The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

[Hurley]

I love the sharing with young kids. My 8yr old daughter just did a stage by stage video diary of our last hatch. We took pictures, video and gave information for different stages. She will share with her 3rd grade class. I'll look around here for some eggs. Don't forget even many bugs lay eggs. Where are you at? I'll see what I can find

Do you mind if I steal these pictures for my daughters project? This is awesome. Where did you find it!!!???

I'm in Wisconsin. Yeah (on the bugs), I had some great spider photos, etc., but I had to stop somewhere, so I stuck with vertebrates. It's already going to be a lot for a first grade class.
You're welcome to use the pictures. I made them from the my powerpoint presentation. I'll probably tweek it some more before I give it, but the gist is there.

 

[Hurley]

Here is what I have for week 2 - keep in mind, this is for a first grade class, so there is a lot of simplicifation involved here to help them understand. These presentations are also centered around the mini brinsea incubator and ecoglow/brooding set up that I have for the class.

 

[GitaBooks]

Next time you see one grab your biggest pot and metal ladle and come out the door screaming and banging the pot. Odds are it will startle the heck out of him and he will run to the woods. Then you need to get yourself a battery and hot wire fence to keep him out.

When a hawk got one of my chickens I yelled at it angrily, named it Stew and said if it came back I would eat it. Needless to say, that hawk has not gotten any more chickens.

I seem to have lost a quote. I'm setting White Chantecler over various breeds, FBCM if I can get my hen to lay in her nest, whatever my friend get's from her boyfriend, and, wait for it.... SILKIES!!!! I got my first Silkie egg today!

Silkies! Yay!

Poor hen who laid that though! Ouch.

I'm in! It will be my first time trying to hatch so we'll see if it works!

Welcome! Best of luck on your first hatch!

My shipped quail eggs came in!

10 total, a couple of them had hairline cracks so I put glue on those. None had rolling air cells though. Set them in my new R-com bator along with a couple chicken eggs

Yay! I sure hope they hatch.

Also planning on setting the 3rd as long as my eggs come in on the second like they're supposed to. 6 MPC eggs for education eggs,
Plus eggs from our own flock- silver laced wyandottes, and slw/EE mixes, possibly a couple other mixes too, and maybe some of our silkie eggs too.
Wow. That's not the silkie egg is it?

I hope your eggs arrive on time. Best of luck!

Lock down

Mine are in lockdown too! I'm so impatient! AAHHH. Two more day.... two more days.... I can wait two more days, right?

I won an aution also for 17+ with 4 different breeds including Neiders. That's why i asked, I wondered if we were competing! Lol glad we both won... Yay for us. I have 3 Neider babies and they are the sweetest i have ever had.

Congrats!

I set my peafowl eggs yesterday... Doubt they're fertile, but why not set them?

-Kathy

I hope you get some chicks out of it! Are peafowl chicks just called peachicks?

I got them in this morning! Unpacked and there were 5 Neider eggs but one was crushed. The other eggs all around were just fine so I am betting it already had a hairline crack. But I have 6 Oruste (sp) and 8 Twentse. I am going to have to look up how to spell and pronounce these guys. They have been resting since 10 this morning. Do you think I could put them in at 10 tonight or should I give it to the morning?

Cool breeds! I sure hope they all hatch well and we can see some pictures!

Really wanting to join the Easter Hatch-a-long this year if I can get some eggs.

I haven't gotten my chickens separated yet so no purebred eggs from my own hens for a couple weeks yet. May hatch out some cross breeds just for fun, if I don't end up getting any purebred eggs in time.

Mixes are just as fun as pure-breds because you never know what they'll look or act like. I actually got some really cool silkie mixes this way, including a tiny silkied OEGB mix named Tad. She is half the size of my regular silkies, so it is really cute.

I just learned an interesting thing recently about bantams by the way. Bantams are caused by a dwarfisim gene. I really didn't know that, I thought they were just small because they were small, like a dog being bred down to size. What's a silkie if its not a bantam and not a standard?

These eggs should hatch on March 8-10. I may still be able to set button quail for HAL.

I sure hope so. Tiny quail chicks are so adorable.

So if the old wives tale is true, about the rounded eggs being girls, then i should have 3 'for sure' girls here. Whatcha think ?

Whatever the chicks turn out as, the eggs are a LOVELY color.

EMU Egg update!

