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

[butterfliesdoku]

My DD dressed this chick in barbie clothes lol. Poor thing!

Now I wanna dress my chicks in barbie clothes to take pictures! Hahaha

 

[TJordan]

Ok. Candles today. I counted a solid 6 dozen eggs not including the dozen I put in from my girls to see if they would hatch.

I had 5 that looked clear, 1 that might be ED and 4 that are ??s. That's a lot of developing eggs. 8 developing are ducks.

.

See nothing in my 12 yet but the rooster had been out for about a week. He's been back for 3 days and has been very .... Ummmm.... Active.

I will check again in 3 days.

 

[snowy Mtns]

Two of my chicks have pipped holes and are not zipping. I noticed the first one at 1 am. It didn't progress until 4. Now at another stand still. When should I assist? The humidity is in the high 60's so the inner she'll seems to not be shrink wrapping.

They came out tired but a few hours later doing great!

 

[Bantambird]

Finished lockdown on 14 Cream Legbar eggs and 21 Birchen Marans eggs. Now it's just waiting... My dad, a retired electric engineer, is gonna make over my 1266 sportsman incubator with an automated temperature controller. He is looking for one with a variable of .1. The one we rigged up to the hatcher, an older model 1502 with the acrylic door modification, has a 1 degree variable, and will stay within the designated range of 98 and 99, where I set it. Since I'm away at work and the kidstuff sometimes 12, even 14 hours a day I have found this to be a reasonable modification, even though it isn't as precise as I would like. Does anyone know of a temp controller that has a .1 degree variable?

 

[swallace]

Hatching questions - Hello my name is Shannon, we are in Central Pennsylvania.
We are new to backyard chickens. Our flock is at my daughters house. We have 3 "Easter Eggers" (the small brown one, Anna, has never laid a fertile egg as told to us by previous owner).

Then we have Big Blue, and Mama. All three give us blue/green eggs. Mama and Big Blue have some "muff" not sure exactly what kind of "mutts" they are.

Anyway we bought a Farm Innovator forced air incubator with egg turner and set some of their eggs, along with some others from the same flock our hens came from.
Temp was really steady-99.5-100. Humidity 40-45% until day 18 when we took out egg turner and increased to about 70%, had some fluctiation during lockdown.
Yesterday on day 20 we had 2 chicks hatched, and today 7 more. 6 of the 9 have bald necks, and a couple have a little balding on the shoulder. We did not see any Naked Necks in the flock.

Any ideas why we have baldies? Anything I may need to do differently next time?

 

[swallace]

ND, can anyone point me to info on determining gender on these babies?
Thanks so much!!

 

[generaldsherman]

Finished lockdown on 14 Cream Legbar eggs and 21 Birchen Marans eggs. Now it's just waiting... My dad, a retired electric engineer, is gonna make over my 1266 sportsman incubator with an automated temperature controller. He is looking for one with a variable of .1. The one we rigged up to the hatcher, an older model 1502 with the acrylic door modification, has a 1 degree variable, and will stay within the designated range of 98 and 99, where I set it. Since I'm away at work and the kidstuff sometimes 12, even 14 hours a day I have found this to be a reasonable modification, even though it isn't as precise as I would like. Does anyone know of a temp controller that has a .1 degree variable?

there's a plug and play variety on ebay, white and blue. Send PM and remind me to send you the link. I actually had to set mine back to .2 because .1 was oscillating too much (turned on and off every 5 seconds or so, really annoying)

 

[junebuggena]

Hatching questions - Hello my name is Shannon, we are in Central Pennsylvania.
We are new to backyard chickens. Our flock is at my daughters house. We have 3 "Easter Eggers" (the small brown one, Anna, has never laid a fertile egg as told to us by previous owner).

Then we have Big Blue, and Mama. All three give us blue/green eggs. Mama and Big Blue have some "muff" not sure exactly what kind of "mutts" they are.

Anyway we bought a Farm Innovator forced air incubator with egg turner and set some of their eggs, along with some others from the same flock our hens came from.
Temp was really steady-99.5-100. Humidity 40-45% until day 18 when we took out egg turner and increased to about 70%, had some fluctiation during lockdown.
Yesterday on day 20 we had 2 chicks hatched, and today 7 more. 6 of the 9 have bald necks, and a couple have a little balding on the shoulder. We did not see any Naked Necks in the flock.

Any ideas why we have baldies? Anything I may need to do differently next time?

Those are 'Naked Neck' or 'Turken' chicks. The rooster was probably a Naked Neck or Turken, and just because you didn't see him, doesn't mean he wasn't there.

 

[generaldsherman]

Hatching questions - Hello my name is Shannon, we are in Central Pennsylvania.
We are new to backyard chickens. Our flock is at my daughters house. We have 3 "Easter Eggers" (the small brown one, Anna, has never laid a fertile egg as told to us by previous owner).

Then we have Big Blue, and Mama. All three give us blue/green eggs. Mama and Big Blue have some "muff" not sure exactly what kind of "mutts" they are.

Anyway we bought a Farm Innovator forced air incubator with egg turner and set some of their eggs, along with some others from the same flock our hens came from.
Temp was really steady-99.5-100. Humidity 40-45% until day 18 when we took out egg turner and increased to about 70%, had some fluctiation during lockdown.
Yesterday on day 20 we had 2 chicks hatched, and today 7 more. 6 of the 9 have bald necks, and a couple have a little balding on the shoulder. We did not see any Naked Necks in the flock.

Any ideas why we have baldies? Anything I may need to do differently next time?

naked neck, like Lucky here

 

[swallace]

naked neck, like Lucky here

I think I may call the owner tomorrow and ask about a naked neck roo. We did not see obe, but she had a good 30 or so birds in that flock. I was just afraid I might not have done something properly. Yikes!
How old is Lucky?