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

[GerbilsOnToast]

Hope everyone is sleeping well. I am up with chicks still hatching..from my missing in action eggs.

Congrats on your found eggs! They must be strong little guys if they are hatching!

Ugg...I just went to check on my babies and 1 of the 5 is missing. It's the first one out... The little silver chipmunk... What's worse is my mother in law had Kerr the cat in without saying anything and he had some blood on him... No body or blood to be found anywhere else. I'm literally sick over this. He was the only one that didn't need any help hatching and was walking great and eating and drinking...

So sorry about the chick loss. Life really hurts sometimes....My son was thrilled to finally hatch a Serama after spending lots of money on shipped eggs. The chick was adorable. Last night I was watching the chick thinking how darling he was and he suddenly flipped over backwards and died. That quick! I gave him cpr for about 15 minutes. No sign of life again ever.....I've raised hundreds of birds , but that was probably a first. I've since read that Seramas die like that sometimes. Sudden death, heart attack, whatever. It really shocked me.

On the call duck front....
I'm still up again tonight because another duck is needing some help. The other one is doing pretty good. He is finally just now all the way out of the shell. The last shreds of membrane didn't want to let go of him. His yolk finally absorbed today. He just still has a bit of a messy umbilical. No bleeding though. Thanks for sticking with me last night!

The one I'm working on now had pipped internally a couple days ago. I gave him an air hole earlier this evening and then just a little while ago I decided to free his head. So he's back in the incubator like that for now. At least until tomorrow. I could see that he still had a marble size yolk.

Tonight, I helped a silver pheasant hatch as well. This one was under an inexperienced broody. He was zipped all the way around but then dried out too much. So that was easy!

Sad for you. Glad my kids are all off at school, etc. and not here to share current hatch experience. Thank you for reminding me that being too busy to watch them can be a blessing.

Now... time to go lead Jake up to where I have Penelope, so he knows where she is. Hoping that will stop the recent rash of exploring. He's been wandering ever since I moved her. Worst case scenario, he stays up here and fights with that tom in the truck bumper all day. Best case, he stays home!

 

[chicken pickin]

Update on my ducklings hatching. One finally zipped out of its egg late last night and one hatched this morn.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Please continue to post your hatch numbers!
We need to finalize the contests!​

I have three babies out now. More pips..some are in what seems to be the wrong area..will have to watch those little beaks in there, and make sure they are still moving..and peeping. I can't believe I am getting chicks from these eggs. They were fertile, gathered in a timely manner, sent in a timely manner, or this wouldn't have been happening. I would never have guessed that I would even get three out of them after how long they were out there.

I am still a 3 \40. I had one more turkey but it died before it even made it all the way out....it was very cross beaked and. The top beak was only about half as wide as the bottom, I also had a silky die due to pasty butt it was clean at 10 am dead at 6 pm.. it is kind of sad a have one little poult wandering around my hatcher gaining strength I tied putting it in my my 1 week old bantam but it balance wasn't quite good enough yet. Two eggs 2 go 1 lonely little duck and 1 turkey left to go... good news this poult is the prettiest silver it is a beltville\rio cross same color as my silver partridge silkies.

This Hatch-Along was a lot of fun
​

Although, I was not official part of HAL, however I did have lots of fun, excitement, anxiety, help and you name it during this HAL. It was my first time hatching, I did it in the name of my kids, but I was the one who was having the most fun, they were mostly in school. HaHaHa!

My numbers were not bad for a first time hatch. I put a total of 31 eggs 11 of which were Whole Foods and they never developed. So I am counting them out. All remaining 20 eggs were shipped, 8 of them did not develop, 1 died by Day 14 candling. 2 more were discarded at lock-down for failure to develop further, so 9 went into lock-down. Out of these 9, 7 hatched already, 1 is still in incubator, and 1 I just discarded because it still looked like a day 12-14 egg. The one remaining in incubator looks stuck at Day 17-18, I cannot detect any movement or see the beak but will give it couple of more days since its Day 22 now. Chances are probably less than 5% but I will still give it a chance.

So final count is 7 out of 31 if we count Whole Foods eggs and 7 out of 20 if we only count shipped eggs.

Out of the shipped eggs I had 4/9 hatch from one source and 3/11 from the other. Both came with eggs bubble wrapped & placed in shredded newspaper, however, source 1 was double boxed, plus the eggs were placed vertically with air-cell side up. Source 2 did not have them double boxed plus the eggs were laid on their sides.

I also noticed that from source 2, larger eggs hatched-smaller did not (possibly because of air-cell size). Also strangely enough dirty eggs hatched from this source and clean eggs did not. But again, dirty eggs were the larger of the two.

Here are some pics I would like to share, notes are below the pics






Some of them basking in the sunlight

What a cute picture, congrats!

Gerbils, all I can say is..wow, you are due for something really really good to happen. Good..ya hear? Good stuff.