I weighed the eggs last week and they have all lost about 15% of their original weight. I had to use a different scale though as I think the first one I used was rounding the weights up to the nearest 50grams which is throwing everything off. I was able to calculate what the original weight of the eggs most likely was using a formula I found online.

In any case, the eggs are rolling along nicely. Sure wish I could candle them, but I'm fairly certain I have viable eggs. When I turn them now I notice that they try to rotate back to the position they were previously in. Based on experience with my chicken eggs, I believe this is because the growing embryo inside weights the egg as it settles which causes it to want to stay in the same position. So, I have to prop them up a little bit to keep them from rolling back. I take this as a good sign that all is well and I have baby Emus in all of my eggs! (just a theory..

lol)

My younger son came in with some duck eggs a few days ago (we have three Rouen ducks, 1 drake and 2 hens) He asked if we could try and incubate the eggs so they are now in our spare incubator! Timing wise they won't hatch on Easter, but what the heck!

We had our chicken coop decimated the day after New Years. A dog got into the coop and gorged on our chickens. We lost all but two. Luckily the dog left the ducks alone and our beautiful Royal Palm turkey flew away to safety. It was a hard blow and the kids were super upset. So when my son asked to hatch a couple duck eggs, how could I say no??

On a sorta semi-sweet note, the night the dog killed our chickens I found one lone egg in the nesting boxes. I heated up the incubator and hatched the little sweetie. We are calling her "Legacy" in remembrance of our lost chickens. Not sure who her parents are, but she looks like our old EE roo and maybe the golden laced hen we had.
She's darn cute no matter what!

So that is the EMU egg update and a little more....

Yay for emu!!!

I'm sorry about the chickens you lost. Dogs are some of the worst predators out there. I'm glad little Legacy hatched. A little gift of a chick.

 

[Hurley]

Here is the third week presentation, right before their eggs are due to hatch.

I plan to do some hands on demonstrations during one of the last two weeks on candling, so I'll be adding in some candling slides. Probably the third week, as then I could set a few each week in preparation to be able to show them eggs at (for instance) 0, 7, and 14 days all at the same time so they can appreciate the difference. Either that, or I'll try to make a video showing the different stages and hopefully capturing movement in the eggs for them.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Happy chooks who do you think might be getting broody?

Me? No way, 2 children are enough for me. But hopefully I'll get a chicken broody.

Request for help from my hatchalong peeps:

Anyone locally available (or willing to mail) that would give me some "other than chicken" sized eggs for an egg presentation?
I am setting up presentations for my son's first grade class to give weekly through 3 weeks of incubation and hatching eggs in the classroom. The first week of March I will start the eggs for them and give the first presentation to them discussing eggs, in general. I plan to work in the activity for them about diversity, giving them multicolored chicken eggs to each crack open, with the theme that "though we're different on the outside, we're all the same on the inside". We'll talk about different animals that lay eggs and what an egg is. I thought it might be cool to be able to show them various sized eggs from different birds.

Anyone willing to share a goose egg or emu egg or any other "other than chicken" sized egg? Blown out is totally fine, infertile, whatever, just looking to be able to given them something to experience the different eggs out there. Would really love an emu egg and / or ostrich egg, the kids would be so impressed.

Thanks, guys.

Another experiment you can do, my son's 7th grade class did it for science and he thought it was so cool. You soak an egg in vinegar and it dissolves the shell. Then you just have the membrane and the egg inside. (soft shelled egg) Might be a bit much for 1st graders, but thought I'd share it.

 

[yellowbarn]

Barred Plymouth cross

 

[GitaBooks]

Boy I know what you mean about those Speckled Sussex! Mine was a sweetheart too..and a talker! And yes, a begger!

Yeah. My sussex is named Captain and she is really friendly, likes to jump on my lap. However, Yosemite, my white giant, is the one who will jump on my head whenever she wants to. Of course it had to be the Giant that was the friendliest. Why couldn't if have been a bantam?

Quote:

Hi I'd like to join! I'll be setting my own eggs on March 5th, from a variety of hens paired up with CL & EEs roos. I'll update with pic/quantity on set date. Also I'm using an old incubator that I've had great success dry hatching in, put the eggs in, do nothing, 21 days later out pop the chicks

EE roosters are awesome. And I love the chicks they have, with those beards and green legs.

No duck eggs left

lost the last egg maybe 6 days ago or so, but thought it was alive cause I saw blood vessels still.

