"Springing in the Chicks" 2016 April Hatch-a-Long Hosted by Mike & Sally

[Tchefunky Chick]

How exciting, and it must be a little nerve racking for you too. 

This egg hatching is nerve-racking, but so fun and rewarding.
I enjoy reading about all the excitement everyone shares for each new pip or chick that hatches... As you can see from my info, I'm a newbie. I am constantly learning from all of you, and from mistakes!
My husband, his friend and I share the expense, duties and pleasures of our flock, but I'm the one interested most in ducks and hatching them this year. I began collecting eggs for hatching when frequent rains caused our pond to overflow in early March. One large nest was under water for over 8 hours! I read that the eggs chill very easily and die, but decided to try my luck (pond temps were mild and we had some warm days just before the rain.) About 22 eggs from the flooded nest went to a friend's incubator immediately, while 30 eggs I collected went into my new Farm Innovator incubator on March 16. They are now in lockdown!

Please note: the image of nest is of the second nest my mallards made on high ground. It contains duck and guinea eggs.

At the moment we have a mated pair of mallards, a black drake that could be a Cayuga, a crested fawn and white runner drake named Harpo, a large Indian runner drake and 4 very sweet runner hens. The eggs I collected were lovely - ivory and pale blue. I found them all over the yard. I felt certain they were all duck eggs until a chick hatched on April 7th. We candled the eggs and pitched 7, so I'm down to 22. I can't wait to see what happens!
I marked the eggs with date, and with condition they were found in, since some were in water and some were dry. It's my own little science project. I believe I've got the fever!!! . Congratulations to everyone who has new chicks, emus or guineas. One day we might try pea fowl and turkeys. Happy Hatching!

 

[darkbluespace]

Nite nite

 

[Sueg4332]

Quote:
it would be crazy

 

[weegarden]

I've got a pip! Looks more like a crack at this point, but hopefully I'll have a new little NN chick tomorrow. Hope the other two hatch as well, though one may not. It was funky looking when I candled, might have quit around day 14 or so as I could see through parts of the shell when moving my flashlight around on the shell. Either way, one is on the way. I'm going to be good and keep my anxious fingers away from the hatcher this time (no touchy, self!)

Congrats!!!! I am hoping to have my first pips today too!

This egg hatching is nerve-racking, but so fun and rewarding.
I enjoy reading about all the excitement everyone shares for each new pip or chick that hatches... As you can see from my info, I'm a newbie. I am constantly learning from all of you, and from mistakes!
My husband, his friend and I share the expense, duties and pleasures of our flock, but I'm the one interested most in ducks and hatching them this year. I began collecting eggs for hatching when frequent rains caused our pond to overflow in early March. One large nest was under water for over 8 hours! I read that the eggs chill very easily and die, but decided to try my luck (pond temps were mild and we had some warm days just before the rain.) About 22 eggs from the flooded nest went to a friend's incubator immediately, while 30 eggs I collected went into my new Farm Innovator incubator on March 16. They are now in lockdown!

Please note: the image of nest is of the second nest my mallards made on high ground. It contains duck and guinea eggs.

At the moment we have a mated pair of mallards, a black drake that could be a Cayuga, a crested fawn and white runner drake named Harpo, a large Indian runner drake and 4 very sweet runner hens. The eggs I collected were lovely - ivory and pale blue. I found them all over the yard. I felt certain they were all duck eggs until a chick hatched on April 7th.

We candled the eggs and pitched 7, so I'm down to 22. I can't wait to see what happens!
I marked the eggs with date, and with condition they were found in, since some were in water and some were dry. It's my own little science project. I believe I've got the fever!!!

. Congratulations to everyone who has new chicks, emus or guineas. One day we might try pea fowl and turkeys. Happy Hatching!

What a neat science experiment! Beautiful place! Good luck!

it would be crazy

It would be awesome to have that rack of eggs in my incubator! I am soooo jealous!

 

[weegarden]

Well, it was 3:45 am when I got up, because I want to go to school and see if I have any pips yet. But, I have to wait for my own kids to get up.

They ride to school with me (out of town.)

I have 7 eggs on Day 21. One was dropped and is cracked pretty badly, on day 19,

but the membrane doesn't appear to be cracked, so I'm hopeful that it will also hatch!

I peeked in yesterday, and panicked when I saw the temp down to 84.5 degrees

, but then I realized that the incubator was in it's hour of cooling mode (Brinsea.) It shouldn't be cooling on day 20, but there was no way to stop it, so hopefully it isn't a big deal. I'm not wild about the small Brinsea, but it is great for my students' ability to view, and when I have 18 little first-graders who all really really want to watch at the same time,

an open view is VERY important!

So, I'm crossing my fingers, and hoping for a nice hatch, with the eggs I do have. I set 42, but I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with Mr. Rooster, and his lady friends. The rest were clear. The first 7 are from another pen. Mr. Rooster and his ladies got feather pluckings in the vent area yesterday,

so hopefully that will help. Good luck to everyone hatching today!

Super excited!

 

[weegarden]

Pretty sure they should be back in by then..that's a ways off. Of course, it's according to how much you trim..don't make it's bum naked.

No naked bums here.

It actually went very well. The rooster didn't like being flipped upside down, but he didn't complain at all about he plucking. I plucked about 30 small and medium sized feathers, and you really can't tell, unless you know what you are looking for, so he was pretty fluffy in that area. I used a pliers, so I could get a good grasp without my fingers slipping, and that worked great because he didn't get upset at all. I just did one feather at a time. I also did one of the two hens. I'm not sure why I didn't just go ahead and do the other one, but we will see what happens now. Praying for some Ameraucana babies! This trio is just to beautiful to not be having chicks! I am on Day 8 with two incubators full right now, but I think most of those will have to be pitched because of clears.

It is early yet, but it looks like I will have 15 out of 84 fertilized eggs. The 15 are a combination of silkie eggs and rock eggs. Normally I have 100 percent, but I put my Americauna in with my Easter Eggers during collection time to see if there would be any action in there, and then all of those hens' eggs went infertile very quickly, so my guess is still that it is him. But, my Easter Eggers are back with their Easter Egger rooster, my rock hens are in with my "any other rooster" winner, my Americaunas are in their trio, and my silkies are getting used to their slight adjustments in mating partners (had a new girl to add that I hatched out last fall, and flip flopped two roosters and their mates.

So my next batches should be nice and fertile. I have had 100% fertile in the past, so this is kind of torturous, but it is a process I need to go through to get everyone situated. Everyone should be good to go, and I will hold out on my Americaunas, unless another beautiful rooster jumps in my lap. I also need to get my hands on one nice black silkie rooster, to have the perfect blue, black, and splash silkie coop. I'm waiting for a bit warmer weather to get him. It has been below freezing here the last couple of weeks. My two white silkie pens are good to go, and are already producing nice chicks.

 

[Scovy Momma]

More teensie babies!
...& I think I can fit a couple of these in...

 

[Balloonjuice]

Poor chicken!!!! LOL!!!!

My first-graders' favorite joke is "Guess what?... Chicken Butt!!!!" Inappropriate of course!

I'm pretty sure there's a children's book by that title that grandma reads to the little ones.

 

[Balloonjuice]

Okay I'm in lockdown. Candled, marked aircells. They all look pretty good except for that same one I could see movement in all but that one. I'm a nervous Nelly. I can even see ones beak, the one with the largest aircell, not sure but it may have been already internally piped. Day 19 and counting. ....

Best wishes. I'm going into lock down later today.

 

[wabbit1964]

Best wishes. I'm going into lock down later today.

Good luck to everyone in lockdown and waiting for chicks!