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

[chickenlisa]

Good morning all!

I had my own drama last night.. A huge branch came down and crushed about 15ft of my run fencing.

Thankfully the birds had all turned in for the night and none were injured. I have to give a big shout out to my 14 yr old son Ben, he really stepped up to help me try to get the fence up as much as possible. Thank goodness I am not afraid of and know how to use my Hubby's chainsaw. There was no other way we were going to get the fence moved with that huge branch on it! Any how, here in a pic of what I found when I first got up there last night.

Wow, that's drama for you! Glad your son Ben helped out...my oldest is also Ben (and twice your's age...) but he was always a great helped to me too...still is, in fact, when he comes home to visit.) Good Luck getting everything back up nice and tight. Hope your weather is wonderful today, as it is here in NJ..it's about time!
Have a great weekend!

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Update on my set:

Candled last night, and I am SOOOOO happy to say that there was movement in EVERY SINGLE EGG!!!! If they all make it to hatch, I'll have 57 babies running around!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I had mentioned wonder husband got us something to cheer us up over the singing incubator from hell failure that we all keep thinking is certain. I had wanted to wait till I could get a photo and here it is:



4 little ducklings! We had not planned on taking on chickens and ducks in the first year but life is short and tomorrow isn't promised and such and squeee they are are adorable. We only had them out of the brooder for a little bit. We try to spend some quality time each day with the pets.

I promise the brooder doesn't sing to them and the heating is right! LOL

My 6 year old daughter actually slept right next to the brooder tonight. I can't promise that her and I don't sing to them. My son, the one on the left with the wild hero hair talks to them all the time, like he does the chickens. He is so sweet with them. Mostly though he tells them about minecraft..... not sure why they need to know about it but it bothers him greatly that minecraft does not have ducks, just chickens and I guess they need to know that?

Adorable kids and ducklings!

Ok, I need some shoulders to cry on and maybe some advice as well. My husband bought me a LG incubator from tractor supply and put a computer fan on it to help circulate the air. I have had a real time getting that thing to maintain a regular temp. I had a previous hatch in it but it didn't go all that great. I had finally got the temp maintained but I had to put water in it every day to keep up the humidity. I read on here that the fan should be pointing towards the top or side and I had mine facing down. Duh, that must be my problem right there. My husband flipped it around for me tonight to see if it helped. I watched the hygrometer for a bit and thought everything was fine. I came back probably an hour later and the temp read 108.6! Have I just killed everything in the bator? I'm soooo upset. I would say this is my rookie mistake but I am in fact a rookie. This is my first year using incubators instead of broodies. Stupid stupid stupid. How could I have not seen this coming? I took the top off quickly and moved the eggs into an old incubator I have that works like a charm. The turner was full. It was chicken eggs and goose eggs. I am scared to candle them to see the damage I have done. This is a big chunk of my Easter hatching eggs. Sorry this post is so long but I am so sad. Has this happened to anyone else? I am about ready to throw that stupid incubator in the trash.

They will be fine, the temperature was likely not high too long. It's the internal temperature of the egg that matters. Keep going!

missed the start date owe well

I love going out to collect eggs and get all these colors!

These are a few from yesterday.

Beautiful!

Good morning all!

I had my own drama last night.. A huge branch came down and crushed about 15ft of my run fencing.

Thankfully the birds had all turned in for the night and none were injured. I have to give a big shout out to my 14 yr old son Ben, he really stepped up to help me try to get the fence up as much as possible. Thank goodness I am not afraid of and know how to use my Hubby's chainsaw. There was no other way we were going to get the fence moved with that huge branch on it! Any how, here in a pic of what I found when I first got up there last night.

Glad everyone is okay!

Good morning everyone! SO Excited to candle for day 14 tonight!

Only 7 more days to a chickie explosion over here! First my incubator chicks will hatch, and then a few days later we are getting 100 Cornish meat chicks for the big brooders in the garage, and then two more days and my broody bantam will hatch her chicks!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!

Remember when I was looking for silkie eggs for my broody bantam hen, Nina? Well, I didn't find them, and I couldn't get her eggs in time for the hatch-along, but I WAS able to get 6 Polish eggs from LoveMyChicklets last Thursday, and I just candled them last night and 5 out of the 6 are growing strong!!! AND, she threw in a bonus SILKIE egg from her Partridge Silkie pair, and it has a bouncing little embryo too!!!! I am SO happy!

My LG has been behaving quite well, and I have not worried about it at all since Ronott1 posted that chart of viable temp range for hatching. I think the embryos are definitely heating up more now though, because I have had to tweak the thermostat down a tad yesterday when it kept staying a little higher than I wanted. Day 13 temp spike?

Oh, and other good news! One of our Australorps is getting much more serious about being broody, and I am pretty sure she will be ready to adopt a bunch of the chicks from the incubator next week!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I highly recommend ABM horse bedding instead of shavings for the meatie brooder. It works sooooo much better for all the poop they make! My meaties are now 6 weeks old. (23 of them)

Update on my set:

Candled last night, and I am SOOOOO happy to say that there was movement in EVERY SINGLE EGG!!!! If they all make it to hatch, I'll have 57 babies running around!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

As I was reading back through Last nights Funny stuff, I pulled some of the stuff that made me laugh, for those who dont have time to read that entire thread!
Some fun stuff and great laughs!!

See here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...long-participants-only/3700_100#post_13250396


Also your welcome to make some of those easter eggs online with you family and show us your creations ON THAT THREAD!

 

[ronott1]

Quote The Meaties should be getting close to processing size now. That will be some work!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote
A bit more than half of them are getting really close. Some of the others are still smaller. So we'll probably process in stages. Biggest go first, then grow out the rest some more.

 

[ocap]

Update on my set:

Candled last night, and I am SOOOOO happy to say that there was movement in EVERY SINGLE EGG!!!! If they all make it to hatch, I'll have 57 babies running around!!

if all my 45 hatch I will have a coop full. 56 already this spring in the pen and brooder. the first six are showing their identity, four pullets.

 

[ozexpat]

First my incubator chicks will hatch, and then a few days later we are getting 100 Cornish meat chicks for the big brooders in the garage

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

100 cornish chicks = 300 regular chicks in feed consumption. What goes in also comes out. Thats a lot od chicken poop

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

100 cornish chicks = 300 regular chicks in feed consumption. What goes in also comes out. Thats a lot od chicken poop e

Very much so. I only had 10 and an down to 6 that are 8 weeks old. In actually ready for them to go. They eat a lot and pop even more.

 

[Troll]

Candled and 29/30 look good. One looks like an unfertile.

Trying to be patient. Failing.