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

[mlm Mike]

It's the last day to enter:


Contest #3: Poultry in the Snow

Go here to enter: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...w-2014-easter-hatch-a-long/0_50#post_12971199

 

[ChickiMomma15]

Mine are ment to hatch on Saturday when do I do lockdown?

 

[JennaLynn122]

Mine are ment to hatch on Saturday when do I do lockdown?

Wednesday

 

[LBKS]

[COLOR=0000FF]It's the last day to enter:[/COLOR]

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[COLOR=800000]Contest #3: Poultry in the Snow[/COLOR]

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Go here to enter: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...w-2014-easter-hatch-a-long/0_50#post_12971199

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We finally have snow but the bitterly cold wind means no one will go out even for scratch! In fairness, the wind is liable to blow them away. BRRR. Not even going to try taking pictures in that!

 

[Pozees]

This week's to do list for Mrs Oz:

Have coop three cleaned out and re-littered for the 3 week old "kano" chicks coming out of the brooder.
Add 10lb hanging feeders to all coops.
Clean out pipe feeders and fill them all with crushed oyster shells.
On 8"x8" squares of plywood, paint the number for each coop to aid communication.
Build the grow out nipa hut and pen
Have the chainsaw guy mill the new logs as well as have him try and get as many 1x4 boards out of the left overs of the big log.

Set quail, chukar, guinea on Wednesday morning.
Set chicken eggs on Saturday 6pm.

What is she going to do on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday?

I am home happy to be home but sad at the outcome of my journey to Colorado the world lost an amazing man and I have a huge hole in my heart. I am happy that I will be here for the easter hatch.

Sorry

Glad you could be there with him, and that you are home safe and sound. We missed you!

Well....All four of my HAL call duck eggs are now dead. There are still 12 more in the incubator but they were not set in time for the HAL.
5 of the Serama eggs were infertile, so they are out.
2 of the shipped Serama eggs that had bad aircells died, so down to 6 of those.
2 of the Silver pheasant eggs that were in an incubator quit early.
The other pheasant and chicken eggs are doing well as far as I know...some are under broodies.
The Goffins cockatoos and African greys were developing well last time I could check. They are under their own mommas.
With the cockatoos, I will pull out the babies shortly after hatching, usually one or two days apart, for hand feeding. Cockatoos will usually only take care of one. With the African Greys, I have to take the father out right before the eggs are ready to hatch because he is a lousy dad and will hurt his babies. So, I then put food into the nest for the mom since he won't be able to feed her. I am able to let her raise her babies about ten days before she cries for relief, then I take them.

To sum it up at this point-

Out of the 29 HAL eggs, we have 16 left.

Do you leave the last chick for the Goffins to feed or handfeed them all? Quite a job. At least the Grey helps out the first 10 days, which are the roughest

When Pheasants hatch do they look just like chicken chicks or can you tell right away they are game birds?

Well tomorrow I finally have time to candle. New job and all. Incubator has been running a little cool but the other option was to run too hot and I didn't have time to fiddle with it anymore. It was Wake, Eat. Haul water, Drink coffee. Bicycle 5 miles to work. Work. Get a ride home from Mom (it is uphill coming back). Turn the Eggs. Throw the hay. Feed the geese, Haul more water from the creek. Go to sleep. Repeat.

Keep fingers crossed that anything is still alive.

Hand on a bible right now I swear I will not rush my incubators just so I can be part of a Hatchalong again. I will just have to enjoy vicariously if I don't have the engineering perfect yet.

Oh my. I got tired just reading what your days consist of! I hope you at least like the new job!

i vote we find another topic than guns...

how about... um? chickens??

I have thirty out so far.

Nice! What breeds are you hatching this time around?

So I have 200 plus eggs going into lock down today haven't yet figured out how I am going to accomplish it lol.I have styro bators I use for hatching but not ususaly this many. I also have another 75 or so going into lockdown over the next few days. I did not get to candle due to my emergency trip out of town until last night and I ended up pulling 5 dozen eggs that were clear or had blood rings I still have a few more to candle but 60 eggs out of 388 isnt too bad curious to see what is going on with the other eggs. I will give everyone a final pull count tonight after I candle the rest of the eggs by the way a dozen of the eggs that were clear were my entire english orpington shipment very sad but the box they came in was very damaged. I am looking forward to this hatch as I have missed the last two.

Sounds like you will have a large hatch! I hope you will post pics once you get them into hatchers so we can see how you decided to accomplish this feat

 

[SilkieSensation]

Quote: I start my rainbow babies at $3 each at hatch. Prices go up with age & definite pullets are higher than definite roos.

Good Morning. Went ahead and candeled all the eggs I had left. Down to 4 out of 41. Think I am going to try again after this hatch and see if I can figure out why I don't have a better hatch rate. I know I had a couple of temp spikes so that did not help. Just wondering if may be my rooster has too many girls (9) because it seemed to be a lot of clears, and they all appear to be from the same 4 hens. Hopefully the 4 left will hatch though.

I try to only have 4-5 hens per roo. You definitely need another roo if you want high fertility rates.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Good Morning. Went ahead and candeled all the eggs I had left. Down to 4 out of 41. Think I am going to try again after this hatch and see if I can figure out why I don't have a better hatch rate. I know I had a couple of temp spikes so that did not help. Just wondering if may be my rooster has too many girls (9) because it seemed to be a lot of clears, and they all appear to be from the same 4 hens. Hopefully the 4 left will hatch though.

My roo has 8 girls, and out of the 28 of those eggs that are in my bator right now, only one was clear. The rest are still kickin'. The eggs I set were all eggs gathered for 4 days, so my roo is definitely mating all the hens. I do not think 9 girls is too many for your roo...the 4 hens in question just may not be sexy enough for him LOL...I do notice that my roo favors certain girls, he has his favorites. May want to get another roo and put the 4 hens with him.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Mine are ment to hatch on Saturday when do I do lockdown?

Wednesday.

Quote: I agree, 1 rooster to 9 hens is not too many. Is he a young or old rooster? He's obviously not getting the job done.

 

[Troll]

Babies EVERYWHERE

 

[SoManyHats]

Babies EVERYWHERE