The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[pingu1]

I strongly don't recommend hatching the chick out yourself as it is a natural thing if they hatch they hatch if they don't they don't you are more likely to lose a chick doing that
so sorry for your loss I know how it feels as the same happened to me

 

[crzyckldy]

Well my grand total is 2!! Day 14 the incubator was accidentally turned off for at least 24 hours & ruined most of the eggs :-(. But I have 2 beautiful new fuzzy butt D'uccles today!!

 

[pingu1]

that's really lucky although I have heard that a hen can leave the eggs for 24 hours good for you and well done on the hatch

 

[campingshaws]

OK. CHICKS.

-deep breath-

I hatched 33.

29 in the bator.
4 under the broody.

Mishaps: broody edition.
Accidentally suffocated a zipper (I assume).
Squished a chick, also presumed accident.

Mishaps: bator edition.
3 pipped upside down; they were in cartons and I didn't notice til candling.
1 got glued in. We worked for awhile but it did not survive the night.
10 were late quitters.
1 was an early quitter.
1 clear.

Chicks:
14 SS, 8 hatched.
14 EE, 10 hatched.
8 OE, 3 hatched.
13 SS mix, 12 hatched.

 

[ellymayRans]

Its oozing froth, has not exploded yet. I better bring myself up to picking it up and throwing out.

Turn the Baggie inside out with you hand in it so you're picking it up with the bag, then swiftly pull the Baggie right side and seal that sucker!! Never had one...don't want one!! Sorry you're dealing with it though!

 

[ellymayRans]

Need some suggestions.  My 4th chick was not doing well at hatching, had zipped but seemed stuck so after a day of keeping him under a damp towel and him not making any more progress I helped him out.  Wasn't sure how he would do but I just checked on him after being gone for a couple hours he is actually moving around.  He does seem to still have the umbilical cord (I assume that's what it is?) attached and still has some membrane stuck to him in spots.  Would it be ok to clean him gently in a warm bath or just use a damp cloth, should I do it now or wait a bit longer,  and what should I do about the cord?

I was beginning to think he would be my last but I candled the other three eggs and found one had pipped so hopefully we'll get one more.

Clean him up a couple days from now ever so slightly. You never want to bathe chicks or dip them in water. They get too chilled. It might not look pretty but it will be fine. Q-tip dampened helps with spots to avoid others picking but really shouldn't if under red light.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

I have some Chick pictures to share!

Sadly, the fifth little Wheaten with the prolapsed yolk did not survive...

but his 4 brothers & sisters are thriving and adorable!!!

My 4 Wheaten Ameraucana chicks!


I divided all the chicks between the two broody hens who volunteered - Wendy, a Buff Orpington, and Olivia, a Barred/Blue Rock. Just FYI, both of these new mothers were hatched in LAST year's Easter Hatch -Along, in fact Olivia was the very first chick to hatch last year! The adoption process went fairly smoothly, with a slight glitch this morning when it was discovered that Wendy was rather predjudiced towards ONLY Blonde chicks, and so the blue & black Marans chicks that I had given her were switched over to Olivia, who turned out to have a huge motherly heart that accepts chicks of all colors and breeds! Wendy was given a few golden Easter Egger chicks as replacements, and aside from a bit of suspicion at the random dark spots on their otherwise blonde heads, she seems to be tolerating them so far.

Here is Wendy with her Golden brood...



And the big-hearted Olivia with her multi-colored hatchlings...


They are each in a separate broody pen coop with a small enclosed coop on one end and a hardware cloth covered run on the other.

Thank you again to all the moderators, and others who made this hatch along so fun to be a part of!

Happy hatching everyone!!!

 

[Chrysolinsbirds]

Wow! That would be awesome! Thank you so much. What kind of a chicken lays blue eggs?

Yea what do you have that lays blue? I want some

 

[Happy Chooks]

Joyful - How lucky of you to have broodies to raise the chicks for you! And such sweet mothers they are! I've never had a broody partial to a certain color of chicks, but I've heard of it happening.




And stick around, we're not done yet! We still have active contests!

 

[coop410silkies]

I'm really hoping that at least the 12 I bought are all hens and that the chicks I hatched don't have an over 70% rooster rate so that I'm not over run by roosters! I really do like the rooster I have though he's been such a nice guy... Do you have a lot of roosters?

Yes, I have a LOT of roosters, and they are all over the place right now. Of the several RIR pullets I bought from the feed store, one late bloomed into a very nice Roo, who is still with his flock of 20 today (minus a few neck feathers this Spring). Of the 3 Speckled Sussex pullet chicks I purchased from a hatchery, 1 developed a crow, along with sickle and hackle feathers and a nasty disposition. He begat one daughter and 2 equally nasty sons. Of the 5 straight run SS chicks I ordered from a popular breeder on BYC, I received only 3, and they were all males (still are). I have one SS cock that came with 5 hens, and I have three of his sons, hatched last year. There are 5 others I haven't given away yet. I did this HAL mainly to get more SS hens, and out of the 30+ chicks I've hatched this year, I maybe got 3 to 5 SS pullet chicks I can evaluate for breeding this year. Bottom Line: I must surely like roos, cuz, yeah, I got enough of them.