September 2015 Hatch-A-long!!

[Cynthia12]

Little Dude drying off. He loved the microwave heat pad I held him on.


Little Dude with his younger sibling, Santos, a Silver Duckwing mix with feathered feet.


Santos before he was completely dry.

Love that white spotted one! Mine came yellow, and are turning white. What a sweet face. And that cute little .. pinkish beak. Just adorable. Some just come with the sweetest faces.

 

[Cynthia12]

zoey..babies soon!

 

[CuckooChook]

Oh man, I hope not! We did find a nest of rats nearby too so I'm going to get a huge spool of hardware cloth to reinforce everything. Better safe than sorry!

I have a livestock vet coming in a little over a week, I think my rabbit is pregnant and I want to make sure all is well. Might as we have her take a look!

 

[zoey87]

zoey..babies soon! 

I have three!!! The first one to pip died in the shell. Anyone know what would cause that? I feel terrible but I have 2 olive eggers and one lemon cuckoo Orpington so far!!

 

[GitaBooks]

I have three!!! The first one to pip died in the shell. Anyone know what would cause that? I feel terrible

but I have 2 olive eggers and one lemon cuckoo Orpington so far!!

I'm sorry to hear that. Sometimes, chicks just genetically aren't strong enough to hatch on their own. You can help these chicks out sometimes, but often they still don't make it, and if they do they should not be used for breeding. I have a lot of experience with this unfortunately.

 

[Joplus]

I have three!!! The first one to pip died in the shell. Anyone know what would cause that? I feel terrible but I have 2 olive eggers and one lemon cuckoo Orpington so far!!

Congrats! The only two hatches I had there was a chick each time stuck and I had to help. One had guts on the outside and died and the other had a severely deformed foot and they both died. I won't assist this time hopefully and let nature take its course. Can't wait to see pics

 

[chickendreams24]

I believe in helping chicks at least it gives them a chance. I have a self blue old English bantam pullet that I had to save she was perfectly formed but he siblings rolled her egg and then we had problems with sticky chick and drying outer membranes so they couldn't cut through it to zip. I saved her and although she did break a toe at about 4 weeks idk how she is perfect and oh so beautiful! Give it a try helping them a bit sometimes there isnt anything to be done but sometimes that tiny bit of help is all that is needed to save an otherwise very strong chick. Crocket as we call her(she spent her first 24 hours in a country crock dish in the bator as her siblings were older and picking at her) is now the dominant chick from the 8 that hatched and is super sweet and beautiful.

 

[Littlefox26]

A new hatch-a-long!! I was a little disappointed with my August hatch, I got 10 out of 32, I was really sad because I lost two mid hatch. I was helping as little as possible and they seemed fine I looked back in a couple hours later and *poof* gone. This time its all barn yard mix again except for a few possible pure American and buff orpington. This is also my first tome hatching eggs from other people and my first staggered hatch. I was waiting on eggs from someone but they never gave them to me so now I have 18 I will be getting next Saturday. Which is 14 in now set on the 27 of Aug and another 18 next Sat which makes 32! So 10 chicks + 19 adults = 30 pluse more coming soon! My chicken math is improving every day.

 

[bbgranch]

Remember, Marans usually take the full 20 days to incubate, especially if they are on the big side.   Some folks will actually take something to sand down the egg shell a bit right at lock down to help make the shell easier to pip, around the air cell and dropping part of air cell, they get pretty hard. 

Oh man. Distressing to see this bit about sanding. One more thing to worry about! I think my eggs aren't as dark as some. Pretty easy to see inside but I have a major lumen led flashlight. But thanks for the info. I'll try not to get worried if I don't see any action before day 21.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

I have a staggered hatch with hatching dates spread over most of the month. Two incubators running: one for the lengthy incubation and another for locking down.. Can I join?