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You can check out quailladyoffortmyers's website to see how to sex them: www.stellargamebirds.com
If you have browns, golds, or cinnamons, you can tell the sex of those by the color of their breasts. The females will have spots on their breasts and the males generally don't. Also, the males' breast feathers are usually a rusty color while the females' breast feathers are creamy. In this pic, the male is in the front and the female in the back:
If you have whites, tuxedos, or Ranges of any color, you'll have to vent sex them. It is very easy if they are breeding-age. The males have a large, swollen gland on the underside of their tails. When you press on this gland, a white foam will come out. The females don't have this gland but may have a bit of the foam if they have been recently bred. But they will not have the swollen gland. You can also tell by the space between the pelvic bone on a laying hen. A young hen's will be about the same as a male, but a laying hen's pelvic bone will be twice as wide as a male's.
Well I have to say i got a response PM from the person who upset me, apologizing for what they said. So I am better with that now
I still have the one mille baby but I am pretty sure it wont make it, I was shocked it made it this long, still not sure about the two pheasant eggs, but the 3 turkey eggs due this weekend look good. I have to work the night shift tonight and am thinkin about a nap....
Sorry you lost your chick. I hatched out two silver pencilled Plymouth rock chicks from shipped eggs, but they both died. I hatched some bantams once, and they didn't seem to want to eat so I ended up feeding them with a syringe for a week. They lived, but I prefer LF. I have silkies, and many of them just don't make it either. It's sad:'(
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Normally they are really good, but these came from soggy bottom and I dont know what happened. They were just not right when they hatched I am fairly sure it was the shipping and stuff. They just werent meant to hatch and I am bad about leaving a chick alone to die if it pips and doesnt hatch out soon enough.
I am bad about trying to help too much. I figure if my hatching ability screws them up and they get stuck, I should at least try to help. I wait and if they pip but don't zip, I help them out. If shrink wrapped or gooey, i give them a bath and put them in the Bator to dry. Some of them die, but some make it.
DH bought a pair for me this weekend to get himself out of the dog house.
He's no dummy. He got me a pair of gambel quail too. The JB quail eggs I got from the quailladyoffortmyers started hatching this morning. The first one is yellow. They all show development so maybe they will all hatch. DH also brought home a JB roo since I made he mistake of processing all the males instead of leaving 1 for he hens.
But the hens are giving him a run for his "money".
I'm sure there will be no fertile eggs for a while.
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I help too. I spend the 17 or 28 days waiting and baby sitting the bator all that time and refuse to just let them die if I can help it. If one pips and don't hatch or at least start to zip in 24 hours I intervene. Sometimes they didn't finish for a reason and end up dying anyway but I feel at least I tried to give them a chance. I do have more live than not. I have intervened when I should have waited a little longer and end up with having to deal with one that still has yolk. I've gone to do an eggtopsy and found live chicks and they always die. I figure they owuld anyway because I wait 3 to 5 days before I open them up. Sometimes i'll candle to look for movement, if none I just toss them. I helped about 4 with my last hatch of silkie and sizzles and only 1 of those are still alive. They lived for a week and longer. They didn't all die at once and I really think they got trampled but don't know for sure. The last one I found right up against the feeder and it was already getting it's wing feathers. It was a sizzle and had the curled wing tips already.
Right now i'm dealing with cocci with the hatch of the eggs I got from renegaderidgefarm and soulsong. I know it's not from their birds of course. It just happens to be those. I lost 1 cuckoo and one of my oegb's that hatched with them. It was actually my oegb that died first. I isolated them yesterday but it's probably too late. I noticed this morning a little blood from one of the other cuckoo or he red. Not sure which but they are both looking like they don't feel well.
I need to put another nest box in the sizzle pen because the broody in there refuses to let the other girls use the box like they usually do.