Got an LG with fan if anyone wants it, you pay shipping. Also got a spare fan for any still air incubators, again I ain't paying the shipping but anyone's welcome to it.

New hovabator is hooked up and holds steady temps much better already. Calibrated my thermometers this evening so I am ready to go! Hopefully the new incubator will help a lot

Sorry about the duck eggs. I hope the new incubator makes things go better.

Think I'm going to join in, as long as I can find some eggs! Been crazy temperature swings here in Central New York. I know I can get some Wheaton Ameraucanas locally, but no success in finding non-hatchery, utility bred Wyandottes that I really want.

Yeah, finding non-hatchy birds isn't easy. Maybe you could find some on here?

Well today was a good day. Candled and put my test hatch in lock down. I have 13 of 13 going into lock down. Hoping it goes good and I have new chicks by the end of the weekend. They are from my partridge rock hens with a roo that I'm not sure what he is. Also had the lone survivor of a fox attack from a batch of the same trio from about 6 months ago that started laying this week. It was a good day. The trio was actually part of my hatch from the 2014 easter hatch along.

I'm glad things are going well. Things are doing well here too but are a little chaotic with three broodies and an incubator full of eggs as well as the need to get rid of about 10 chickens in a couple days and the fact things are warming up so chickens will try to go on the road again.... yeah, the chaos of chickens.

Ugh finally caught up.. Today was stressful.. I woke up at 4:30 because my door in my room blew open. So I decided to check on Twizzler, so I felt and I could only find 1 so I looked everywhere under her, and I lifted up the flap that kept getting straw under it so it was lifting it up. Well guess what was under... An egg on day 16... It was cold... So I put it back under, and tried to sleep, but once it got light out I checked her and made sure they were BOTH under her, and then I proceeded to cut out the flap so it wouldn't happen again ( thinking that it was dead) so I eventually decided to candle it around 9 this morning to check, and sure enough IT WAS ALIVE!!! I was so happy, and I know God was watching us, because if that door didn't blow open I wouldn't have woken up until later, and that chick would be dead... Then we had to make the goat pen into a pig pen to move the big ones over... I had to stand out there so that the chickens wouldn't fly in, but they didn't, but tomorrow we have to put a door in which shouldn't take long. So how was everyone else's day?

I'm so glad that you found it! My broody hen let her eggs go cold so many times I took them in and put them in the incubator and placed some replacements under her (I switch them out daily so they won't develop). I'll return her eggs at hatching so she can care for her chicks. It wasn't really her fault, the big hens keep chasing her off to lay in the box and she goes out and foragers until they are done. The last egg was like ice when I brought it in, so I named it Snart (Captain Cold) and I'm really hoping it will hatch. It would be fun to have a Snart.

4 so far. Moved them into temp housing. Gave them a stuffy to cuddle with.

Don't know where the '700' came from. Tried to edit it out and can't. Oh well, i have 4 healthy , happy, 1 day early babies. Hoping the other 2 hatch tomorrow along with the 3 rescues. Out of 6 eggs only the 2 blue ones are left. hmm

I was thinking "700!"

You must have a lot of space! Lol.

They're really cute. : )

One of my girls is a Sumatra so I will be setting some of her eggs, the babies will only be 1/2 Sumatra. I have 3 different roosters in with my girls.

Sumatras are so beautiful. You'll get an adorable chick from her.

My coops are still crowded. I moved chicks,hens and roos around. I really need more space. One of my older hen keep pecking the juveniles so I put her with a pair of my mixed. The coop was a 8x6 with nesting boxes and place to hide if needed. All was great. The next morning when I went to feed is couldn't find my hen. She was hiding all hurt. Apparently she was attacked by the other hen.
Lily's head is now swollen and she can't open her eyes. I feed her 3 or 4 times a day. I put iodine on her head. This happened two days ago. Today she finally stand and open one eye. I think she's going to make it.
My question is Lili hatch 2 months ago and chick, it is a tiny one that I keep with the newly hatch. ( I think it's a female) she is awesome with the babies. Warms them teaches them to eat and all, but when I put my hands in the brooder to change feed or water she attacks me. It's so bad that she pecks my hand that she stays hanging when I put back.
Should I keep he? After what happened to Lili I'm not sure what to do with her.

I'm glad Lily is okay. She's lucky to have someone giving her suck good care.

