Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

So on Friday I put 30 SFH eggs in lockdown. Sunday evening they were starting to pip externally... and then the power went out!
My DH and DS got the generator going really quickly, but then something went wrong with the incubator and the temperature hit 106! Yes - the alarm was going, but nobody could hear it over the generator.

So in the middle of the night I ran out to the barn, climbed over a cage or two and pulled the box with my cheap-o-bators down from an 8' high shelf... in the dark. Took it in and plugged it in... of course by this time the eggs had all been sitting in an OPEN incubator so they wouldn't cook... but the humidity was gone... and now the old incubator had to heat up and so-on...

Candled the eggs and many were already gone. Got all the living eggs into the old bator and stayed up a few more hours trying to make sure the temp was OK, which it wasn't... first got to 96 and stopped, then went up to 102... somehow got it to 100 by 3:00 a.m.

So - 5 chicks hatched by themselves, which is a miracle by itself, but 4 of those eggs were Snöleopard's eggs (I set 5). How lucky was that? Her eggs all seem to result in early-hatching, strong chicks so far. (The 5th one died, sadly.)

I had 6 more eggs that were alive, but completely glued up and none of them were able to hatch... so I assisted all 6, and amazingly, all 6 are doing well! I have 6 chicks in orthopedic shoes right now - lots of curled toes from the adventure.

And now, may I present... cuteness!




Another double-crested "oops" chick... but SO cute!
















And a few more pics from today:






Is it me, or does this snöleopard chick look smug?






(Please don't hit "Quote" on this one - or if you do, delete or shrink the photos so folks don't get scroll-cramp in their mouse hand. LOL! Typing @Bulldogma will suffice.

 

[TxFlowers]

Leigh, I was stressed out just after reading your post! Thank goodness you didn't lose all! ! Can't wait to see pics of these first snoleopard chicks when they are a bit older!

 

[ki4got]

So on Friday I put 30 SFH eggs in lockdown. Sunday evening they were starting to pip externally... and then the power went out!
My DH and DS got the generator going really quickly, but then something went wrong with the incubator and the temperature hit 106! Yes - the alarm was going, but nobody could hear it over the generator.

So in the middle of the night I ran out to the barn, climbed over a cage or two and pulled the box with my cheap-o-bators down from an 8' high shelf... in the dark. Took it in and plugged it in... of course by this time the eggs had all been sitting in an OPEN incubator so they wouldn't cook... but the humidity was gone... and now the old incubator had to heat up and so-on...

Candled the eggs and many were already gone. Got all the living eggs into the old bator and stayed up a few more hours trying to make sure the temp was OK, which it wasn't... first got to 96 and stopped, then went up to 102... somehow got it to 100 by 3:00 a.m.

So - 5 chicks hatched by themselves, which is a miracle by itself, but 4 of those eggs were Snöleopard's eggs (I set 5). How lucky was that? Her eggs all seem to result in early-hatching, strong chicks so far. (The 5th one died, sadly.)

I had 6 more eggs that were alive, but completely glued up and none of them were able to hatch... so I assisted all 6, and amazingly, all 6 are doing well! I have 6 chicks in orthopedic shoes right now - lots of curled toes from the adventure.

And now, may I present... cuteness!

sorry to hear the hatching woes... 3 more hatched today (due today, but I tend to set late at night, so we'll see...) another 20+ to go.

 

[Bulldogma]

Leigh, I was stressed out just after reading your post! Thank goodness you didn't lose all! ! Can't wait to see pics of these first snoleopard chicks when they are a bit older!

I am so happy I didn't lose them all!
I have one older chick that is definitely a snöleopard (pictured above) and another older one who looks like a possibility. Of the 4 that just hatched... well... I just can't tell yet. They all look like they have a lot of red so far, but we'll see.

sorry to hear the hatching woes... 3 more hatched today (due today, but I tend to set late at night, so we'll see...) another 20+ to go.

 

[Bulldogma]

Four of these are Snöleopard's babies. One of them looks like it might have less red, but it's so hard to tell either way right now.

 

[TheGeekySheep]

Hi y'all! I'm receiving my first shipped eggs in the mail tomorrow and I am super excited. Has anyone gotten SFH from rognkat580 on eBay and have pictures of what you ended up with? I'm eager to see what kind of colors I might get. (Here's me literally counting my chickens before they hatch...)

 

[PiTownPeep]

Hi y'all! I'm receiving my first shipped eggs in the mail tomorrow and I am super excited. Has anyone gotten SFH from rognkat580 on eBay and have pictures of what you ended up with? I'm eager to see what kind of colors I might get. (Here's me literally counting my chickens before they hatch...)

Yes - same seller alas only one hatched out due to poor postal service handling (box was smashed on one side but eggs not broken, just scrambled). I posted a pic of my little guy/gal a couple days ago in this thread asking the same question about coloring! This pic is from this morning, he's only 19 days old so I don't think it's very helpful, however someone above commented on how they think he'll feather out. I'd love to get more eggs from these folks if I knew the postal service would treat them better. I'd suggest you let the eggs settle in a carton fat end up for two days at room temp and not turn them right away.

 

[PiTownPeep]

Actually, there's a really good article on hatching out eggs/shipped eggs on BYC. Since you said it was your first shipped eggs https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

 

[TheGeekySheep]

Actually, there's a really good article on hatching out eggs/shipped eggs on BYC. Since you said it was your first shipped eggs https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Thank you so much! Sorry your eggs got scrambled, I hope USPS is nicer to my package. I've been reading that article today and I do plan to let the eggs rest without turning for 24-48 hours if the air cells are detached. Do they have to be at room temp for 24 hours or can they just go into the incubator without turning for the first 24 hours?

 

[Bulldogma]

Thank you so much! Sorry your eggs got scrambled, I hope USPS is nicer to my package. I've been reading that article today and I do plan to let the eggs rest without turning for 24-48 hours if the air cells are detached. Do they have to be at room temp for 24 hours or can they just go into the incubator without turning for the first 24 hours?

They can go directly into the incubator with the turner turned off for the first 24 hours.

Also you need to google "Dry hatch method" and look for articles on this method for difficult to hatch breeds - it works MUCH better for Swedish Flowers than other methods.