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

[LadyCluck77]

I have two hatched

A blue polish and one of the Amber x polish has hatched. I missed them both

Only popped out for a couple of hours to do the horses and they hatched while I was out!! Seems to always be the case that I miss the first ones.

I think chicks love to go by "the watched pot never boils" rule, the watched egg won't hatch until you leave the room for a second

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I think chicks love to go by "the watched pot never boils" rule,  the watched egg won't hatch until you leave the room for a second  

This is very true!! They we're waiting for me to leave. I am really trying not to go look again, honest I am trying but it's amazing how many jobs I can find to do in the utility room

 

[chippysmom327]

I just had a Day 19 hatch! This morning it was pipped internally, then pipped externally at around 11 am. I was in the shower a half hour ago and when I got out the pip looked a little bigger. I went to grab a glass of water and when I came back it was half zipped. I swear, it zipped in literally 10 minutes. It went from pipped to completely hatched in 15. It was the fastest hatch I've ever heard of. I was nervous he might still have yolk sac outside but he doesn't. He's a perfectly developed, cute lil' yellow baby.


 

Yay!! Congrats!

I just had a Day 19 hatch! This morning it was pipped internally, then pipped externally at around 11 am. I was in the shower a half hour ago and when I got out the pip looked a little bigger. I went to grab a glass of water and when I came back it was half zipped. I swear, it zipped in literally 10 minutes. It went from pipped to completely hatched in 15. It was the fastest hatch I've ever heard of. I was nervous he might still have yolk sac outside but he doesn't. He's a perfectly developed, cute lil' yellow baby.

Congratulations! Sometimes they move fast and then again they move very slow.

Happy hatching!

Thanks! I had two more out this morning! I think they're blues, they have to dry still.

Congrats to everyone on their babies and pips! There were too many to quote, but I'm so excited for you guys!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I guess I'm going to have to postpone lockdown.

I've had an exhausting day and I can barely keep my eyes open. And I'm not even home.

I'm so afraid I'll drop eggs while moving or candling. I guess I'll unplug the turner, and work on everything else in the morning.

They'll be fine. It's better for you to be rested and not drop any eggs while taking them out of the turner.

I think this thread has officially exploded. I walk away for an afternoon and come back to 200 new posts.....

Yup. It's a challenge to keep up.

So the quail have been popping out like crazy, no problems there. I had two chickies hatch and one more that pipped on the wrong end and didn't make it, but the other 11 chicken eggs that went into lockdown are not showing any sign of pipping. The aircells are large and saddled, but they were attached ok and have been set in cartons and gently turned a few times a day until lockdown. The temps and humidity have been good (as evidenced by a extremely successful quail hatch on shipped eggs). Everyone showed up a bit early so far, but not out of the range early. The eggs that remain candled full of chick, but as you know it is hard to see what is going on there when they get to that point. I really, really, hope they hatch. 1/2 are legbars and the other are something the person called blue brassy back sport old english game bantam (they looked neat and I got them on a whim). I will give them a few more days to see what happens, I have never had shipped eggs before so this is a new experience for me.

On a funny note, the button quail hatched with the one banty chick. Apparently the button quail decided the banty chick must be their mother and keep trying to get under it. The chick just looks perplexed. After a few hours the chick has just given in and they all sleep in little pile of whistling and chirping cuteness. I wish I could get a pic, but as most of you with quail will know every time you approach they jump up and run around like crazy. I will keep trying to get one though since it is one of the cutest things ever.

Give them time. Some chicken breeds are lazy hatchers.

This may be obvious, but watching chicks and hatching eggs is addictive.... This could be bad for me

(Sorry, I'm new, and this is way too much fun... lol)

Oh yes, yes it is.

Our roo is a welsummer, our hens vary. Is the welsummer characteristics dominant? Will we be able to tell pullets vs cockerels at an early age??

Sorry, new to this breeding/hatching experience.

The only way you'll be able to sex at hatch is if you cross him with a barred female. Then you'll get a black sex link. Males will have a white dot on their head, females will have no dot.

If you cross him with a light brahma, you get a buff colombian colored bird, but not sexable at hatch.

I still have nothing going on over here, 61eggs and nothing yet, not a sound.

