October Hatch-a-long 2022🎃🐣🍁

[I Like Turkeys]

Love the broody faces!
Sounds like you have a lot of different hatches going on with varying results. Fingers crossed that you get some nice chicks from all of these hatches!

Thank you! I’ve already got 10 other chicks from reese’s, most of which are incredibly sweet and beautiful, so i’m expecting good things from her eggs. Hopefully not boy things though. My olive egger eggs, i’m hoping to get a few barred chicks, as the hen who laid the eggs is the favorite hen of my barred rooster so he’s got to be the father of at least a few, along with of course, olive egger girls.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

I haven’t really been getting alerts from this thread, also haven’t updated in a bit. I have two clutches of 8, set to hatch within 3 days of eachother.
The first is hatching October 12th, under my broody hen reese’s. I candles them yesterday and one seemed about at half the growth of others, but I didn’t toss it because I didn’t want to jump the gun on whether or not it was viable. Here is reese’s, in her angry broody glory.
She is brooding on her eggs in a feed bowl at the moment.

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My second set is going to hatch October 15th(I think?) and is meant to give me olive eggers. Kind of paranoid i’ll get brown egg layers, but whatever. Since it’s an incubator hatch, i’m very paranoid, and also at the same time unsure if they’re grown enough. I had a lot of issues candling with my last incubator hatch as well though.
And… I think I just had another girl go broody. My chocolate orpington pullet, Cat in the hat, has been scooping eggs under her, shuffling on her nest, and screaming at me when I touch her this morning. If she’s still on the nest when I collect eggs this afternoon i’m going to label her as broody. Hoping she isn’t.
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A personal note and update to the broody:

Cat in the hat was still on the eggs so I removed her and took them. She stood around in confusion for a few minutes, then decided to rush out of the shed where she was nesting to join the rest of the flock. I think her few-hour-long broody charade has ended, but for all I know she could be on the eggs again tomorrow.

Maybe i’m just lucky, maybe my hens just have no will to really put their all into being mothers, but 6/8 times I’ve had to deal with broodies, i’ve literally just needed to remove them from the nest for them to stop. Reese’s was like this 4 times prior, and Cat has done the same once before. The only hen I didn’t have quit on the first day(besides Reese’s now, 9 days away from her chicks hatching) was a California White, ironically enough, who kept going back to the nest even when I took her off.
My hens are ridiculous.

 

[AusHen]

I have some great news about the ducklings. The first that pipped and didnt progress actually made it!. I was planning on removing the egg in the morning after candling, but on her way to bed my daughter heard chirping from the incubators. Zipped just over half way and squeezed out

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I have some great news about the ducklings. The first that pipped and didnt progress actually made it!. I was planning on removing the egg in the morning after candling, but on her way to bed my daughter heard chirping from the incubators. Zipped just over half way and squeezed out

Awesome!
Photo please!

 

[AusHen]

Awesome!
Photo please!

It looks a lot like it's mum when she hatched.


I'm thinking it dried out some after pipping since humidity dropped a bit before the others pipped, but it was determined to make it.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

It looks a lot like it's mum when she hatched.
View attachment 3280459View attachment 3280461

I'm thinking it dried out some after pipping since humidity dropped a bit before the others pipped, but it was determined to make it.

Congrats!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

DAY 16 for the 12 eggs in Test Hatch 2 for Lili/Niko eggs. This batch has 6 from Lili and 3 from Niko, plus a few from my other hens. Will be interesting to see if more of Lili’s chicks have 4 toes.
Thankfully no abnormals to report.
Harder to get a good photo at this point due to the chick pretty much filling up the egg. At the top of the air cell vessels and movement can be seen at this stage. If you shine a light in the bottom of the egg it should be completely dark and filled with the chick.

DAY 10 for the 9 remaining shipped eggs, all looking great. All air cells have stabilized and none are saddled.

Just set a 4th set for October. Due 10/24. Hatch to order, primarily from my Splash hen, Layla, that throws gorgeous chicks, when crossed with my paint rooster. They come out either blue or blue paint. Her eggs are large for a Silkie, usually 42-44 grams. Not so much worry with these. Just set and forget.

 

[Solanacae]

I have a pip!! Even better news, it’s from the egg that I was worried about because it had been left out for a hour and rolled off the nest by a hen scratching up the nest.

That same hen, by the way, has been absolutely obnoxious whenever I open up the broody area. She’s convinced that I’ve got special treats in there or something because she just won’t leave there area and starts scratching around the minute she gets in. All my broodies are sitting tight today, and she was flinging straw all over them before I got her out. I was also putting in the chick feeder and waterer today, and I had to block off the pop door to keep her out of the coop because she was being such a nuisance. It doesn’t help that her sister and best friend is one of my broodies, and sometimes she’ll just come and sit next to her sister with the dog crate wires in between them. I don’t mind it when she does that, just when she’s annoying the broody gals.

 

[CSolis]

I'm a bit concerned about Sioux.. Moved her into the baby crib brooder on Sunday, and there's no evidence at all she's left the nest to eat, drink or evacuate.. Should I be concerned, and should I add one of her room mates (from the pen) so she's feels comfortable leaving the nest, or is forced out by the other hen to lay?

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

I'm a bit concerned about Sioux.. Moved her into the baby crib brooder on Sunday, and there's no evidence at all she's left the nest to eat, drink or evacuate.. Should I be concerned, and should I add one of her room mates (from the pen) so she's feels comfortable leaving the nest, or is forced out by the other hen to lay?

Maybe you could just take her out and watch her to make sure she's eating and drinking. Then make sure she goes back on the nest. I've heard of a few broodies that have done this and you just have to take them off to get what they need to do done.