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

[LocalYokel]

I wont eat anything but my own eggs  even if I go out to eat for breakfast I can't get anything with eggs in it because they make me sick at this point. It was a little weird for me at first though so I kind of understand but really you should try 

Yeh I can't eat diner eggs either no more.
But I still get em and feed em back to the chickens!
After havin those real fresh eggs, nothin compares!

 

[Penny Hen]

Ordered me a small coop kit at a great discount price- it was delivered totally smashed!

I hate FedEx. Not my first issue with them and I am sure not the last. Company is offering a replacement, but I don't want to deal with FedEx again!

Well don't go with UPS. I worked for them at the Nashville hub and before that I was a mail clerk for 6 years at an insurance company. UPS has more smashed boxes than anyone. When I went to work at the hub I found out why. They must have hired an engineer that passed with C- grades because the conveyer belt lines were full of sharp right angles not curved changes of direction (which cost more to build) and in high volume situations the boxes jam and smash. In the six years I worked as a mail clerk only Airborne (which is bought up by an new company now but same facilities) never delivered me a bad package. If you are sending delicate objects through the mail I suggest them.

 

[TJordan]

Good Morning Mike!



  I need a goose egg to set!!! lol

WELCOME!!!!



WELCOME!!!!



WELCOME!!!!  YAY Mira is in the HOUSE!!!

WELCOME!!!!  And slodaz!!!!!!  whoot whoot

WELCOME!!!! 

looks awesome!!!! great ventilation!!  I am sure they will be lovin it!  

awwww kids re darling!!!!!!!!   chick has tiger stripes or leopard !!!  cute!

I know. This little darling was a major odd ball in a sea of dark little Wyndottee chicks. She jump up out of nowhere and scattered the others and sat on the feeder like "Hey. Looking for a chick. See ME!"

I had to grab her. Even the lady in the store said she had never seen a Wyndottee chick that color.

can't wait to know her more and come up with the perfect name.

 

[generaldsherman]

nothing cuter than quail chicks running around madly. Those sucker are speed demons!

 

[aplynn]

So my 3 babies I got from my failed hatch I think I may have loved them too much lol they follow me everywhere. I let them run around a little spot in my basement it is just too cold outside until they get bigger feathers. Now when I come to do laundry they sit by the door and wait for me. My husband thinks they are part dog lol

 

[GitaBooks]

So, with the new roosters comes the removal of the other rooster. I had one as a spare through winter, just in case something happened to Fabio. Didn't really like how the younger rooster was turning out, anyway, so yesterday he went to crock pot camp. This morning I awoke to the delicious smell of chicken slow cooking, YUMMY. Meat was so tender, falling off the bone, so deboned the crock pot contents to chicken stock and meat-




and added carrots, onion, and celery (with Dana Carvey's choppin' broccoli song rolling in my head)-



plucked 2 eggs from under a hen and made up some noodles-



and have set the chicken/veggies to slow cook a bit before I add the noodles. Smells so delicious, can't wait for homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch!

Today we are getting rid of five roosters too. We don't need them and no one else wanted them. I wouldn't feel so bad except that I'm kind of a softy towards my birds. I don't like to have to put them in the holding crates because they get stressed about it.

However, I know that my hens sure will be happier with only a few roosters around and the other roosters will be so much calmer, so it makes it worth it. Besides, one of them was getting really aggressive towards me. The others, however, were nice. Sigh... I'm such a softy.

I agree, it doesn't sound like a skunk. While they could kill a chicken, I highly doubt they would kill the entire flock.

Most animals will only kill what they can eat. However, a raccoon will kill just for fun. Opossums are vicious as well. If all of the bodies were gone, it could have been a pack of coyotes.

Yeah. According to behavioral studies raccoons, foxes, mink, and weasels tend to kill multiple animals while hawks, cats, skunks and bobcats usually (not always, but usually) take only one or two at a time, though they may continue to return.

We've never had a raccoon, skunk, cat, hawk, or opossum kill multiple birds from our flock, though one of our cats (an adopted stray) killed two silkie pullets and was hunting some of our chicks as well. The hawk we had got one that he couldn't carry away, our skunk was so slow he couldn't even catch a silkie chick, and our opossums are lazy and slow and usually they won't go after anything but pullets. Most of our opossums are young guys looking for food and territory. They eat a few eggs (they can actually climb, unlike skunks) and then we walk in, push them into a crate (they freeze instead of run) and release them near some woods where they can find some natural food.