Me either, but I set on Monday.

Welcome to OUR world...

Make yourself at home, you will probably be here a-WHILE. ;0

OMG, so true! As I admitted last night to someone who asked that I don't even know how many chickens I have right now.

Well, yesterday morning I got up to find my incubator at 103 degrees and 16% humidity. I fiddled with it, got it adjusted and everything was perfect when I went to bed last night. I was just hoping some made it through that temp spike.

This morning I got up to find my incubator at 94.6 degrees and 75% humidity.

It started raining overnight, which increased the humidity in the house and the incubator, and the temperature is much cooler in the house this morning than yesterday.

Will any of my chicks make it at this point? I'll be here waiting patiently. Or not so patiently.

There is still hope.

Of the 14 I set, only 8 made it to lock down. Nothing developed at all in 6.

Yesterday, one pipped but nothing has happened since. Its been about 12 hours since the hole showed up. What now? Why hasn't there been any movement or cheeping or more pecking at the hole? Do they break open a hole and quit?

This is only my second attempt to incubate. I have followed all the directions. The first time I had the humidity too high and they all drown in the eggs. This time, I followed the breeder's advice and tried the dry incubation method. The ambient humidity has been in the 30s in the incubator and now that it is on lockdown I added water to one channel and the humidity is hovering about 70.

Why doesn't anyone tell you that this is hard???

Patience. They need to rest before hatching. Hatching is a very slow process.

Quote: Interesting.

 

[TMNfarm]

My hatch is done! 32 out of 36 eggs made it to lockdown. Out of those 32, 30 hatched alive amd well. 1 zipped and then got stuck and died before I could save it, and one died after lockdown... Never even internally pipped... Everyone else had hatched, so I candled the last egg this morning and there was no movement. I opened it and the chick looked healthy, fully developed, nicely positioned... Just dead. It was alive at lockdown because I marked this egg as having movement when I put it in... I wonder what happened... Anyway, I'm happy with my hatch!! And I have 30 fluffy butts to take care of!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I did the final candle on my welsummer eggs before lockdown. All 20 are viable for hatching, no quitters at all.

 

[PaisyQ]

HA! I finally got the temp back to 99.5!!! And the humidity is about 62%. Now why couldn't I get the dang temp up to that earlier during the whole thing?!!!

I had the same thing going on during incubation. Seemed like I was always trying to adjust the temp a little bit. But since I've been in lockdown, the temp hasn't varied more than 2 tenths of a degree from 99.5. What is up with that?

I have my first pip! It was from an egg that I'd seen wiggling since yesterday. It pipped in the middle of the shell... a lot lower than where the air cell is... I hope it comes out okay

My last hatch I had one pip in the middle of the shell, and it made it out just fine. I don't think you need to worry about yours just yet.

Of the 14 I set, only 8 made it to lock down. Nothing developed at all in 6.

Yesterday, one pipped but nothing has happened since. Its been about 12 hours since the hole showed up. What now? Why hasn't there been any movement or cheeping or more pecking at the hole? Do they break open a hole and quit?

This is only my second attempt to incubate. I have followed all the directions. The first time I had the humidity too high and they all drown in the eggs. This time, I followed the breeder's advice and tried the dry incubation method. The ambient humidity has been in the 30s in the incubator and now that it is on lockdown I added water to one channel and the humidity is hovering about 70.

Why doesn't anyone tell you that this is hard???

Be patient. He's taking a break from the hard work of making that first hole, and building up his strength. If you haven't read it yet, the Hatching 101 article is really good, and will help you understand what is going on in that egg right now.

And I'm not really sure why no one tells us this is so hard. Maybe because everyone around here is already an addict. So either they can't tell anymore that it is so hard, or they really want others to feel their pain?

 

[karenerwin]

Woke up to the sound of chirping! I have 1 that hatched today ( won't be day 20 until 1:30 this afternoon). It was 1 of my EE eggs. Went to bed at 1 am but hadn't seen any pips. Looking forward to more eggs hatching!

 

[Happy Chooks]

 

[bamadude]

@draye
Definate white houdan.
I called the person who sold him to us and asked if there was any possibility of sultan blood. She said no.