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

[mamahmendez]

If these eggs survive incubation and hatch the will be the stongest ducklings ever. So far these eggs has been, shipped, had detached air cells, had the turner unplugged and NOW a multitude of power outages. But, I guess none of these "issues" are a big deal, I just worry they will accumulate and make for malpositioned, weak hatchlings.
I will candle tonight to see what everything looks like. 12 days to go and only time will tell.

Congrats to everyone with new babies, newly set eggs, and/or newly made friends. I was away for the weekend and missed a TON!

 

[feedman77]

Same boat?  What did you end up with?

Carried 20 layers over the winter.

But Craigslist and a few bird swaps.

Now have 50 layers. 5 roosters.

Then the farm supply stores started getting chicks. Was gonna get 5 ee.

Well now have 25 babies in the brooder.

Plus carried 24 turkeys over winter. Added 5 more. ( birdswap).

After I get done hatching turkeys in may.(maybe)

I have about 10 dozen chicken eggs hatching on shares.

So I'm birdbrained so to speak.

 

[LeroySouthpaw]

Carried 20 layers over the winter.

But Craigslist and a few bird swaps.

Now have 50 layers. 5 roosters.

Then the farm supply stores started getting chicks. Was gonna get 5 ee.

Well now have 25 babies in the brooder.

Plus carried 24 turkeys over winter. Added 5 more. ( birdswap).

After I get done hatching turkeys in may.(maybe)

I have about 10 dozen chicken eggs hatching on shares.

So I'm birdbrained so to speak.

So, 80 chickens, 29 turkeys, and 120 eggs. I instantly like you, very much!!!

 

[mlm Mike]

Well I just candled on day 13 and got rid of 2 out of the 40 set. 1 clear and one blood ring. I've been so busy cleaning out the coop and moving rabbits to the outside hutch I didn't have time to candle before today.

Glad things are going so well!

The brooder is filling up

. They like it so much more than the incubator. I just can't take all that crying, so I just move em over. I am glad to get some black chicks!

Awesome!

Congrats to all the babies!!

Tonight at 7:45 is lockdown, but I think I'll wait til tomorrow morning. Let them cook a little extra. I haven't decided the best way for me to keep the breeds separate, or if I care that much.

Good Luck with your hatch!

Good Morning!!!

So out of my 23 eggs, 20 hatched and are in the brooder. The last three haven't pipped yet, but since it's only day19 they still have time. The others must have smelled the coffee brewing.

My eggs were a mix of GLW over either 3 Barred Rocks or 3 Black Stars. We can only identify the specific eggs of one of our ladies and that is the Black Star apply dubbed "Blackie". With our first hatch we suspected, with our this hatch (second) we confirmed. Blackie produces cute little golden chipmunks that feather out reddish gold with black lacing. All the other chicks are black and either feather out solid black or barred. I love mix breeds, it's a surprise with every new cross!!!

Great hatch!

7 Sapphire and 9 CL/EE & EE so far

Three more days until guinea egg lockdown. I have been good and haven't candled since day 14. So, its killing me! Hatch day should be Sunday.

And, one of my cuckoo marans decided she wanted to be a mother, so I've put 10 guinea eggs under her today. I don't need to hatch any chickens right now, but I can always give away guineas around here. We've had a biblical amount of grasshoppers the last couple of years (central Texas) and the guineas are great for that. I guess I'll have to get in the May HAL. I haven't done the broody hen hatch before, so I hope she can be successful.

Great! Any tips on incubating guinea eggs?

 

[Chaos18]

Bookmark.

 

[mlm Mike]

I am so glad our TSC has no breeds I want (well, Silkies but I hear TSC silkies are dinosaurs lol) and a minimum of 6, which we don't need, or else I'd probably be picking up some chicks lol

However, there are other local feed stores around, one of which only has a minimum of 3, and all of which ARE getting some of the exact breeds I wanted to try and add soooo..... going to be very difficult to walk away or to not drive specifically to the stores and pick them up

Oh, pick something up. You know you want to.

@Chaos18 Lockdown last night. Out of 10 shipped eggs, only two that have gone this far. I saw movement in both, so I'm hopeful. Their hatch date is somewhere around Wednesday evening to Thursday evening if they stick to 21 days.

I hope the two hatch!

Picking up a mixed dozen from a local byc member from a flock that carries both a frizzle and grey egg gene! Pretty sure my husband is going to have me committed lol.

Good luck with the eggs and your husband.

Hello, please correct me if I'm wrong, I've never been very good at math. Anyways, I had 6 hens and a rooster. The idea was to add 3 more hens to my existing coop (4x6 interior with an attached 4x11 completely predator proof run that they had 24 hour access to). Alright, need to buy 3 new pullets.

Went to Rural King. They had a large LARGE selection, how was I suppose to choose???? So, I brought home a couple of pullets from this breed, one of those, three of those. So, I brought home 6 new babies... Unfortunately, I lost one to an on-going battle with pasty butt. Therefore, replacement chick.

Not quite a week later we go back for the replacement. They didn't have any more of the Rhode Islands... but they did have a lot of new and different breeds!! So, we brought home 16 new babies, cause you know, straight run.

Two weeks later, we made a quick trip to Tractor Supply, and they had Cornish X and RIR. So I pick up 4 of each.

Meanwhile, our rooster (Fabio), who was always very mild was developing a particular dislike of my mother and even trapped her in the house one day. We decided to invite him to dinner and started collecting eggs for the incubator. (19 were collected, 17 hatched)

Went to Tractor Supply for supplies, THEY HAD A TURKEN!!!! Only one. Know the manager really well at this point, he lets me get a minimum of two. I grab the newly dubbed "Pickles" and a strange breed that even Google never heard of, the Aquilla (Oggie).

