Starting a hatch September 21....hatch along?

[itsren]

Quote:
DH and I were just talking about when we'd try again. Our big girls are 6 months old. Now we have 5-day-old chicks. Depending one what we end up with (pullets/roos) we may incubate again to hatch next April. Hatching was stressful toward the end, but it was a fun process.

 

[Tanichca]

My hatch is over. Got three babies. The other eggs were all rotten, ew. But still, three healthy babies!!

 

[itsren]

My hatch is over. Got three babies. The other eggs were all rotten, ew. But still, three healthy babies!!

Congrats on the three! That's wonderful!

 

[LukeandAli]

I woke up this morning to six empty shells! All six of my eggs (from MY flock!!!!) hatched, but, sadly, one of them drown in the water dish (which really makes me sick because I almost opened the incubator to put a tampon in the water dish "just in case," but, I didn't want to lose humidity).

I've never had one die in the incubator before (I've only had one chick die [wasn't one I'd hatched--we'd gotten it from the farm store....which ended up giving me salmonella

] and it was because it got sat on and smothered by its larger siblings.).

I am very thankful for such a good hatch, though. The babies are beautiful! I really didn't think I'd have such a good rate with this batch because I had to stop turning them a week early when I locked down my hatch from last week. All in all, I have 10 healthy babies in the brooder (last week's chicks actually seem to be scared of this week's chicks....and last week's chicks are more than double the size of the newbies!) and I'm happy with that. None of the five unhatched eggs from last week's hatch decided to do anything, so, I may eggtopsy to see at what stage they died.

Of the 16 I started with for last weeks' hatch, at least 2 were infertile, 10 went into lockdown, and 5 hatched (Do I count the infertile eggs when I'm figuring my hatch rate? I'm assuming I count the ones that didn't make it to lockdown? I'm still pretty new to this.).

Of the 6 from this week's hatch, 100% of them hatched!

DH is much more "chicken friendly" now that he knows we can sell the fertile eggs for a little more than just "eating eggs." I think I'm going to shut down the incubator for the winter (unless, of course, I get an itch....) and focus on getting DH to finish my new coop!

 

[itsren]

I woke up this morning to six empty shells! All six of my eggs (from MY flock!!!!) hatched, but, sadly, one of them drown in the water dish (which really makes me sick because I almost opened the incubator to put a tampon in the water dish "just in case," but, I didn't want to lose humidity).

I've never had one die in the incubator before (I've only had one chick die [wasn't one I'd hatched--we'd gotten it from the farm store....which ended up giving me salmonella

] and it was because it got sat on and smothered by its larger siblings.).

I am very thankful for such a good hatch, though. The babies are beautiful! I really didn't think I'd have such a good rate with this batch because I had to stop turning them a week early when I locked down my hatch from last week. All in all, I have 10 healthy babies in the brooder (last week's chicks actually seem to be scared of this week's chicks....and last week's chicks are more than double the size of the newbies!) and I'm happy with that. None of the five unhatched eggs from last week's hatch decided to do anything, so, I may eggtopsy to see at what stage they died.

Of the 16 I started with for last weeks' hatch, at least 2 were infertile, 10 went into lockdown, and 5 hatched (Do I count the infertile eggs when I'm figuring my hatch rate? I'm assuming I count the ones that didn't make it to lockdown? I'm still pretty new to this.).

Of the 6 from this week's hatch, 100% of them hatched!

DH is much more "chicken friendly" now that he knows we can sell the fertile eggs for a little more than just "eating eggs." I think I'm going to shut down the incubator for the winter (unless, of course, I get an itch....) and focus on getting DH to finish my new coop!

Congratulations! Have fun getting your new coop finished! Can you post pictures of your new little ones so we can see them?

I'm sorry about the chick that drowned.

 

[LukeandAli]

I'll get some pix up as soon as I can. I've got a teething baby, morning sickness, a sinus infection, and a nasty cough right now. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[itsren]

I'll get some pix up as soon as I can. I've got a teething baby, morning sickness, a sinus infection, and a nasty cough right now. Maybe tomorrow.

You have a lot on your plate. Take care of you!

 

[FarmMomof3]

Hey!!
Sorry guys I've been crazy busy.
Anyway, I lost one of my hatched chicks this weekend. it was almost 2 weeks old. the wire lid to my brooder caved in from the mama hen and her chicks sitting on it, my 3 incubated chicks escaped some how and mama hen pecked one of the chicks to death.. it had a broken neck to so i dunno. The other two ended up just find, one was cold to the touch and the other was just scared out of it's mind. I was able to revive the cold one and the two of them are doing well. kinda of heartbreaking.
But our new incubator should be coming soon.. and then next spring we'll start again.

 

[itsren]

FarmMom - what a terrible accident. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

 

[FarmMomof3]

Yeah i was quite sad about it. but as my hubby said "Sometimes that's just how it is"
Out of the 3 (now 2) hatched chicks there is one that is slightly bigger than the others...it has a black spot on it's head (we call it Spot lol real original) it seems to just be bigger... heavier than the others. I think it's a mix breed. I can't really tell because they looked the same colouring wise. so i think i have at least one Dark Star/Danish Leghorn cross from my incubated chicks this time around.
When our incubator comes and we start hatching again I'm going to put one of my new roosters in our "Honeymoon Suite" with one of my Dark Stars. I have NO idea what my new roosters are as we got them from the farm auction a few weeks again but they are neat looking! all Speckled and such. 2 are white with black speckles, 1 is black with white speckles and 2 are black, red and white with speckles. very cool. Mix that with my pretty starburst patterned dark stars and i should get some really neat coloured chicks!

anyways... I should totally post pics of my 2 little Fluffers for you all. If i get a good one today when i go down in a minute to make sure all is well and let my other chickens out... I'll upload it here.

Anyone else dealing with SNOW right now?

I'm covered in it. My girls have pretty much stopped laying right now.. not enough protien i don't think... thier daily bug searching has stopped completely now that there is this white stuff on the ground. I'm heading to the feed store today for lay pellets and extra chicken feed.. I'm considering buying some Mealworms as well... anyone have any luck with those?