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

[swallace]

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?

**The owner of the flock we bought our hens and eggs from** ;-)

 

[generaldsherman]

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?

4 weeks I think. Part of the pink under the neck is a shelf in the background.

 

[chickenjoe12]

3 hatched and 1 hatching

 

[ShrekDawg]

Medicated chick starter contains amprolium. It's a very low dosage thiamine blocker. It is perfectly safe to eat eggs and meat from birds fed medicated starter. But it should not be fed long term, as it can cause thiamine deficiency. 
Grower, all flock, and flock raiser feeds are safe for all ages, and may actually provide better overall nutrition than layer feed for flocks that get lots of treats, free range, or have birds of mixed ages or genders.

Thanks that's what i thought. Although i found a layer yesterday at our local Agway that had higher protein sp I bought it to try it. I know it's probably bad to switch feed so often but the main reason to feed the other feed is because extra treats lowers the overall protein and most layer is only 16 right? Well this was 18 amd made by Nutrena. Nature Wise Hearty Hen. I thought Nature Wise only had one layer feed in crumbles or pellets then the Nutrena Country Feeds. I have never seen this kind before. So I'm pretty excited to try it. I don't mind them being on starter/grower but it would help my dad who thinks they are too old for it.

Yes it is medicated feed I was talking about. Most starter feeds are medicated even if not marked as such

Ah okay, thought so. And really? But how could they put it in it if it is marked that it is not? I mean, don't most brands sell a medicated and a non medicated version? So it seems like if you buy non medicated you expect it to be, well, non medicated. Seems dumb and likely illegal that they would do that. And I found an old bag of ours and the bag even says no antibiotics and something else and I didn't see it in the ingredients or nutrition panel on the tag. And if it is in there and small enough to not be required to be listed surely it can't be that harmful. But mine is also starter/grower so maybe different than just starter but still. Maybe it's ignorant but I still 110% believe that there are medicated and non medicated feeds for a reason and if it is specifically marketed as non medicated they wouldn't medicate it.

 

[chickenjoe12]

now i have 4 hatched and 2 hatching

 

[chickendreams24]

Okay ladies and gents I'm a little irritated with my phone and myself right now because I just typed up q whole darned thing and my phone decided to lose it all. Including my quotes. So I give up, I'm hopelessly behind, about a thousand posts but I'm busy the next two days so I'm sure it will be more than that.

Congratulations on all chickies and sorry about all that have been lost. If anyone would like to tell me some highlights I would love to hear them. Any more updates on the emu? Did #4 make it?

I love the chick in Barbie clothes and it didn't seem all that bothered in the picture. What breed?

@lindalouly
@Sally Sunshine

Okay now for the nitty gritty. You all know about the 113 temp spike well we had one two days ago that got as high as 109 and I caught it at 106. I don't know what's causing these except I think when it's been warm outside it has raised the house temp maybe just enough to cause them. Idk its insane and I'm amazed we have any eggs left. My incubator has always been steady as a rock never deviating more than a degree or so. Ugh.

We lost about half of our April hatch so far. Which started at 8-9 dozen eggs BC well SET ALL THE EGGS!!!!!

As some of you may remember I was sick and in a fever stupor(literally with my fever spiking) I decided to set the incubator and see how many eggs I could fit into it. So we lost about a quarter of the hatch from early quitters, eggs that were infertile and the first temp spike. Surprisingly not as many as I was expecting at first then more and more quit when I opened them it appeared that they had almost begun to cook just a bit around the air cell. Ugh all in all I think we lost over half. All but two of my buff Orpington's eggs were infertile(I checked when I pulled them) this go round apparently she isn't letting the roo breed her... Idk. I have since set some more eggs to check again.

The eggs I set on the 13th from the fridge never did anything not one of them did. They were old for hatching eggs though plus being refridgerated, so I knew it was a shot in the dark.

Well when we pulled the eggs DH2B thought we should set more so we have a staggered hatch again with some eggs set on the 16, 19-21, and the 24th, BC every silkie egg I've been getting I've been throwing in. We got down to the point where the eggs could not stand each other up so have switched all but 4 of the eggs(that were on their sides all through incubating) into modified egg cartons.

I've tried the cartons once before but the eggs were shipped and a flop. I guess I'll give it another shot.

We also added the largest chicken egg I've ever seen which I'm pretty sure is a double yolker BC DH2B wanted to just see if it would develop.

Okay so here's where my illness strikes again. My phone calendar says Monday night should be lockdown for the first set of eggs in the stagger. My incubator says I have a week left! Ugh I will never set eggs when I'm that sick again. I am thankfully well on the way to being better. I'm still exhausted and my asthma is still moderate instead of the mild-moderate it usually is but I feel more like me. Unfortunately Idk how to sort out what the heck to do about my set date dilemma. And then there's one other thing, I haven't drawn air cells until tonight so I think they look pretty good but not knowing what day the eggs are on is hard! Ugh.

I will post a couple pics of the bator and current air cell marks and please anyone with any advice I would appreciate it. Tomorrow I will also be updating about my Easter chicks! Including pics.

Not the two eggs in the bottom of the pic in the middle are at 1 week according to my phone so not in the first set of stagger. These I wrote the set date on them. Lol
How do the rest of the air cells look?

I forgot to mention when we candled the night after the last temp spike was when we really lost most of the original April hatch. It was a rough candle pulling egg after egg as you can see we're down to the two cartons and a few more eggs on their sides. From about 8 original dozen(the other dozen were the 4/13 eggs from the fridge) it was sad and frustrating BC I still don't know what caused it. We have added many more eggs since losing them a few dozen and there are now a few double stacked eggs here and there in the bator. Still I'm pulling more eggs that I think were killed by the heat. I pulled half a dozen or more tonight. After these eggs finish up I will be double checking all calibrations to be sure that I can trust the thermometer.

Without counting tonight I can't say for sure but I would guess we have a total of about 7 dozen eggs in the bator right now. Some probably aren't fertile.

I also want to point out that the huge egg on its side is a chicken egg and that the eggs next to it are air cell up instead of on their sides. Still the size different is incredible. I'm not sure which of my ladies layed it and I can't believe it wasn't bloody.

Thank you all for your help and support as always!

 

[deserteggs22]

Out of the 26 eggs that I started out with, only 15 are alive. 4 aren't fertile (ohiki) and 7 died (1 Marans and 6 Brahma) I am blaming myself for their death because the incubator got unplugged for a night (I still have no idea how). But, what's really bumming me out is that all my shipped Brahma eggs are dead!!!

 

[melnjerm]

e THE FLUFF BUTTS ARE COMING! THE FLUFF BUTTS ARE COMING!!!! e 7 CCL's and a Buff Orpington have hatched and at least 9 more CCL and 1 maran/CCL pips! 3 more haven't shown activity yet.
Thank you all for the well wishes! Hubby is doing much better!

 

[chickenjoe12]

who here is hatching for their own flock and who is hatching to sell

 

[tao chick]

who here is hatching for their own flock and who is hatching to sell

Both. I want to keep 5 or 6 EE/OE pullet offspring from my flock. I've hatched more than enough to accomplish that so I'll sell extras.