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

[mlm Mike]

When do we need to give total for Hal? 4 total count! Still hatching!

Monday is hatch day for those that set late, so you have some time.

My Final count is 18 hatched

2 icelandic
6 Dominique
1 CCL
7 Euskal Oiloa/Basque
2 barn mix

Congratulations! May I ask where you got your Dominque eggs from. It's a breed I've been considering.

My final count is 6 Buff Brahmas.

Thank you enjoy them.

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.

Pretty eggs, I hope you get a few more to hatch.

My final chick hatched at 9:31 pm.

Set 60, 3 of which were fractured. Tried to fix them with liquid bandage, but they died early on.

Pulled 5 clears during 1st and 2nd candlings.

52 went into lockdown.

48 hatched, which if based on SET number of eggs, that gives me 80% hatch rate!! If it's based on eggs set MINUS the clears, my hatch rate is 86%!! AND...if it's based on how many went into lockdown, my hatch rate is 92%!!! Great numbers, I think, for my second incubation ever!

Here's what I hatched:

4 Mille Fleur
4 Serama
8 Silkie or Silkie/Polish cross
2 Maran
1 Lavender Orpington X with ?
1 Lavender Orpington X GL Cochin
1 Cochin mix
2 EE or Lavender Orpington X EE
1 Lavender Orpington X EE
1 Unknown mix
23 Easter Egger X Barred Rock and/or Commercial Black

TOTAL: 48/60

Will post pics tomorrow!!

That's a really nice hatch!

final count!. 7 ameraucanas
2 buff orpingtons
3 OE
3 Delaware/blue andulusians


Others: one culled OE, 1 buff orp died after zip... I believe it drowned, 2 that were too dark to candle that did not hatch.

Congratulations!

My mohawk RIR, the 36 hour pip, is out.

(the only shipped egg to hatch so far)

Yes when do we have to have totals?

I still have eggs that have not hatched. The one earlier today pipped, zipped and out in a couple hours so don't want to give up on the others yet. Going to candled once this little one has dried a bit .

Mohawk RIR! I hope you have more hatch soon. Monday is hatch day for those that set late, so you have some time. We'll announce in thread, in OP, and maybe bribe ronott1 to include in Daily Digest.

My lone chick under the broody has been gaining hatch mates today! When I checked last I could see at least 5, maybe more...!?

That's wonderful. Any chance we'll see pics in the next couple of days? PLEASE

 

[CayuseRanch]

I want to thank everyone for what has been another great Easter Hatch along. I wasn't able to participate as much as I would like because of work stuff, but as always it is such great fun. It has been very neat to see how much this hatch a long has grown in the 3? years I have participated in it. I could not have kept up without Ron's digests, so a big THANK YOU to you Ron. As well to Mike, Happy Chooks and Sally for keeping it going strong. THANK YOU! And of course if I forgot anyone else, Thanks to you too!!!

For the record, this was my largest set count to date of 103, I also had staggered hatches going throughout the week, so I am hoping that accounts for my poor hatching with only 61 hatched. I had several that started to zip and die, I believe they drowned. While my humidity was normal for hatching at about 65%, I had to open the doors a couple times to get out chicks, as well as the air cells didn't go down as much with the staggered hatch. So I live and I learn, thankfully most of the eggs were mine not paid for.


Once again, thanks to everyone who made this event happen. I look forward to it every year!

 

[JDchicks]

Mohawk RIR! I hope you have more hatch soon. Monday is hatch day for those that set late, so you have some time. We'll announce in thread, in OP, and maybe bribe ronott1 to include in Daily Digest.

Awesome...thanks!

 

[Quailsong]

I had an Easter photo shoot with the little ones today. Took over 100 photos, but this one is by far my fav...



Happy Easter, everyone!

(and good night, I'm tuckered from running after little cheepers!)

 

[tnmommy]

My little fluffy butts are driving me crazy...they have been rocking for two days and I just had one pip internally. I hope more will hatch to join the 5 I have in the brooder.

 

[mlm Mike]

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.

I'm sorry about the chick that was lost.
Overall it sounds like you had a pretty good day and are raising wonderful boys.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Broody hen, Anna, 4 year old Icelandic, with her 6 chicks, all Icelandics: Have two other broodies....one with 2 chicks out and still on 6 eggs the nest.....other with no chicks out but still on the eggs.

