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

[NikkiCole5]

Oh ya. I forgot about you talking about that. I was picturing a younger chick. I was asking because my oldest roo has a lot balance issues but he was from my first (awful hatch) and hatched out day 24. His is developmental delay, I'm sure, but it wasn't noticeable until he started getting physically big. He'll always be "special needs".

I sure hope it's just from the "head injury" and corrects itself.

Well I'm glad to know that the rooster survived with being special needs, it gives me hope for my girl, she is my beauty I would hate for her to get killed or something, I'll just watch her when she gets put outside with the big girls

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Well I'm glad to know that the rooster survived with being special needs, it gives me hope for my girl, she is my beauty I would hate for her to get killed or something, I'll just watch her when she gets put outside with the big girls

My roo will never be out in the coop with the others. His balance issues keeps him from efficently defending himself. I have another roo that likes to go after him and while Peep will try, he's at a disadvantage. He walks and runs ok, but if he lifts a leg to scratch an itch he'll start falling over. Usually I let him out with two of my other girls so he's getting getting time with others. They get along fairly well. I plan on building him a mini coop/run by the house this summer so he can spend the nice days outside, but more than likely he'll always be our "pet chicken".


This is him. He's always kept the fluffy feathers under his adult feathers, at first I thought it was another result of the delay, but then I started wondering if it could be due to a silkie cross (He has mildly feathered feet as well, but only 4 toes.) He has the ameracauna muff and beard too.

He's quite a mix, but I love him. He is my first ever chicken...lol Sadly I can't use him for breeding, but he'll remain part of the family.

 

[MonTXChickens]

At the end of the Easter hatch along, I was pretty discouraged. I set 14 eggs for the HAL that I got from breeder because I wanted Wheaten Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas. That didn't work out and all of the chicks died either as they pipped or in the shell. I think this was because I got bad directions on how to incubate. The instructions I got said to put in one plug on day 18 (lockdown) and the other on the first pip. THAT WAS BAD ADVICE!!!

So I gathered some eggs from my backyard. They are barnyard mix because I currently have my chickens mixed together. I put them in the incubator on the Tuesday after Easter. I had to know if it was a bad incubator, bad advice, or something else all together. Using free eggs to test it out seemed like a better idea than buying eggs from the breeder again until I could work out the kinks in my system. I used the dry incubation instructions that I used before but this time I just set the plugs aside because I think they were the problem. The only other change I made was the direction of the turner. The previous time, I had the turner positioned front to back in the windows and this time I turned it right to left. This may seem insignificant but it seemed to align with the warming element on the lid of the incubator this way.

I put the eggs in lockdown last night. 8 (3 blue eggs and 5 brown eggs) of the 9 eggs I set developed. This morning, I woke up to one pip and in the hour that followed I got 5 more. 6 of the 8 have pipped so far. They aren't even due to hatch til Tuesday but I am very encouraged. This is more pips with fewer eggs than I got with the purchased eggs.

I am hoping to report some hatches soon! I hope you will hope with me and I will let you all know how it goes...

 

[AmyLynn2374]

At the end of the Easter hatch along, I was pretty discouraged. I set 14 eggs for the HAL that I got from breeder because I wanted Wheaten Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas. That didn't work out and all of the chicks died either as they pipped or in the shell. I think this was because I got bad directions on how to incubate. The instructions I got said to put in one plug on day 18 (lockdown) and the other on the first pip. THAT WAS BAD ADVICE!!!

So I gathered some eggs from my backyard. They are barnyard mix because I currently have my chickens mixed together. I put them in the incubator on the Tuesday after Easter. I had to know if it was a bad incubator, bad advice, or something else all together. Using free eggs to test it out seemed like a better idea than buying eggs from the breeder again until I could work out the kinks in my system. I used the dry incubation instructions that I used before but this time I just set the plugs aside because I think they were the problem. The only other change I made was the direction of the turner. The previous time, I had the turner positioned front to back in the windows and this time I turned it right to left. This may seem insignificant but it seemed to align with the warming element on the lid of the incubator this way.

