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

[JennaLynn122]

Went out today just to take some shots of the critters for the heck of it.

One day I will be able to get that close to my roo! Im determined to stop his nastiness.

 

[Corny Caleb]

One day I will be able to get that close to my roo! Im determined to stop his nastiness.

LOL, just to let you know, I WAS using a 300 millimeter telephoto lens for that shot!

 

[Cynthia12]

Aaaarrrgggghhh!!! Power is out. Got home about 6:30 tonight and no power. No idea how long it's been out...
Bators are covered with blankets/towels but temp was 77 when I got home. I will be so sad if I lose all my eggs...

Oh my goodness! I hope it gets back on sooon! Your eggs..are they a good week out? They will probably do ok since you got to work on keeping them warm. You would be surprised at how well they do with a low temp drop, but how bad they do with just a few degrees higher than they should be. Good luck. Will be watching to see how things look.

 

[SoManyHats]

This hatch...

For no reason I can fathom, all my thermos are showing different temps, even though they all started out *exactly* the same. No clue what caused it, and no clue how to fix it. We're talking 3-4 degrees!

Only 1/3 of my eggs were growing, and now it looks like most of those are early quitters. I'm not tossing anything yet, but when the veins start to turn into smears, it's kind of obvious.

My NYD hatch rate was 82% of eggs set. 88% of fertile/developing eggs. So you can imagine this is hard for me.

 

[SoManyHats]

On top of that, we lost two of our NYD chicks today. Our dog got them. One was my son's favorite Cochin/Silkie roo. And he was the one who discovered its torn open body with guts hanging out. Another chick is missing, and we think the dog got that one too. All around awful day.

 

[JennaLynn122]

LOL, just to let you know, I WAS using a 300 millimeter telephoto lens for that shot!

One day I'll have an awesome camera too lol. But the rooster thing. He used to come at me anytime I was in the yard with him, entered the coop or run or messed with the hens (no matter how far away I was). He even tried to flog me through the door when I checked them for mites. Now we have a bit of understand for each other and our space but sometimes he will still come at me from 50 yds (esspecially if he has seen a hawk or other predator) I keep tolerating it and trying to correct it because hes very good with his girls. He rounds them up when they go too far or there is danger, breeds well, and just overall a good boy with them. He gets better every time I have to pick him up and carry him and he is finally getting used to getting treats when I can get close without him being mean.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

I have 10/10 developing.

And one Ancona is finally fully out of it's shell and cuddling my dh, but here is a pic of it in my hand.

My hand is super tiny like think xxs gloves.

 

[Corny Caleb]

One day I'll have an awesome camera too lol. But the rooster thing. He used to come at me anytime I was in the yard with him, entered the coop or run or messed with the hens (no matter how far away I was). He even tried to flog me through the door when I checked them for mites. Now we have a bit of understand for each other and our space but sometimes he will still come at me from 50 yds (esspecially if he has seen a hawk or other predator) I keep tolerating it and trying to correct it because hes very good with his girls. He rounds them up when they go too far or there is danger, breeds well, and just overall a good boy with them. He gets better every time I have to pick him up and carry him and he is finally getting used to getting treats when I can get close without him being mean.

Yeah, My polish is a good "flock master" and nice to the ladies, but he does, run up my legs with his super sharp spurs and and it draws blood, which is not fun lol. But he is getting better.

 

[ronott1]

This hatch...

For no reason I can fathom, all my thermos are showing different temps, even though they all started out *exactly* the same. No clue what caused it, and no clue how to fix it. We're talking 3-4 degrees!

Only 1/3 of my eggs were growing, and now it looks like most of those are early quitters. I'm not tossing anything yet, but when the veins start to turn into smears, it's kind of obvious.

My NYD hatch rate was 82% of eggs set. 88% of fertile/developing eggs. So you can imagine this is hard for me.

Add up the temps and get an average. If it is within safe incubation(98.5 to 100.5) then do not worry about it, especially if you have not changed the incubator settings from the NYD Hatch.

On top of that, we lost two of our NYD chicks today. Our dog got them. One was my son's favorite Cochin/Silkie roo. And he was the one who discovered its torn open body with guts hanging out. Another chick is missing, and we think the dog got that one too. All around awful day.

That is so sad.

Last week I lost the only pullet--I tried to integrate her with my "nice" pullets and they were not too nice!

 

[K Epp]

It may be a Polish thing. Mine is doing the same thing. He would be hone if I didn't need him to breed. I chopped his spurs off when he caught me by suprise and left me with blood running down my leg and on hardcore antibiotics. Next time it will be his head.