Update
4 silkies hatched
And 4 cream legbar Roos and 4 cream legbar hens
There is still two more eggs not piped but I don't think they will hatch
As it is day 22 but I will leave them afew more days
Not bad 12 out of 14

Congrats!

I 'm in!!

Welcome! So glad you could join!

Is there a certain age or "best before date" that it's best to eat cockerels?

We butcher our birds in groups, so some are older and some are younger. However, heritage breeds do well at around 16-30 weeks in my opinion because they aren't tough but they have a chance to fill out. They still have some meat on them before this (really not that much though) and they don't start toughening up for a little while after this, but then they are just wasting food because they don't keep growing.

Test hatch still going on Day 22.
3 hatched- 2 more pips. 3 no signs yet
Here are pics from the hatch. 2 are chocolate and 1 chocolate cuckoo. The chocolate ones are pullets. Any guesses on the chocolate cuckoo?

They are so cute! Congrats on two pullets. I'm not sure about the other one.

Today I start collecting for the Easter hatch along.

I'd better get collecting too. I want only the best eggs (no long skinny ones), these can be for eating.

I am getting ready for hatch day! LOL I ordered me Brinsea Octagon 40 Advanced incubator! Bigger is better, right?

I want a bigger one too!

So this is random but we got to see our favorite EE, Pebbles lay today she has beautiful blue green eggs that often look like they have a tint of gray. My question is that it doesn't have an air cell right now... I know the air cell is supposed to be very tiny when layed but there is absolutely no visible one and idk what to make of that. It's been almost an hour now and still nothing. Should I not save this egg?

Cool, I like watching hens lay. Is the egg a funny shape? Otherwise, the cell is probably just small because the egg is fresh.

So I candled my quail eggs

and 8 out of 10 are developing so far!

They are only on day 4, I hope all the live eggs make it to hatching

I also candled my chicken eggs that are on day 2 but it's too early to see anything, though I still candled all 8 of them

Awesome!

Ok I have a broody Australorp who has been sitting on her golfballs for a week now, night and day. I also have 28 eggs in the incubator on day 8. I would like to place a few under my hen doring the last week, but need to figure out how and when to move her nest so it isn't 4 feet off the ground. I have had a lot of suggestions, but would like to hear what and when has worked best for the greatest chicken farmers in the world here at BYC.

Moving broodies isn't always easy, but it can be done. However, when a hen is moved near hatch she often takes her first chick and gets off the eggs (in my experience) so it may be best to wait until the eggs hatch to move her. She'll stay on the nest with her chicks and then you can move her and the chicks to a pen and she'll stay with them. If any eggs haven't hatched that were under her stick them in the bator and just give the chicks back once they hatch. I've found this tends to work best for all except my silkie, who will move to any nest I put her on. The others will panic, step on their eggs or break up.

Best of luck!

 

[Eps32]

So the new brooder I'd almost done. I ran out of hardware cloth to do the sides. So I'm going to lowes today to get some and a few other things to hang lights and waters. I happy with it I guess doing it by myself was annoying. But for not having all the right power tools I needed. I think it came out pretty good. It rained last night the inside is bone dry so happy about that. But I feel like iv done better just getting old I guess. But I think the 3 week olds will love it.

I have to say though building something from the ground up is so rewarding. When I was in my 20s my dad took me under his wing. I hated it at the time but now I'm so grateful for the knowledge.

 

[GitaBooks]

Lol I'm joining in with this hatch a long.

Welcome! Its awesome you could join! What do you plan on hatching?

So the black copper Maran eggs that I saw at the food store are not fertile.

I contacted the farm (Carols) and they just got back to me saying they have no roosters. Bummer.

I'm sorry to hear that. One of my eggs was infertile in the incubator, but the interesting thing was, it has been in there for like 21 days, at a really warm temperature, and hasn't rotted at all. I've had that happen multiple times. Is there something special in eggs that keeps infertile ones from rotting while under a broody hen? They almost look fresh. The yolk is yellow, there is no smell. I've had GREEN sloshing eggs before, but I think those are chicks that died early.

Obviously it was a gang slaying.

