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

[Cynthia12]

I'm curious, here and on YouTube people get videos/pictures of their chicks pipped/hatching, with their incubators open. Like lids off and everything. I thought the eggs where supposed to be in lockdown, or is it okay to open incubator on day 21?

I do, to take out hatched chicks. The humidity is higher after a chick hatches anyway. Stays up there once I snatch a chick and put the lid back down. Not everyone likes to take their chicks out that soon, and some do..because they don't like the other eggs being bowled around. This is me personally. A chick snatcher!

 

[Happy Chooks]

My final hatch total.....a big fat zero

I'm sorry.

Anyone know where I can get a white Ameraucana rooster?

I'd look on the breeders directory here for someone near you.
http://www.ameraucana.org/

Quote: I won't tell.

My Goose is Cooked!

Three pips this morning plus a chick =)

Get your hands out of the bator! They need good humidity to hatch.

Quote: Ditto.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I do, to take out hatched chicks. The humidity is higher after a chick hatches anyway. Stays up there once I snatch a chick and put the lid back down. Not everyone likes to take their chicks out that soon, and some do..because they don't like the other eggs being bowled around. This is me personally. A chick snatcher!

Agreed, I do take advantage of really high humidity to grab chicks.

 

[capper2013]

Yes, this IS fascinating. I forget about gators, but yes, turtle - maybe tortoise - gender is supposed to be temperature influenced. Had a number of these reptiles at one time and was extensively well-read on the subject, but never hatched any myself. Soooo, the chicken egg is either male or female at creation, but might there be some set of circumstances that could influence which egg type ripens and is fertilized? Or created in the first place? Time of year, day length, drought, climate change, number of roosters, population? Just makes sense for survival purposes. But, as Ron pointed out, if there were, and we could figure it out, the egg production industry would already have done so. just fascinating. I think some breeds, or maybe some lines of breeds, may be predisposed toward one gender or the other, but this is a very subjective surmise.

I was thinking that given the genders are set in the creation of the female chick, then perhaps the gender bias could be determined by the parents of said chick.
so the manipulation would have to be done before the egg carrier. that would mean a bi-generational jump. in other words you manipulate the breeding pair to create the gender bias chick which then gives birth to the larger number of roosters (seeing as they are more popular). would be an interesting experiment. I guess you would have to also use a rooster that was the product of the same experimental factors else the next generation could revert to random again.
I know I could also be talking a lot of chicken poop too, however there must be some way to predispose one way or the other.
in any case, what is the evolutionary benefit to having so many cockerels? if the mating group is best at 4-1 then why are they not produced at that ratio?
this is not rhetorical, i'd be interested to hear theories if anyone has any?

 

[Chrysolinsbirds]

I'm sorry. I'd look on the breeders directory here for someone near you. http://www.ameraucana.org/ I won't tell.

Get your hands out of the bator! They need good humidity to hatch. Ditto.

My humidity is just fine (have to mist my duck and goose eggs on the shelf above these) 65% steady even with the door wide open lol but I closed it up real quick to keep the temp =)

 

[BlessedFeathers]

My final count is 9 chicks. Three splash bantam cochins and six barnyard mix babies

 

[Cynthia12]

My final count is 9 chicks. Three splash bantam cochins and six barnyard mix babies

Congratulations!

 

[campingshaws]

I have hatched a small number of Heritage SS, and 2 so far have been puny and displayed this kind of dysfunction.  Their hatches were prolonged and difficult. What looked like a limp soon developed into a severe case of PEROSIS.  This is where the hock tendon doesn't stay in its groove and the leg becomes very malpositioned and almost useless.  The hock joint becomes swollen and it becomes difficult to reposition the tendon.  There are solutions and suggestions in some of the BYC forums and threads.  Might have something to do with the type and build of the SS LF, and more than likely may happen with temperature fluctuations/aberrations.  Good Luck

Hey, thanks. I'll look into that. This is my second SS hatch, and it was way better than the first, but still not very good. I think they're more picky than the others I have better luck with. It's good to know it's not just me.

 

[SoManyHats]

I was thinking that given the genders are set in the creation of the female chick, then perhaps the gender bias could be determined by the parents of said chick.
so the manipulation would have to be done before the egg carrier. that would mean a bi-generational jump. in other words you manipulate the breeding pair to create the gender bias chick which then gives birth to the larger number of roosters (seeing as they are more popular). would be an interesting experiment. I guess you would have to also use a rooster that was the product of the same experimental factors else the next generation could revert to random again.
I know I could also be talking a lot of chicken poop too, however there must be some way to predispose one way or the other.
in any case, what is the evolutionary benefit to having so many cockerels? if the mating group is best at 4-1 then why are they not produced at that ratio?
this is not rhetorical, i'd be interested to hear theories if anyone has any?

Is 4:1 the best ratio for overall survival of the species or is that the best for our controlled raising and breeding purposes? It would make sense that more males would be produced in order for them to compete, ensuring only the strongest roosters would be breeding and taking care of the flocks. In the grand evolutionary scene of things, our manipulation of chickens has only a tiny blip of time.

 

[luckylefty]

We had 4 out of 7 eggs hatch. This is better odds with our Brinsea incubator than in the past. I think I am finally getting the settings to a right level. Both times before, we've only had 1 out of 7 hatch! I hear these are the best incubators, but something we were doing just wasn't quite right! All but one of them this time developed... one we threw out early because it was infertile, one pipped but never made it out of its shell, and one was alive for a day and a half after the others hatched, but it never could crack its shell and finally gave up. Our four are very happy and healthy though!