The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[MumsyII]

Graphic eggtopsie image



Did the float test after candling. My hunch was....One internally pipped chick dead in shell died today. The other had no internal pip. Dead in shell. Died a day ago.


These chicks are two complete contrasts. One has a huge vaulted skull. It was not malpositioned. It simply died at twenty days.

The second chick is a HUGE Silkie chick. No vaulted skull. Internally pipped. Died before attempting to break out of shell. Both chicks were ready to hatch. Yolk was completely absorbed. Judy hatched four of six eggs. 66% hatch. I hatched eleven of seventeen. 65% hatch. We basically tied. I think this may be a normal hatch for this strain. The only way I will know for sure is by hatching many more eggs from these hens covered by this cock. I still plan on increasing my temp in the Genesis next time and lowering the humidity.


Perfect chicks in every way but unable to exit the egg.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Thanks for the float test pictures.

 

[loveourbirds]

Graphic eggtopsie image



Did the float test after candling. My hunch was....One internally pipped chick dead in shell died today. The other had no internal pip. Dead in shell. Died a day ago.


These chicks are two complete contrasts. One has a huge vaulted skull. It was not malpositioned. It simply died at twenty days.

The second chick is a HUGE Silkie chick. No vaulted skull. Internally pipped. Died before attempting to break out of shell. Both chicks were ready to hatch. Yolk was completely absorbed. Judy hatched four of six eggs. 66% hatch. I hatched eleven of seventeen. 65% hatch. We basically tied. I think this may be a normal hatch for this strain. The only way I will know for sure is by hatching many more eggs from these hens covered by this cock. I still plan on increasing my temp in the Genesis next time and lowering the humidity.


Perfect chicks in every way but unable to exit the egg.

i realize they are hard to see, but i dont see egg teeth on these chicks.

 

[MumsyII]

i realize they are hard to see, but i dont see egg teeth on these chicks.

They are hard to see. I ran my finger tip the length of their beaks and there is indeed a tiny sharp egg tooth on each chick.
The chick in this image is only hours old. She has an egg tooth that is also very difficult to see but it is still there.

 

[Doodle777]

So just buying some Oregano oil would basically be the same as the BY-O-REG product?

 

[FridayYet]

OK, how stressed should I be that one of these supposed OE pullets will start crowing next week while I'm on vacation? (I swear, I'm only buying hens or auto-sexing birds if I ever do this again!)

Gwen (or Gavin) is a little snot and keeps getting pecked on the head for impertinence. (S)he'll steal a tomato from anyone and run away in a flash. Screams like a maniac when I pick her up.




Osprey, below, is big and mellow. Her face and comb are getting pinker and I really think she's older than 11 weeks. Her body shape and actions are similar to the legbars, so I'm pretty confident she is a pullet (but what do I know?)




Here's the whole flock in the playpen - Gwen/Gavin is on the rock:

 

[aoxa]

They are hard to see. I ran my finger tip the length of their beaks and there is indeed a tiny sharp egg tooth on each chick.
The chick in this image is only hours old. She has an egg tooth that is also very difficult to see but it is still there.

Mumsy, did you get my PM about chicks?

 

[aoxa]

OK, how stressed should I be that one of these supposed OE pullets will start crowing next week while I'm on vacation? (I swear, I'm only buying hens or auto-sexing birds if I ever do this again!)

Gwen (or Gavin) is a little snot and keeps getting pecked on the head for impertinence. (S)he'll steal a tomato from anyone and run away in a flash. Screams like a maniac when I pick her up.




Osprey, below, is big and mellow. Her face and comb are getting pinker and I really think she's older than 11 weeks. Her body shape and actions are similar to the legbars, so I'm pretty confident she is a pullet (but what do I know?)




Here's the whole flock in the playpen - Gwen/Gavin is on the rock:

Don't worry at all, because they are both girls! Girly pattern. Yep. Love telling people they have girls!

Black and whites if they are boys (which they usually are) almost always have red in their wings. Black and white girls are very often black and white, sometimes with a salmon breast. If there is other colour in with the black and white, it is spread out throughout the feathering and not in just one area.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mumsy thank you sharing the eggtopsy pictures. And for the picture of the chic with an egg tooth. Never knew chicks had that. Very cool. I learned something new today

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Well my Silkie chick that hatched last week is MIA. The bantam Favs are with momma. No sign of the Silkie. At least if there was a body I could possibly figure out what happened. Oh well, such is life. Survival of the fittest/smartest here

I'm sorry you lost that chick Trav. I have a question for you. Was that Silkie chick with a Silkie momma or a another breed? The reason I ask is that my barnyard hen Judy hatched out one Silkie chick last time at brooding. She was not used to having to wait for that chick with the short legs to catch up with her in the grass. The chick would tucker out and just stop in it's tracks. Judy would be clear across the orchard before she knew that chick was not with her. I watched that lone silkie chick exposed alone many times and wondered how long it was going to take a hawk to spot it and off with it. Judy abandoned that Silkie chick at three weeks. It was a loner for a week until another layer let it eat at the feed dish with it. They pal around together now. The chick made it to eight weeks but I thought everyday, it was going to come up missing. I hope Judy does better with guarding the four she now has.

The Silkie chick was hatched by my experienced Orp. She was real good about waiting for it. We did finally find the chick. It was in a corner behind the nest crates. It was in a defensive position. Head in corner tucked down and it's beak was wide open, like it was peeping loud before it died. I think my wife forgetting to open the pen to let the layers out contributed to the death. Even though mg broody Orp is #1 girl in the order, with 16 other birds in 600sft of space she could not defend all three. So I will chalk it up to a mistake. The other two chicks she hatched are also bantams. So they were all pretty close in size