I put the eggs in lockdown last night. 8 (3 blue eggs and 5 brown eggs) of the 9 eggs I set developed. This morning, I woke up to one pip and in the hour that followed I got 5 more. 6 of the 8 have pipped so far. They aren't even due to hatch til Tuesday but I am very encouraged. This is more pips with fewer eggs than I got with the purchased eggs.

I am hoping to report some hatches soon! I hope you will hope with me and I will let you all know how it goes...

That's awesome. I'm glad to hear that you are seeing some action.

 

[Cynthia12]

My roo will never be out in the coop with the others. His balance issues keeps him from efficently defending himself. I have another roo that likes to go after him and while Peep will try, he's at a disadvantage. He walks and runs ok, but if he lifts a leg to scratch an itch he'll start falling over. Usually I let him out with two of my other girls so he's getting getting time with others. They get along fairly well. I plan on building him a mini coop/run by the house this summer so he can spend the nice days outside, but more than likely he'll always be our "pet chicken".


This is him. He's always kept the fluffy feathers under his adult feathers, at first I thought it was another result of the delay, but then I started wondering if it could be due to a silkie cross (He has mildly feathered feet as well, but only 4 toes.) He has the ameracauna muff and beard too.

He's quite a mix, but I love him. He is my first ever chicken...lol Sadly I can't use him for breeding, but he'll remain part of the family.

He's beautiful, wonder if he has some SF in him? Very pretty boy, and very lucky boy to have you take care of him. Love the colors! And the puffy cheeks.

 

[Cynthia12]

Hey Happy, are you still coming on here? Just wondering who/when do I ask to get my beautiful 5 yr. badge? 5 yrears! I can't believe it's been that long.

 

[Cynthia12]

At the end of the Easter hatch along, I was pretty discouraged. I set 14 eggs for the HAL that I got from breeder because I wanted Wheaten Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas. That didn't work out and all of the chicks died either as they pipped or in the shell. I think this was because I got bad directions on how to incubate. The instructions I got said to put in one plug on day 18 (lockdown) and the other on the first pip. THAT WAS BAD ADVICE!!!

So I gathered some eggs from my backyard. They are barnyard mix because I currently have my chickens mixed together. I put them in the incubator on the Tuesday after Easter. I had to know if it was a bad incubator, bad advice, or something else all together. Using free eggs to test it out seemed like a better idea than buying eggs from the breeder again until I could work out the kinks in my system. I used the dry incubation instructions that I used before but this time I just set the plugs aside because I think they were the problem. The only other change I made was the direction of the turner. The previous time, I had the turner positioned front to back in the windows and this time I turned it right to left. This may seem insignificant but it seemed to align with the warming element on the lid of the incubator this way.

I put the eggs in lockdown last night. 8 (3 blue eggs and 5 brown eggs) of the 9 eggs I set developed. This morning, I woke up to one pip and in the hour that followed I got 5 more. 6 of the 8 have pipped so far. They aren't even due to hatch til Tuesday but I am very encouraged. This is more pips with fewer eggs than I got with the purchased eggs.

I am hoping to report some hatches soon! I hope you will hope with me and I will let you all know how it goes...

Yaay...yes, shipped eggs can be a gamble. Or, did you get yours from a local area. At any rate, shipped eggs..can be hard to hatch. You are lucky to have your own, and, I do not ever ever use the plugs. Oxygen. They need it. Good luck!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

He's beautiful, wonder if he has some SF in him? Very pretty boy, and very lucky boy to have you take care of him. Love the colors! And the puffy cheeks.

The eggs came from my sister's barnyard mix, so there's a lot of possibilities, they average about 100 birds. I've only narrowed down the ee and the silkie in him. He was a plain little yellow chick when hatched...lol My big profile pic on my page with my son and the little yellow chick-that's him...lol

 

[Cynthia12]

Amy, had to go look..I posted on it.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Amy, had to go look..I posted on it.

LOL. Thanks. Yes it is amazing how much they change.