The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[kodster]

At the moment, out of 28 BYM eggs that went into lockdown, 22 have hatched into beautiful. healthy chicks. I am leaving the final six in for another day, just in case they decide to do something, but it's not looking good. I FINALLY got a FBCM egg to hatch out today! Yippee! For some reason, those eggs are giving me a hard time... they develop into beautiful chicks, and then don't hatch!

Oh well, I know that's indicative of the breed... so, will keep trying.

Edited to report it ain't over yet! Woke up to a pipped egg this morning.

 

[JennaLynn122]

How did everyone's Easter go?
This was my youngest son's first.
Our day started with a chick funeral. I had planned on doing this after Easter because we had to be out so early but my oldest son (6) said that we had to do it before we celebrated the holiday! So proud of him! The boys chose the perfect spot under their apple tree!
After that we had a wonderful lunch and an egg hunt with about 10 kids and well over 500 eggs plus scattered bags of candy!
It was a day of mixed emotions but we all had a fairly good day over all.

 

[KuroKitsune]

i got one tiny adorable chick today...the most adorable little black with spots of yellow chick...also has really adorable feathered legs and feet.


little baby is a serama/duccle cross(dad is serama, mom is duccle) and so far is taking after the serama in size and hatching early(due date is tomorrow) but has the feathered legs and feet of the duccle...am completely in love with this tiny cutey.


he/she was hatched under my broody serama hen and she been so great at sitting on the eggs and i hope she is a good mommy too and raises the chick well.


there is another egg that hasn't hatched yet but it was pushed out just a couple days ago so i think if it survived that its gonna be late to hatch

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote:
If they don't have PolyViSol without Iron (name brand), you want a liquid baby vitamin without Iron, whatever similar brand they have.

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote: If you can post pictures, someone may have a better idea.

 

[jbher]

Finally able to get on another laptop to let ya'll know my hatch results!

Originally set 27 shipped eggs. Had a few rolling air cells and some clears. Went into lockdown with 20 eggs. 19 for sure babies moving and 1 marans egg that I thought may be clear but left it anyway just in case.

I got 18 babies hatched!!! The marans WAS clear! So 18/19 fertile eggs hatched. AMAZING if you ask me!! I owe SO SO much to everything that has helped me... but especially Sally Sunshine and Oz over on the Diary thread. I had some bad air cells and with their help and guidance I weighed eggs and managed my humidity and I really feel I owe it to them for my successful hatch.

And super huge thanks to those that helped me the past two nights with all my frantic questions as chicks were hatching left and right. My 2nd chick out had a bleeding naval... I thought I was doomed! You can read all you want about how to prepare - but when you're going through it, it's a whole other thing.

I will be sure to post pics of the fluffballs tomorrow!!

 

[onlygirloutof6]

new game. Find Guinea! No prize just for fun!

 

[Pele]

Yay we had 11 babies hatch on Friday and Saturday! We ended up with 3 (maybe 4) boys, and 4 (maybe 3) Cream Legbar girls. Also, we have 3 mixed babies (we were warned by the breeder that she had a EE who lays in the CL coop occasionally and has the same colored eggs). They came out with fuzzy legs, and she confirmed that the EE lady likes to hang out with her silver laced Brahma. So cute!


The three mixes:



The boys:



One of the girls:

 

[sbarab]

Possibly a final count. 32 eggs went into lockdown on Wed. (12 were clear and I pulled them at that time).
5 hatched chicks. All EE crosses.
2 died after pipping and beginning to zip. I have no idea why they gave up.
Will leave the bator on for another day or so to see if any more hatch.

Disappointing hatch overall.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Will it eat or drink on its own, or is unable because it falls over? You can try the sav a chick, might need to use an eyedropper to feed it. If its wry neck the baby vitamins is the treatment I know of that might work. You can search for other treatments. Also, since it recently hatched it should be able to live off it's yolk, so maybe someone else will see it and have another idea.
Try gentle PT, not a lot of force it there is a lot of resistence. More a little bit at a time to get it to a norml position over as much time as necessary. Sometimes this has worked for me.

Quote:
I meant if they were stacked the warmer air might not have made it to all the ones underneath. I know still airs can have problems with hot and cold spots....
Which is why I wired a computer fan in to my still air LG . . . . and it is now stacked.

To make room for todays hatchlings to run around-- that makes it ok , right?? lol

Just for clarity, a still air is a misnomer. Just a designation to distinguish it from the fan model. Air actually does circulate to some extent as the holes in the base and the holes in the top allow for movement of fresh air. Perhaps nearest those holes are the cooler area . . . just a theory. I move my eggs all over, or rotate the lid.

On top of the eggs is the 102 temp. SO the TOP varies by the size of the eggs, and if on a turner vs laying on the sides. Makes it rather complicated depending on the model and flexibility of how the eggs are set. ( Yah, I've been hatching too much. lol)
I have an ancient Hovobator from the 90s that is still air and wafer thermostat that I am using to hatch in right now. I really want to add a fan (and would love a digital thermostat too), but have no idea where to start with adding them. I have also heard of someone that put the fan in upsidedown and the air was being drawn the wrong direction. It was causing problems with hatching.

Quote: Who said white chickens are easy?

Quote: Been there done that, for NINE months, including diapers. Sure hated the days DH forgot to open a few jars of baby food.

I haven't been able to keep up reading this weekend...so I skipped ahead and and will go back to read everything when I can.
Lost of hatching out there! Congratulations everyone and hope you all had a Blessed and wonderful Easter!
Since last Wednesday (day 19 for all of my shipped eggs) I've hatched 16 chicks...but I have 4 more of my backyard birds eggs still in the incubator on day 20...I set 36 for the HAL, but took 5 more out at lockdown due to blood rings or clears. I am very bummed about the Birchens...I will have to get more and try again. I am thrilled about the Speckled Sussex.
of the chicks I did hatch,
9 are Speckled Sussex (out of 11 viable at lockdown)
1 is Silver Birchen Maran (out of 7 at lockdown but honestly they were so dark, I just couldn't tell. 4 are still in there, hoping that someone is just late.)
1 is Lav or light blue Ameraucana
2 are Black Copper Marans
2 are Wheaten Marans
1 is a dark backyard mix baby

So the rest will be our backyard mixed babies, unless these shipped egg that are on day 22 surprise me.
and 1 just hatched now...a wet silvery colored baby.

So that makes 17.

Anyone with Silver Birchen Marans, pls PM me. I want more eggs.

Pics to follow...
but here is what we did last night... and today we were at church, worked outside in the garden some more, and went to see Heaven is for Real at the theater. What a sweet little boy...God Bless Him!

my favorite eggs in the green speckled one. It started out light blue from my Blue speckled Ameraucana.

THe intense colors are very cheerful. What dye did you use, sorry if you already mentioned that.