Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[SunnySkies]

Well, the Silkie eggs didn't hatch, and I'm not surprised, as the humidity was pretty low. The egg I wondered was a half-SFH hatched, but the chick was well and truly stuck. I woke up early this morning to check, and the shell and membranes were so dried they crumbled in my hand when I picked the egg up to help the chick out. It's doing great...but I'm not sure it's half-SFH. But the comb looks odd for a Cochin. Cute little black thing. I guess I'll see how big it gets as it grows.

I'm sick about the others though. Boo. I should have gone with the notes I made when I set the eggs, not what I calculated last week. I thought they were to come off the turner today when I recalculated. That hen lays odd shaped eggs, which probably doesn't help.

 

[olijo123]

Swedish Flowers are beautiful chickens! I have a rooster and 2 hens I hatched from the incubator! They are friendly and docile birds. I was lucky I even hatched a rooster and two hens. Sometimes you end up with all roosters. But when they start laying I will hatch eggs from them. I will have to post pics of them. They are GORGEOUS birds!!!

 

[ChickNmamma]

Well, the Silkie eggs didn't hatch, and I'm not surprised, as the humidity was pretty low. The egg I wondered was a half-SFH hatched, but the chick was well and truly stuck. I woke up early this morning to check, and the shell and membranes were so dried they crumbled in my hand when I picked the egg up to help the chick out. It's doing great...but I'm not sure it's half-SFH. But the comb looks odd for a Cochin. Cute little black thing. I guess I'll see how big it gets as it grows.

I'm sick about the others though. Boo. I should have gone with the notes I made when I set the eggs, not what I calculated last week. I thought they were to come off the turner today when I recalculated. That hen lays odd shaped eggs, which probably doesn't help.

Sorry about the Silkie eggs, they are the cutest chicks. Is it day 24 yet? I don't give up until then.

I have noticed that the odd shaped eggs don't hatch as well for me either.. usually the long narrow double-pointy ones seem to have the most trouble. Roundy ones do better, unless you put them upside down..

 

[RedRidge]

OK... going CRAZY!!
My SFH eggs are the ones I got when Gunnar died. I really want these chicks to be ok.
They were supposed to hatch on Saturday evening/Sunday morning.
Thursday morning they went into lockdown.
I woke up this morning and not a peep... I had lost all hope, but...
about 11am I checked again and 2 eggs have "tiny" pip holes... noon, a third... now at 2:30 there is a fourth.
BUT... no progress beyond that with any of them.
I have to leave in hr until 10:00 tonight and it's driving me crazy.
Humidity is holding, so I guess there's nothing I can do... but geez... I've never had this happen before and had a hatch drag out like this... And they are SO quiet... I'm used to noise!
Maybe they'll all hatch while I'm gone and be the quietest SFH in history.
Anyway... any advice before I leave for the evening?

 

[ChickNmamma]

Swedish Flowers are beautiful chickens! I have a rooster and 2 hens I hatched from the incubator! They are friendly and docile birds. I was lucky I even hatched a rooster and two hens. Sometimes you end up with all roosters. But when they start laying I will hatch eggs from them. I will have to post pics of them. They are GORGEOUS birds!!!

Hello and Welcome to BYC!

That is a really great hatch, you got a trio with one try. I agree, friendly, docile and beautiful! I love mine, and I hatched 4 more babies from the same person that it got my trio from that were black and white chicks. Some are getting the brown - but I am excited to see what they turn out like. Looks like I got 3 crested and 1 un-crested.. love them!

 

[ChickNmamma]

OK... going CRAZY!!
My SFH eggs are the ones I got when Gunnar died. I really want these chicks to be ok.
They were supposed to hatch on Saturday evening/Sunday morning.
Thursday morning they went into lockdown.
I woke up this morning and not a peep... I had lost all hope, but...
about 11am I checked again and 2 eggs have "tiny" pip holes... noon, a third... now at 2:30 there is a fourth.
BUT... no progress beyond that with any of them.
I have to leave in hr until 10:00 tonight and it's driving me crazy.
Humidity is holding, so I guess there's nothing I can do... but geez... I've never had this happen before and had a hatch drag out like this... And they are SO quiet... I'm used to noise!
Maybe they'll all hatch while I'm gone and be the quietest SFH in history.
Anyway... any advice before I leave for the evening?

Mine that hatched quiet look like they are girls. The loudmouth looks like it is a boy.

Only advice - is if everything looks good - don't let it drive you crazy! I have had a few late hatches because of low temperatures, so here's

for fluffies when you get home.

 

[RedRidge]

It's probably best that I have this bee meeting... otherwise I'd sit and stare at the bator all evening.

 

[HaplessRunner]

SunnySkies,

I had 5 eggs from Gunnar, et al, One was blood ringed by Day 7 and another was a late quitter. Three did hatch. One hatched normally but I had to help the other two get out of the egg. While I could hear them over a 12-hour period, no pips were ever evident. I took the eggs out of the incubator, tapped on the shell, and got peeps in return. Since my hatching experiences have not been good, I removed enough shell that that both chicks could climb out. Both were fully developed but were large in the shell and could not get leverage to get out. All three are doing great now. I do not hesitate to help given all the loss of life at the very end that I have experienced.

By the way this was the driest hatch that I had ever run and the most successful. Good luck!!!

 

[RedRidge]

Quote:
Any idea what your humidity was?

The one time a year or so ago I tried to help a hatch the humidity got so low it was a nightmare... I just couldn't keep the last few moist enough.
For that reason, I am terrified to open the bator.
But... I will if I hit a certain point where it's advisable... will consult Bulldogmama and see what she thinks.
At this point I will do nothing until 10pm... we'll be pushing 12 hrs at that point from first pip so I probably have nothing to loose.
It's really weird that I hear nothing... obviously some of them are trying...

 

[HaplessRunner]

The humidity during this hatch floated between 20-40% and mostly in the range of 25-35%. I tried to jack it up to 50-60% on the hatching days for these SFH. There have been many discussions on the need for drier than normal for SFH on this thread.

I would suggest chatting with ki4got, too. I consulted her when I was feeling really down about my lack of success in hatching. My success rate prior to this hatch had been abysmal! 2/9, 1/8, 3/16, 5/9 (an exception), 0/5, 1/7, & 2/16. The other thing that I did different this time was to have the lock down eggs in an egg carton. As ki4got indicated, it keeps the hatchlings from playing soccer with remaining eggs.

I am no expert! But I hope this helps.