THE MOTHER'S DAY HATCH-A-LONG!!!! The last day to join in and set eggs with us is April 28th.

[yinepu]

I didn't plan on a Mother's Day hatch but my chicks decided to come a day early. Only one so far has been born on the actual due date. I still have 3 more eggs but I'm not sure if they will hatch. I had two questionable eggs when I candled right before lockdown. I'm hoping for one more chick. I set 13 eggs and I now have 10 chicks! Yay!

I did try some new tricks for humidity in the Little Giant incubator. I've had trouble getting the humidity up so I put two hot, wet sponges and a hot, wet paper towel in the center over the water trays. It worked really well and got the humidity up to 75%! I even had to open all vents when things really starting going because it jumped up to 90% humidity!! All the babies are cute and healthy! I'll have to post pictures of them hanging out in the brooder! My newest chick just arrived about 2 minutes ago! He's late, but he's actually right on time since today is the actual due date! This was a great Mother's Day present!

Congrats on the chicks..

and just as a suggestion... toss those plugs.. you do not need them.. the vents need to be open for air exchange during incubation and hatch otherwise you risk losing chicks to carbon dioxide poisoning

 

[mstricer]

Quote: Oh My wasn't counting on that. Pretty but too fancy. I only hatched one Wheaten Ameraucana, on Saturday night, no more since. I had to go to Meyer today and buy day old chicks, to keep it company. It was doing nothing but crying. Seems to be happy. I got two barred rocks and two RIR. If the Barred Rock has a dot on head, does that mean it is a boy?

 

[MI chickens]

Oh My wasn't counting on that. Pretty but too fancy. I only hatched one Wheaten Ameraucana, on Saturday night, no more since. I had to go to Meyer today and buy day old chicks, to keep it company. It was doing nothing but crying. Seems to be happy. I got two barred rocks and two RIR. If the Barred Rock has a dot on head, does that mean it is a boy?

I'm not a BR expert but I think yours could be either.

In my flock I have three BR hens and a GLW roo and a BO roo, as far a sex linking either roo would count as a "red". Any chicks from the barred rocks then are sex links, they're separated- solid color, female; white spot on head, male. This last hatch, I got in my assortment three chicks from the BR hens , all had a white spot on their head -males

 

[In His Service]

So far, I have 6 in the brooder, 2 still drying out, and at least 2 more pips, and one maybe internally pipped...saw it moving in the shell when I candled after taking out the already fluffed ones. I have only been hatching Coturnix quail lately, and can't believe the difference in size. Makes these chicks seem huge, lol.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: WHen my children were very small we would stop on Tuesdays to visit. He would be out sitting on the bench watching his pigeons fly and wait for them to return.

No sick birds in his flock for long. Culled. An interesting view on promoting the strongest with genetic immunities.


I keep my hatching eggs in a cool moist basement. And turn them 2-3 times a day. With the incubators on the second floor I travel up and down stairs all day!! LOL ANd I feed my breeder birds green grass now that it is in season, and give them extra eggs. I feel bad that they cannot free range during the breeding / hatching season so I give them healthy treats.

Quote: Oh My wasn't counting on that. Pretty but too fancy. I only hatched one Wheaten Ameraucana, on Saturday night, no more since. I had to go to Meyer today and buy day old chicks, to keep it company. It was doing nothing but crying. Seems to be happy. I got two barred rocks and two RIR. If the Barred Rock has a dot on head, does that mean it is a boy?
I would be so in trouble if I lived that close to Meyers!! Dots are only important when barred hens are bred to non-barred males. So IMO the dot is not a clue.

 

[Toxic Chicken]

4 Orpington chick huddle.

- Karen

 

[lcammack]

Wow what a busy weekend! We have our final tally... We started with 42, two clears and one quitter (blood ring at day 10 candle), so 39 went into lock down and we ended up with 30 chicks! I think for our first hatch this was an awesome result! We are so excited, my girls got to watch many of the chicks hatch, the only problem with that is we were supposed to give all of these away and now they are so attached to them we might end up keeping a few. Here are some pics.

 

[chicks4fun]

Wow what a busy weekend! We have our final tally... We started with 42, two clears and one quitter (blood ring at day 10 candle), so 39 went into lock down and we ended up with 30 chicks! I think for our first hatch this was an awesome result! We are so excited, my girls got to watch many of the chicks hatch, the only problem with that is we were supposed to give all of these away and now they are so attached to them we might end up keeping a few. Here are some pics.

BEAUTIFUL CHICKS & AWSOME PICTURES!!!

 

[Arielle]

The first chick to pip yesterday had not made progress by this afternoon, several others had pipped and zipped, so I opened the pip site a bit larger. The blood vessels didn't look ready. Patience. When I recheck ed that chick severl hours later, no progress yet 8 other chicks out.

I took it to the bathroom to get warm water and opened up the egg. THe chick is resting half in the shell. Will see if with a little rest it will continue to hatch. Go, little buff, go!

THis one has done well, and is now with all the others. Not sure of total, about 18. WIll clean LG and get ready for lockdown this week.

the only problem with that is we were supposed to give all of these away and now they are so attached to them we might end up keeping a few. Here are some pics.

Lovely pictures!! THe paper towels look like texture fabric and make a super backdrop for the chicks.

My kids usually keep a few also!! I try to limit it to ONE each. Maybe since this is their first batch two-three each? My boys already have about a hundred already to play with outside so limiting them to ONE this hatch was pretty easy. THey named them Big Mouth and Small Mouth. Go figure! LOL

 

[lcammack]

THis one has done well, and is now with all the others. Not sure of total, about 18. WIll clean LG and get ready for lockdown this week.



Lovely pictures!! THe paper towels look like texture fabric and make a super backdrop for the chicks.

My kids usually keep a few also!! I try to limit it to ONE each. Maybe since this is their first batch two-three each? My boys already have about a hundred already to play with outside so limiting them to ONE this hatch was pretty easy. THey named them Big Mouth and Small Mouth. Go figure! LOL

Thanks guys, the towels are actually my utility (cleaning) towels. Couldn't think of what else to use so you could see all the different colors of chicks. I think I might give in and let them keep all the silkie and polish chicks, we only have layers right now so it might be fun for them to have some "pet" chickens. I think there are about nine and then when we weed out roosters (we can't have roosters where we live) we will hopefully be down to that one or two each.