October Hatch-a-long 2022🎃🐣🍁

[kurby22]

Two buffs, the “lemon cuckoo“ and black chick are out in the brooder learning how to eat! The other four are still in the incubator, not quite ready for prime time.View attachment 3292292

That’s a really good shipped egg hatch rate!! I’m impressed! I hope mine are that successful! I’m really excited about my shipped eggs I got Thursday too. Out of 19 eggs only 3-4 had detached air cells! There’s hope

 

[WIchickMama]

I also candled the second egg in there an it looked like there was an embryo but the veining was very weird? The veins looked all jumbled up and there was a dark line going around half of the egg and it stopped at the embryo? It almost looked like intestines. This is the second candling that it has looked like this.

Could it be a blood ring? Sounds like maybe a quitter?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

For those who are interested, photos of the individual chicks.

These first two are both white, though one definitely appears more buff. Wing feathers in a week will be telling:

White 1:

White 2:

Crele?:

Buff 1:

Buff 2:

Black:

Porcelain:

This last chick to hatch is supposed to be porcelain as well, though I see faint chipmunk stripes. Very pretty chick. It has a slipped tendon, so has a wrapped leg and a therapy chair. I hope it makes it.

All 8 chicks have second toe feathering, 5 toes on each foot except for one of the buffs. A few with vaults, but most do not. Nice quality Silkies overall.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

In the span of 3 hours, I’ve had 5 more hatch! Two chicks came out black feathered, so 100% my rooster mullet’s chicks, and the rest came out mini-clones of their mother. They look even more similar to her than the first chick that hatched, which lacks a bunch of her chipmunkiness as a baby. They don’t though.

I’ve got two left, one which has pipped already, the other which hasn’t.

Congrats!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

That’s a really good shipped egg hatch rate!! I’m impressed! I hope mine are that successful! I’m really excited about my shipped eggs I got Thursday too. Out of 19 eggs only 3-4 had detached air cells! There’s hope

Great news about your eggs!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

So you’re trying to breed away from the vaulted skulls? That’s pretty cool, I’m trying to do the same thing. Got some fertile eggs arriving on the 20th, and if all goes to plan (and there isn’t too many broken eggs/infertile eggs from transit) I’m planning to cull pretty heavily. Not necessarily kill, I’m sure theres some people out there that’ll be willing to buy them off me when they’re a bit older, but personally I don’t really like the whole “vaulted skull” thing, and if I have to sacrifice a bit of poof on top of the head for their health and safety, I think that’s okay. Your babies are adorable btw.

Thanks!
Yes I’m trying to breed away from the vaulted skulls and don’t use birds with vaulted skulls in my breeding program. Despite this, about 20% of the chicks I hatch have the vault, so the genetics of the inheritance is complex.
I am breeding some birds with nice crests despite this. All of the birds in the following photos are non-vaulted. Some of these are quite young and have not developed their crests fully yet.
I don’t recommend Silkies housed with standard breeds in general, but especially chicks that hatch with the vaulted skull.
I will only sell these to folks who intend to have them as their only chickens or have other Silkies or bantams, due to the risk of traumatic head injury.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Got some fertile eggs arriving on the 20th, and if all goes to plan (and there isn’t too many broken eggs/infertile eggs from transit) I’m planning to cull pretty heavily.

Good luck and fingers crossed the eggs arrive safely with air cells intact!

 

[Pinedale Silkies]

Good luck and fingers crossed the eggs arrive safely with air cells intact!

Thanks, I hope so too. Living in Australia, it’s a lot harder to get eggs, especially of the breed I wanted (bearded silkies) as we don’t really have any hatcheries unlike in the US, and the few we do only sell, A, isa browns/australorps/white leghorns (all pullets, at point-of-lay), pick up only, or B, the one hatchery I did find that had silkies, were insanely pricey, and again, pick up only. I did manage to find some eggs from two breeders, which, again, are pretty pricey, especially being bearded silkies, so fingers crossed they all arrive safely!
I imagine it would be harder to find eggs that ship to you, being in Hawaii?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thanks, I hope so too. Living in Australia, it’s a lot harder to get eggs, especially of the breed I wanted (bearded silkies) as we don’t really have any hatcheries unlike in the US, and the few we do only sell, A, isa browns/australorps/white leghorns (all pullets, at point-of-lay), pick up only, or B, the one hatchery I did find that had silkies, were insanely pricey, and again, pick up only. I did manage to find some eggs from two breeder, which, again, are pretty pricey, especially being bearded silkies, so fingers crossed they all arrive safely!
I imagine it would be harder to find eggs that ship to you, being in Hawaii?

Yes it is very difficult to find quality Silkies here. I imagine we have similar obstacles.
All of my breeding stock has come from the mainland from top quality breeders. But difficult getting them to ship to Hawaii as it requires a complicated permit process that most people don’t want to deal with. The large hatcheries on the mainland do ship but the quality of the birds is not what I’m looking for.
I was lucky to get this batch of chicks that just hatched from eggs from a show breeder who was willing to ship to Hawaii. I was needing some fresh blood lines in my flock. The last several times I have attempted to hatch eggs that were shipped, I had very poor hatch rates. My paint rooster in my Avatar is one of only nearly 40 eggs that hatched a few years ago.

 

[Pinedale Silkies]

Yes it is very difficult to find quality Silkies here. I imagine we have similar obstacles.
All of my breeding stock has come from the mainland from top quality breeders. But difficult getting them to ship to Hawaii as it requires a complicated permit process that most people don’t want to deal with. The large hatcheries on the mainland do ship but the quality of the birds is not what I’m looking for.
I was lucky to get this batch of chicks that just hatched from eggs from a show breeder who was willing to ship to Hawaii. I was needing some fresh blood lines in my flock. The last several times I have attempted to hatch eggs that were shipped, I had very poor hatch rates. My paint rooster in my Avatar is one of only nearly 40 eggs that hatched a few years ago.

Wow, yeah, seems like we’re facing a big of the same dilemma.
The thing about permits seems like a pain, seeing a bunch of lovely little well-bred fluff balls but not being able to get them because of distance/government restrictions is a pain.
A while ago I was looking at some lovely little silkies in Western Australia, big Pom-poms, good feathering, to breed standard, a little bit of leakage in some colours, (but that’s pretty common in Australia, it’s a real issue, and something I hope to improve upon with my own flock), but as WA is on the other side of the continent to me, the amount of time it would take to get to me, as well as the amount of damage sustained along the way, it just isn’t worth it. Hopefully the eggs I’ve ordered, being closer to me, will fare better.
Thats really lucky with your rooster, wow, 1/40 is insanely bad odds, but I suppose it is how it is with ordering shipped eggs