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

[mamahmendez]

@Chaos18
Monday update:

Ameraucanas: 8 set, 8 to lockdown, 7 hatched
Delaware: 6 set, 5 to lockdown, 5 hatched
Maran: 8 set, 7 to lockdown, 3 hatched
Welsummer: 8 set, 7 lockdown, 3 hatched
Olive Egger (Whitmore Farm): 6 set, 5 lockdown, 3 hatched
Olive Egger (Richmond CL): 13 set, 12 lockdown, 10 hatched

Total 31 chicks. Still have 11 eggs in the bator plus tossed 2 that died while piping. Of the eggs in the bator, all but 1 seem to have chicks in them. Last night was day 21 so if there isn't a pip tonight I will float test them. Still have 5 silkies in the bator at day 19 right now.

Here are some pics. PS...yes, some chicks are green. I made the mistake of trying to use food coloring on their feet (don't ask) and all that succeeded in was coloring the whole lot of them green. Thankfully I came up with a better solution. You know those bands that they use for braces? Perfect size for chicks for the first week or so. (My kid never wears her bands as often as she should so we have lots of those packets)


One of my poor "green" chicks. And his band on his leg to help tell which are what breeds.


All my babies staying toasty under the heating pad.


A few peepers out and about.

I think your green chicks are still super cute!!!
And GREAT idea on the bands.

 

[weegarden]

7 of 8 Plymouth rock externally pipped, and one hatched. Only 1 of 7 silkies externally pipped. I find it interesting that the silkies always seem to take longer than the bigger Plymouth rocks. I would think the smaller eggs would hatch first.

 

[Madonna m]

Got my incubator all scrubbed out and now have my six geese eggs set.. here goes another learning experience. Hopefully I will have a hatch.....

 

[Chaos18]

@Chaos18
Monday update:

Ameraucanas: 8 set, 8 to lockdown, 7 hatched
Delaware: 6 set, 5 to lockdown, 5 hatched
Maran: 8 set, 7 to lockdown, 3 hatched
Welsummer: 8 set, 7 lockdown, 3 hatched
Olive Egger (Whitmore Farm): 6 set, 5 lockdown, 3 hatched
Olive Egger (Richmond CL): 13 set, 12 lockdown, 10 hatched

Total 31 chicks. Still have 11 eggs in the bator plus tossed 2 that died while piping. Of the eggs in the bator, all but 1 seem to have chicks in them. Last night was day 21 so if there isn't a pip tonight I will float test them. Still have 5 silkies in the bator at day 19 right now.

Here are some pics. PS...yes, some chicks are green. I made the mistake of trying to use food coloring on their feet (don't ask) and all that succeeded in was coloring the whole lot of them green. Thankfully I came up with a better solution. You know those bands that they use for braces? Perfect size for chicks for the first week or so. (My kid never wears her bands as often as she should so we have lots of those packets)


One of my poor "green" chicks. And his band on his leg to help tell which are what breeds.


All my babies staying toasty under the heating pad.


A few peepers out and about.

Congrats on the hatchlings. I usually use my daughters hair bands. They are the really little ones for youngsters and work great for chicks.

 

[Chaos18]

Got my incubator all scrubbed out and now have my six geese eggs set.. here goes another learning experience. Hopefully I will have a hatch.....

 

[snowy Mtns]

I feel the need to give a longer answer than Mike or the other person that answered you.
Basically, I'm going to add that the shells will make the incubator stink. When you feel the need to give up, you need to be sure there is no one else alive. Some people have had chicks hatch as late as 28 days. I am certainly got going to tell you that is normal!
Around today 23, remove each egg individually. If it moves put it back. Tap on it, and see if it makes noise.
The next test is to candle. Last, you can put it in 99.5° water. If it rolls, it's alive.

Great, thanks for the testing info, I was just going to look for that. I have been removing chicks, eggs and funk as soon as the chicks quit sticking(and put them in the "nursery" until they are moving around pretty good.

I think it's the water that stinks from the yellow ooze that came out with a chick. I keep waiting for no pips so I can put the eggs in a warm towel and dump it out. But there is always at least one. A good problem.

15/29 hatched, more pips and rockers.

 

[campingshaws]

 

Consistent temp and humidity?

Temp was perfect except the one day we lost power, maybe for 3 hours, don't know what it got down to it was back on before I got home


Humidity was 30-40% until lockdown when I brought it up to 65-70 and it seemed to stay pretty consistent

 The DIS could be from the power outage.

[@=/u/65471/mlm-Mike]@mlm Mike[/@] I redid the math and that nanny should be due May 30-June 29. The lady said she was bred in January, but couldn't remember the date. But she had only calculated 120 days gestation.


So I have a whole month to learn everything there is to know.

  That helps, but now you have all that time for the excitement to build.  e       
  Looking so forward to your kids. 
Wonder why she would calculate short of full gestation.   

She's fairly new to goats, and I was talking to her the day after her daughter's wedding. I'm sure she was just confused. I remember her saying "120 days, or 150?" So she must have been thinking or something else and picked wrong.

It doesn't work out as well for the camp programming (we wanted bottle babies for the campers) but I think it will serve us better in the long run as we learn from her and her kids. Since we're new to goats anyway, I'm glad we're bring forced to ease into it more.

Also, we have a new rifle range and even though the coop and goats aren't new to me, they're still new to the camp and haven't seen a summer yet. So the kids won't know they're missing anything.

 

[chicken hawk 33]

It hatched out the fun and funky.it's feathers point forward and up around its neck.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

So, I need to post totals for the first set. 13 hatched one died just after hatch and one died mid zip. (The heat of the day is to blame.) I lost the rest of the hatch because I couldn't get the hatcher temp down. It was just so hot here that the hatcher was cooking at 104 all afternoon with the lid off anf the A.C. blowing at about 70*F. But, there are 11 happy chicks in the brooder.

The second set (18 Dominique eggs) 8 in lockdown. Two of the 8 are highly suspect. Not much hope for those two. 6 looked good to hatch. Well, three have hatched so far and one more is pipped!!

 

[Bantambird]

I was supposed to hatch tomorrow and I woke up to one little Marans in the hatcher! And one Legbar pip! Should be interesting to see what happens from here, I know I set them on a Tuesday evening...