Well, my aunt and uncle called me and they were wondering if I could help them start a flock. SURE!! How many do you want? 30, with some roosters... No problem, 23 more eggs in the incubator cooking, afterall, straight run chicks are usually half roosters and we need 30 hens. (as of this morning, 20 fluffballs hatched)

Meanwhile, back at Rural King, they had something called Rainbow Rangers. We got 6, because, at this point, why the heck not.

Also, did I mention that this particular aunt and uncle know how bonkers I am for turkens that they left a box in my foyer containing a surprise of one turken mix and 5 other fluffballs? Turns out they are all silkie mixes but without the silkie feathers (from what I could tell).

So, that's how many? 86 total chickens?

Yeah, we got our new (much larger) coop a couple weeks ago and just finished the new 9,600 sq ft chicken yard for them.

I never knew that chickens were a gateway drug to more chickens!!!

That's a lot of chickens!

12 out of 12 Sapphires! 9 out of 12 CL/EE & EE, 1 out of 1 BCM/EE, and 1 out of 1 BL/EE. Pics coming when they are fluffed.

It took me ALL morning to catch up on the thread from being away from my computer since Thursday! Whew!

Lots of new babies! I'm so eager for our hatch!

I candled on Friday and ended up tossing one egg that was infertile. So, we have 6 growing eggs left. They all looked great, with good air cells. Will candle again in a couple days. Due to hatch in 10 days! YAY! The class that I am hatching for was so excited to see the candling process. Then they asked me about 50 questions, they are SO inquisitive! They also talked me into cracking open the egg that was infertile, so glad it truly had nothing in it!

So fun!

Good luck with the hatch. I'm glad the class is enjoying it.

@Chaos18

12 Tolbunt hatched are doing fab

I'm going to be setting Columbian black tails, Pekin bantam & bantam Orpington agian in the last week of April. These will be the replacement eggs from the Easter Hal that had poor fertility.

Wonderful!

@Yorkshire coop

Awesome! Where did you get your Tolbunts? I was thinking I might try to get hold of some, but ended up getting Calico/Mille Fleur bantam Cochins instead.

Out of 7 shipped eggs, 5 successfully hatched on Sunday and the chicks are doing well today! I am SO thrilled, I was only counting on about 3 hatching!

Lost a chick yesterday. So cold, so lifeless....all stiff and non-responsive. Just dead. She and another trouble maker escaped from their brooder pen from a small gap we didn't notice - but they did! While trying to catch one, we found the other behind the dust bath. So sad. Put the one we had to catch and I laid the lifeless one up on the shelf while Ken and I found the parts and fixed the gap. Then I had a trash bag in my hand and was starting to wrap her up when her mouth opened just a bit. I didn't know if it opened because I was kinda flopping her around while I opened the bag or if she was making one last gasp, but it was enough for me!

Brought her in and stuffed her in the incubator until we had a warm spot ready, just to try to revive her. It didn't look good, but by golly the battle was on and I had no intention of losing!


Totally lifeless in the incubator. Stayed that way, too.


Got a small basket and put her in it on top of a heating pad, then flipped the top of the heating pad over her.

I was pretty rough with her trying to get a response...she peeped! Ken was at the back of the house coming up to the front and I was so excited that she was finally responding I kept hollering.

Less than 2 hours from what you saw at the top, to her going back outside with the rest of the chicks. Checked her this morning and the only way I could tell her from the other 2 White Orpingtons out there was that her two little wing feathers were split from her adventure.

Never give up. Whether it's a chick or eggs that don't show signs of life, as long as a heart is beating there is hope!

Amazing, glad you saw her move in time.

If these eggs survive incubation and hatch the will be the stongest ducklings ever. So far these eggs has been, shipped, had detached air cells, had the turner unplugged and NOW a multitude of power outages. But, I guess none of these "issues" are a big deal, I just worry they will accumulate and make for malpositioned, weak hatchlings.
I will candle tonight to see what everything looks like. 12 days to go and only time will tell.

Congrats to everyone with new babies, newly set eggs, and/or newly made friends. I was away for the weekend and missed a TON!

Hatch update @Chaos18 -

We have hatched 15 so far and just moved them to brooder! It is day 21, there are 4 more eggs in the bator that may or may not hatch. At day 18 these eggs looked lively, especially two of them.

So we have
2 Welsummer x CL roo
4 Dominique x CL roo (or possibly Rhodebar roo)
9 Rhodebar x CL roo

Here's a pic of the crew getting acclimated to the brooder. My daughters are going to be over the moon when they get home from school.

Great, good luck with the remaining eggs.

 

[melnjerm]

@Chaos18 The one Maran/CCL egg did quit. So, I have 18 CCL's, 3 Maran/CCL's and 1 Buff Orpington/CCL, 22 total to go into lockdown in 3 days. Can't wait!

 

[chicken hawk 33]

So, 80 chickens, 29 turkeys, and 120 eggs.  I instantly like you, very much!!! 

I will be that way soon.they started paying for there feed in eggs.we went to the feed store with $100 dollars for feed just from selling eggs

 

[cree57i]

Well tomorrow i take a few chicks off your hands!!!!!! Yay

They are flying west, to the great state of Texas, as we speak!

 

[Sueg4332]

thought I lost my black marans cross olive egger. It is 80 degrees today was mower my grass under my favorite tree

Took a break sat down the old tree trunk looked to the right. Look what I found. She hid them in plain site.






At least I know she alive and not Fox Dinner.. LOL
Question to hatch or not to hatch......