As for the aggressive chick, I've found young roosters to have a "phase" where they just love to attack any hand reaching for them, whether it had food in it or not. Your girl might just be a boy, though if Lily was aggressive when young perhaps her daughter could be as well. I hope everything works out.

 

[GitaBooks]

I hadn't thought about the polish matching! It's total coincidence, I put the polish on about the 8th, way before the hatch. That's kinda cool though.


I've never seen or heard of Vorwerks. But I didn't realize they were rare. Although now that you mention it, their eggs were one of the pricier eggs...lol!
After reading her description of their temperament, I thought they sounded like they would fit in nicely with my flock. It's nice to hear that you are familiar with them AND love them! Helps ease my mind...lol.
I love the eggs...SO easy to candle! And I like that they've been laying Jan/Feb. Between the Vorworks and my EE's...I should have steady eggs all fall/winter.

"IF" I'm successful at hatching some of the eggs, I want to see how the different breeds do against each other. I thought it would be the quickest way to make decisions on which breeds to bring into the flock to outcross.

Awesome!

Vorwerks are a breed in the UK that resembles the Golden Lakenvelder in America, though from what I hear they are not the same breed as the Lakenvelder. They are GORGEOUS and I want one, I love the gold and black mixing together.

Feeding frenzy
Worse than sharks!

Yikes! Looks like my chickens except with a whole lot more roosters in there!

So this hatch so far is going MUCH better than the last but have any of you ever had a pip with blood on the membrane? The chick is moving and chirping and it is not like the blood ran down the egg, I was even wondering at first if what I saw were just dark feathers, but alas it is a small amount of blood just not sure if I should worry. This chick piped about 10 hours ago so she has time still, just hoping it is just a normal thing

I think the baby is fine I just went in to look some more and the pip has gotten bigger and I could hear the chick squeeking and even saw a beak poke out LOL little cuties, now the interesting part is gonna be trying to figure out what breed they are lol the eggs are from my mixed breed of layer hens, until about 2 weeks ago I had 2 roo's 1 RIR and 1 easter egger. This first chick is all yellow with a dark stripe that goes from his head all the way down the back. This could be interesting LOL

She probably just nicked a vein so she should be fine. I've seen eggs bleed really bad (when assisted) and the chicks still survive, so a tiny bit of blood should be fine. Figuring out the breed is so much fun. : )

Good Morning everyone. Skipped hundreds of posts but I am here now!
Valentine's hatch went well, now I'm trying to decide what to set for the HAL. Hard to narrow it down!

Happy Friday

It is so hard! What are your choices?

I just got my first 2 Wyandottes yesterday. Found them at the local feed store and one had a very unusual color compared to the other chicks in the group. I had to snatch her up fast. Where all the others were really dark she was a dusty brown. The lady was even confused as to her color but I looked her over, checked that she was a she

and got her and a second pullet of normal color.
I need some info on them. I grabbed because of the crazy color but I know next to nothing about their personalities. Calm? Hyper? Good with kids? Ect.
Here are pictures.


See that color difference. All the chicks were pushing around the feeder when the little brown one came out of no where and jumped up on the feeder and looked at me. I was hooked

So cute! Wyandottes are awesome, and all the colors they come in are so much fun. Having a surprise color is even more fun.

I might join this time with goose eggs possibly three. If she lays them in time.

Yay, we're going to get some goslings for the Hatch-a-long! I sure hope she starts laying.

Peep!Peep! We're in.

Welcome!

We candled on day #15 of our test hatch & 8 or our 11 eggs had movement!!! First time incubating on my own & with this incubator. Looking good so far!

Seeing those babies move around is so incredible!

 

[misfit acres]

Have a question on chick starter if I may.

Local Big R &/or TSC has 2 kinds of chick starter, medicated & non-medicated. Is one better than the other?

Thanks!!

 

[GitaBooks]

Have a question on chick starter if I may.

Local Big R &/or TSC has 2 kinds of chick starter, medicated & non-medicated. Is one better than the other?

Thanks!!

A lot of people feed medicated food as a preventative measure, but I personally never have. As long as chicks are given a clean, safe environment and allowed to slowly build a tolerance to cocci then medicated food is just unnecessary. If any of my chicks do get cocci (none have in the year I have kept them) then would treat them with the proper medication.

However, this is my opinion and others do feed medicated food regularly. However, keeping an animal on medication as a preventative helps the organism or parasite build up a resistance and generally is not good in the long run.

I hope this helps.