain

Quote:
Yes, that's me. Haven't "updated" my Craigslist ads recently, as have been waiting to see if we'd be going to Chickenstock.
Didn't want to "sell out" locally and not have anything to bring to Chickenstock.
But seeing that I'm continuing to hatch out more chicks (haven't stopped since March), I prefer to have a waiting list, rather than get "stuck" with too many extras.

Been quite busy with all the hatching, setting up aviary netting, rotational grass paddocks and trying to fit in gardening as well!
Not much time left for BYC, and sometimes I just catch up on the posts without posting anything.
Moved the oldest chicks from the 1st 3 Hatches into a 8x8 "chicken tractor" that I was going to take apart, but decided to keep it as a grow-out pen.
Yesterday, let them out into one of the grass paddocks, but it was mostly the cockerels who were bold enough to venture forth.

Two broody hens have chicks, and "Confetti", a bantam mille fleur Cochin is sitting on 5 SFH eggs. She's such a cute, sweet hen - got her a few years ago from one of the people here on BYC .
I tried hatching some of her eggs, as I only have large-fowl roosters, and it worked! Seeing that she's about 3-4 years old, I'm glad her eggs were still hatch-able.
So far, I've gotten 9 chicks from her this year, all with feathered feet. It'll be interesting how they grow out, one's all black, one light/dark brown"chipmunk", two yellow, 5 dark black/brown "chipmunks".

We really need rain, looks like we got some last night, but we still need more, as it's been so dry.

 

[Gilly522]

1White Leghorn
1Brown Leghorn
3Easter Egger
1Black Copper Marans
1Silver Laced Wyandotte

This is what i was thinking i would try in the new coop to try and get a nice variety of colored eggs i have seen olive eggers around too that might be a nice addition in place of a EE but only if i can find that. Anyone in the Elmira / Binghamton / Ithaca areas hatching any of these in the near future? The only nice thing about the hatcheries is i could get all of them hatched at the same time to make life easier Let me know what you all think! Thanks! want to keep the coop under 8 birds total.

 

[myfivegirls]

Quote:
We've been having pretty warm nights lately, and I have 9, 8, and 5 week olds together outside without any heat. They snuggle up at night, but are otherwise fine. Tonight it's supposed to get down to the low 40's or even mid 30's, but since they're mostly feathered, I think they'll be fine since they have each other to keep warm. There is probably over 30-40 chicks in that group, as I forget the total # right now.
There's another group of chicks that's around 4 weeks old. They've been raised by a broody hen, and except for 1 or 2 that fly up on the roost with the hen at night, the last few nights they've been sleeping without any warmth from "mom". I, too, have noticed that when they have "cooler" temps, they do tend to feather out faster.

 

[Garden Witch]

I would recommend chicks ...not hens ..if you get them from babies they accept you as their flock ..
and will be tamer ...than adult hens you buy

Sadly I only have the time to supervise and care for hens or young hens. I would love to raise chicks, but I do not have the means to do so.