***SEPTEMBER HATCH-A-LONG come join in***

[xyresicchick]

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oh my !

at least you have one cutie.

wait til he/she is dry then stick her in your bra?! lol! she'd get used to being handled real quick that way and not be lonely!! lol. jk, i dont know if that would be very fun/safe for a baby chickie.

here is a pic of my little serama now. she (

) likes to be held and between my 3 girls gets held a lot.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/46766_dscf2687.jpg
edited to put in pic

awwh how cute. she looks partridgey. is she?

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Aside from my three healthy serama chicks with broody mama (plus her adopted mystery chick), I've got two pips! Actually, one has started zipping. Woohoo, let the festivities begin!

(And by festivities I mean hovering over the incubator and obsessively checking for progress and more pips!

)

 

[Imagesoart]

Not so good for me. Only one hatched. I have done this before, so I don't know what happened. I thought that the temps and humidity were great this time. On well, I turned off the incubator. The good news is that I have some more eggs coming this week! I would like some suggestions, I just don't know how it could have been so bad.

Now the question! What is the best way to raise this chick. She is a Black Copper Maran. (Hope she is a she) I have her in a brooder all by herself. I know of a feed store that has some week old chicks. Should I go and buy her a friend or two?

 

[Lotsapaints]

Mine are in lock down and 9 look good to me the others are in dark eggs I can't really tell so Friday or Saturday I hope......

 

[SilverPhoenix]

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Awww, sorry to hear about the bad hatch.

Sometimes those things just happen. Were the eggs shipped, and did they have problems with their air cells? If they were shipped it could have been a problem with that. Were the babies developing normally? Moving around? If they did develop normally but then didn't hatch, it could be a humidity issue. I've found higher humidity really seems to have higher mortality than lower humidity. This hatch I didn't put any water in the incubator at all and it stayed at 20-25% throughout incubation, and I have it up to 45% or so for lockdown and so far so good! I hope whatever it was, you have a better hatch next time.

And I'd definitely go get that chick a friend or two! Chicks hate being alone and it's hard to integrate them with other chickens if you raise them by themselves. I've been there and done that, and I won't be doing it again unless it's absolutely necessary! Took the pullet something like eight months to adjust to being a chicken. She's fine now, four or so years old and a normal hen, but she had a rough time for a while.

 

[mahsmaj]

I have a polish cross hen that had a nest hidden in one of the barns that she decided to sit on. She had 17 eggs. I candled them about a week after I found her and they were about a week into development so I found them at about just the right time. 6 weren't fertile, so that left 11. All 11 chicks have hatched out as of this morning!!! Btw: the mother is a standard white polish mix(looks very polish) & the father is my black silkie bantam!

 

[SilverPhoenix]

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Wow, congratulations! That's a lot of chicks to hatch out at once--she's going to be a busy mama! What an impressive hatch rate. I think you should post pictures!

 

[chickee]

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[cthrash1]

Congratulations all on your hatches!!! I love seeing the chickie pics!!
All 5 of my mixes that I rescued, because of the broody leaving the nest, hatched and have been successfully given back to the broody. She is a very proud momma right now. Only one of my shipped Silkies hatched. And there are four out of eight FBCM eggs left and went into lockdown today. Don't know if there is any movement(too dark) but all I can see is the air cell so I know there has been development. Can't even see through the small end.

ETA: forgot to mention, the heat element went out on my bator Sunday, temps were down to 79 when I looked in on the eggs(I super panicked) so I had to make an emergency trip to TSC for a replacement bator. In the meantime I had put the useless bator in the brooder under the heat lamp. The last two mixed chicks hatched during my absence. This is also why I'm not sure if the last 4 Marans eggs are good. The company I got the bator that broke from is sending replacement parts thank goodness as it was only the second time I've used it.

 

[EdistoChicks]

I just realized, I did not take pictures of the keets I hatched. I tried not to get too attached to them since they were all going away

There will be tons of pics of the BBS Orpingtons, those are ALL mine!!!!! I just introduced the 2 month old buffs to the 1 month old blue orpingtons, no fighting whatsoever. They are going to be fast friends. Hopefully that lasts!