Official Christmas Hatch! c'mon and join

[Namble]

BB x Dark Cornish # 3 has hatched out!

 

[Cornychick]

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[Cornychick]

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You are lucky to have backup & options. I'm still working my little LG. Gonna have to leave to run some errands and leave hubby in charge.

 

[Poco Pollo]

12 of 24 are hatched and in the brooder. The remaining 12 are not even pipped. I'm wondering how long the eggs were collected. If the eggs were collected over a four day period, as many are if the breeding stock consists of only 3 hens and a rooster, then it could be three or four more days until these are ready to hatch.

We lost power for a few hours this morning. I built a fire and moved the brooder in as close as was safe. I covered the incubators with wool blankets hoping to maintain the heat inside. Thank goodness the hatched chicks had been moved earlier. I wouldn't have been able to cover the incubators without worrying about suffocating the little fluffy butts. Keep your fingers crossed for me that we don't lose power again. It's raining and the winds are about 40 mph from the north. This could turn into a winter storm quickly.

I've reinforced the tarps on my outdoor chicken pens. Now I'm concerned that the winds could actually launch some of the lighter enclosures. Most of our birds are pastured, so there isn't a floor on the portable pens. I'm using the trampoline as an alarm. As soon as that sucker lifts off, I'm running for the chicken pens. I've put bricks down around the bases of most of them to discourage shifting. With it being so dark outside, I feel like we're living on the set of the Wizard of Oz.

 

[LaSombra]

so I think I'm confused about the lingo... so pip means when they're pecking at the shell? I was thinking it was peeping, I think. LOL No pips here yet... if that's what it means

 

[The Sheriff]

A peep is a sound, a pip is a crack in the shell from the inside out, a zip is when the shell is opened up around it's circumference. And this is my first Christmas chick! While i was busy snapping pics I saw it was leaving a big blood trail. I reached in and picked it up and it was bleeding profusely from it's umbilicus. I grabbed the styptic pencil and touched the spot and the bleeding stopped immediately. I put him in the Hovabotor where he is flopping around and drying off.

Nothing else going on here, not even a single pip.

Mary

Congrats on the other Christmas arrivals.

 

[sangel4you]

warden, how long did it take your early bird to hatch? I noticed the pip about 3 hrs ago and it seems he's made no progress since. I too only have that one and the rest are silent as can be, but I think if I remember correctly this one was VERY much filling it's shell when I candeled two days ago so that could explain the earliness. I also wondered, whats a styptic pencil? Out of curiosity, whats your humidity at now?

 

[The Sheriff]

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It took over twelve hours. My humidity is at 65%. A styptic pencil is the thing you hold on a cut when you are shaving. It makes blood clot. I had a bad bleeder last hatch that pipped through a vessel and I used it then. I have kept it close to the bator since then. Other people suggest putting a little flour on the spot but that did not work and made a big mess.

 

[sangel4you]

oh, ok well I finally got humidity up to 60 anyway, so that makes me feel a little better. I was worried it was too dry and he was going to get stuck. I'll just have to make sure to keep adding warm water. That pencil sounds like a very neat and handy thing to have!

 

[kathyinmo]

1 Delaware chick, and 5 pips. The new chick took 14 hours from pip to pop. It didn't zip until after 10 hours.