LOL.

i would like to join the hatchalong

That's awesome! What do you want to hatch? (or more accurately, what can you hatch. If I hatched everything I "wanted" I'd sure have a lot more chickens!

)

Just put eggs on lockdown for my test hatch. Do I need to adjust the temp? We put more water and sponges so humidity is great! Thanks in advance!

Mine are in lock-down too! Humidity should be 60-80%. Generally temperature doesn't need changed, but for mine I put the eggs up higher on the wire where they rested and so they got closer to the heat source. I needed to turn down the incubator because of this. Also, I hear eggs late in development give off their own heat which can make the incubator get warmer as well.

I'm gonna try! Let's see how many eggs I can set...

Awesome!

Post pictures of their combs (if you want) I can normally tell my seramas gender by 4 weeks. Who did ya get these eggs from? I told you seramas are addicting.

Yeah, bantams mature real early. I had one bantie roo crowing at just like a week old. He was still in the brooder up in my room! They get bright combs really early too, sometimes as early as just two or three weeks.

I've never eaten a cockerel....and I've only eaten young Cornish giants.
What a crock! = slow cooking

Not sure I'm gonna eat one of my guys...but I was curious.

(I don't eat any of my eggs...I still buy them from the store)

Thank you...

This will sound really weird, but I agree with you, sometimes I don't feel like eating my own eggs either. I love my own eggs because I know they are safer and healthier, but knowing what was on those eggs... lets just say it makes them a little less appetizing.

Well I candled tonight. My light isn't strong enough to see into the Silver Quail or the Sapphires or the Olive Eggers. But I looked at the Orust and the Twentse and the Niederhineres. Some of the Orust looked like they had vestigial veins. But all the rest didn't have anything but a dark shadow floating under the air cell. I will just have to wait a few more days and look again. My incubator has been keeping temps in the zone and the humidity has been between 58 and 61. I am checking the calibration tonight to be sure that the hydrometer is reading right. I set these Thursday and the quail and my own eggs on Wednesday. Since I have always hatched blue or olive or quail eggs before this is the first time that I can really see into the eggs. I was hoping for more by now.

Best of luck with your quail!

I candled my eggs and they all look ready to hatch. They are actually suppose to be hatching today, they're just taking their own good time.

So the new brooder I'd almost done. I ran out of hardware cloth to do the sides. So I'm going to lowes today to get some and a few other things to hang lights and waters. I happy with it I guess doing it by myself was annoying. But for not having all the right power tools I needed. I think it came out pretty good. It rained last night the inside is bone dry so happy about that. But I feel like iv done better just getting old I guess. But I think the 3 week olds will love it.

That is so awesome! Great job!

Hi
There are definatly black
My iPad dident bring out the colour
There parents are black.
Even when I take pictures of their
Parent they look grey but there not
As a top breeder at a national show said
That the rooster is great quality.
Silkie chicks are so cute

Thanks for asking.

Black and blue silkies are hard to tell apart, its true. I have a "blue" silkie that is actually black and my black silkies always have some grey fluff in there. I'm thinking that the chick I called blue is actually black because its far darker then its father, Azul, was. Azul was a true blue.

And your chicks are really cute by the way!!

So my 3 babies I got from my failed hatch I think I may have loved them too much lol they follow me everywhere. I let them run around a little spot in my basement it is just too cold outside until they get bigger feathers. Now when I come to do laundry they sit by the door and wait for me. My husband thinks they are part dog lol

That is so sweet.

My chicks always like to pretend they don't care for me. But then when they see food, yeah, they come running. My favorite has to be Yosemite. She was such a baby when she was young but now she just loves to be around me and hops up on my arm. I call her Yoshi for short.

 

[chickendreams24]

Hi
There are definatly black
My iPad dident bring out the colour
There parents are black.
Even when I take pictures of their
Parent they look grey but there not
As a top breeder at a national show said
That the rooster is great quality.
Silkie chicks are so cute
Thanks for asking.

Gotcha I totally understand sometimes my phone makes my sheltie look orange in certain lighting.

Actually, they are developing a standard for white I believe. BTW, I think there is a typo in your statement, it should be "in his hatch!" 

Oops so sorry, sometimes I dislike the internet and screen names BC they can be so misleading. There I changed it.

 

[dolfi]

Got my first little something

Don't know if they are Cornish or quals