You have a great attitude!

I AGREE!!! thats awesome

Quote: I have yet to have a serama do that to me, we only have three really small ones that are straight feathered, we did loose one for no apparent reason as an adult this winter, but it was during that major cold weather and she was half molted and I think the heat lamp just wasnt enough for her or she was pushed out or tramped on

Update on my ducklings hatching. One finally zipped out of its egg late last night and one hatched this morn.

ach du gut!!!! you got them!! YAY!!!!

I cant wait to see them fluffy!! go duckies!!

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Final numbers
2 welsh harlequin ducklings (11 eggs set)
9 mixed heritage turkey poults (13 eggs set)

FYI ducks should not be turkey tutors, the poults are following the ducklings into the water dish and take FOREVER to dry.

 

[chicken pickin]

Final numbers
2 welsh harlequin ducklings (11 eggs set)
9 mixed heritage turkey poults (13 eggs set)

FYI ducks should not be turkey tutors, the poults are following the ducklings into the water dish and take FOREVER to dry.

Oh no silly poults lol

Maybe you should put them in separate brooders.

 

[LadyCluck77]

Wow are those ducks adorable! I love seeing all these great photos.

On a side note I was just checking on my brooder and I heard three of the chicks crow! I never would have known what it was had I not seen the video someone posted. They stretched up, and let out long cheeps, it was odd to see that!

Everyone is starting to grow wing feathers now.
On my salmon Faverolles, the ones with some black wing feathers are the boys, correct?

 

[Book]

Our 3 year old daughter just will not accept that our hatchlings are not penguins and really who can blame her? LOL They are all getting penguin names I think. This one is called Mumbles already says our 14 year old!

 

[Sclark73]

Congrats Sheriff and Chicken Pickin, nice photos.

Out of my Wednesday hatch, set 11 and 11 hatched. Happy happy, those were in the Brinsea the whole period. I love the Eco 20 although I hear alot of you have problems with them here and there on BYC. Not sure is it's because mine is older or what the deal is but I add eggs close and 18-21 days later I have chicks. I'm still working on tweaking my 2 home made incubators but I'm still happy with the percentages considering I'm just throwing things together to build them. I set another 48 BYM, 18 Speckled Sussex, 7 BLRW, and 8 EE due to hatch on May 15th. I have another batch due on the 4th, 9 EE, 7 SS and 6 BLRW. I tore apart the Hova-bator and put the guts into one of my homemade incubators along with the turner because the styrofoam on the Hova is all chewed up from what I can tell looks like rats or something, I got it from our BoyScout troop leader as he wasn't using it anymore.

And now for the pictures, I love sharing them hope they aren't annoying.

Updated incubator made from a steak cooler.

Home Made from a pop-up campers cooler fridge, with rigged turner.

And of course the Brinsea

All are packed full, set lastnight.

4 BLRW hatched yesterday.

Chicks from the HAL and hatched this week. BLRW, SS, EE

BLRW Hatched a few weeks ago.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Update on my ducklings hatching. One finally zipped out of its egg late last night and one hatched this morn.

Congrats! What breed are they? They are absolutely adorable! I have 5 more due to hatch on Monday...More stress, lol!

 

[Gardeningmama]

MY GOODNESS! im so darn mad!

I came down to the coop this morning to find the lid lifted up. thankfully all 9 chickens were still in the coop.....but STILL. that meant there was SOMEONE WE DONT KNOW ON OUR PROPERTY MESSING WITH MY BIRDS! my mom claimed they were just looking at them, but that's what a coop is for right? keep the chickens in and the people out! they should've been messing with MY birds in the first place....I don't care who they are! (not to be mean!)



along with this, the open flap of the coop lured in the hawk. he was sitting on a nearby branch. I had let my 3 older birds along with 7 of the young'uns to free range and forage a bit since they cant in their coop. (we don't free range because of the birds we lost to the hawk) ANYWAYS my mom was helping me clean out the big coop when she suddenly heard Cadbury, my head rooster, make the weirdest noise ever....then she saw a large bird swoop down into a low tree. she suddenly cried "HAWK! HAWK" and my lead went cold. I instantly jumped out of the coop, grabbing my older birds and the young roos and hens my sister @chickED told me to grab the hens before the roos....I grabbed as many birds as I could, and picked one up by her tail....she was screaming and I knew that could make the hawk just swoop down and grab her from my arms. I threw all the birds into one coop.
THANKFULLY no birds were harmed and all are safe.

that was how my morning went. took roughly 2 hours to clean both coops.

this just ruffled my feathers!
anyone else have the coop problem happen before?!?!?

Off Topic, but Bantambury...I LOVE your set up! SWEET!!!

Chicken Pickin & Sherif , I lost my quote, but CONGRATS on the win for the natural egg contest! Seriously beautiful pics....I would not have wanted to judge that one for anything!