This hen is beautiful! And of course, baby chicks..always cute!!

Anna is a great mama hen!

I have had 2 pips for over 24 hours and nothing..... should I help? I think they might already be gone

They can be pipped for 12 hours before zipping. They pip, then rest.

All these photos of lots of chicks are making me sad I had a terrible hatch. Out of 28 eggs totaling $130 I only got two Cochin chicks, which are the same color. Blessed to get those two at least. Don't think I will be hatching any more eggs for a long time.

Please keep hatching - try finding local eggs. Shipping is always a gamble, but it's worth it when it goes well.

UGH! No hatches or even peeping! I know lots of people in my area have been having awful hatches lately, but here's still hoping a few make it out.....

Hope you see something soon!

MontanaDolphin, the head/neck appears to be tucked into it's chest, is that what you see in person?

I think I understand what you mean, so yes. It's like she's laying the underside of her beak on her chest.

Maybe what I'm going to call atypical wry neck, usually wry neck you think of the head going up and backwards, thus stargazing. This seems to be down, into it's chest. I did an image search on chicks with wry neck and a few were going down like yours. You don't happen to have any liquid infant vitamins without iron about do you?

If it is wry neck, vitamins are crucial. Vitamin E will help wry neck.

Question. What do you feed your chicks? Do you give them the non, or medicated chick feed..or, do you give them chick feed at all..just start them on what you are already giving the flock. Would be interesting to see what folks do. I hear some say they do not believe in medicated feed for their babies. Broodies, may be different, as they are most always out and about finding the food for their little ones, unless, you have them in a run. Then what do you feed the babies. I've already seen egg added to feed for the broody mom and babies..great idea! I personally do believe in the medicated chick feed.

I feed flockraiser. Good for everyone.

I have two out.... 8 more pipped and 4.... doin notta. One of the ones that is out seems to be...... underdeveloped? its still drying and i don't want to open the incubator to find out. Question.... what defines a "sticky chick"?? I have had one "drying" since 12 noon and its now 9 and not dry or fluffy... help?

It's dry, just looks wet. That's sticky. It will fluff up in a day or two.

When do we need to give total for Hal? 4 total count! Still hatching!

When your hatch is finished.

[COLOR=333333]My mohawk RIR, the 36 hour pip, is out. [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333](the only shipped egg to hatch so far)[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Yes when do we have to have totals?[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]I still have eggs that have not hatched. [COLOR=333333]The one earlier today pipped, zipped and out in a couple hours so don't want to give up on the others yet. [/COLOR]Going to candled once this little one has dried a bit .[/COLOR]

Give the totals when your hatch is done.

 

[onlygirloutof6]

Thank you all will do!

 

[jbenson]

Half dozen pips this morning. Went to brunch with mom and dad and DH. When we got back, had the first chick just out! Weather was finally gorgeous so it was time for spring coop cleaning. Kept me from stalking the incubator anyways. I'm exhausted from sun exposure and scrubbing the floor (thank goodness for a cement floor in the coop) on my hands and knees in my wellies and overalls with a brush and a bucket of soapy water. Nest boxes got a good scrub down too. A couple broodies refused to go outside even though they aren't sitting on anything cause I take the eggs from them each day and were totally ****** that I made the move to scrub things down, but they were totally happy after I refilled the boxes with shavings. Put sand on the floor in the d'Uccle pen after the floor dried. I'm so sick of having to pedicure those birds, hopefully this will solve the issue of keeping that pen and their feet clean. Came inside and had two more chicks out and progress on a few more pips!!

Had to pop the lid quick to add some water cause humidity was 57% and my little mason jar with a sponge in it was nearly out of water! Gonna have to go back and check on those pips again in a little bit. One of them popped a huge chunk of shell off and I was worried about shrink wrap, so I'll keep an eye on the membrane color.

 

[Tubbys Lil Farm]

Two chicks from my broody and so far in the incubator I have 1 out, 7 pipped, and 25 more eggs still waiting. I will give a final count in the morning. I hope everyone had a great Easter.