the Will They Hatch? thread

[HighNDryFarm]

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OMG, that is SO cute! She actually looks like she enjoys it!

They make such great pets don't they!

 

[Rathbone]

I had seen orpingtons via internet pix and decided I had to have some. I was a newbie and bought hatchery chicks. I had no idea there was a difference between hatchery and those amazing english orps I had seen online. I was crushed as my chicks began to grow and did not look like the photos I had seen. But then, I started to realize just what lovely chickens I have. No, no one is going to mistake them for anything special - but they are special. My chickens are the mellowest I have ever seen - more so than my silkies. My sons cart them about and yes, daily take them for rides on the trike. This particular son loves to put them under his shirt (and they have grown quite a bit since I snapped that photo) and pretend he is a hen and he has an egg in his belly. They patiently wait under his shirt, and shake out their ruffled feathers when he brings them back out. So here is to hatchery chicks - special in their own way! And here is to being happy with what you already have!

 

[HighNDryFarm]

I am SO excited to share and think some chick-a-holics will find this information interesting. For those who haven't read my previous posts. I lost 18 chickens one night, all left in a pile with some with a few heads missing, no fencing jeopardized no print marks and nothing in the trap after trying all different bates....anyway, in my distress over losing all my girls some friends and some of you here suggested I try to hatch some of the eggs I had. I had collected 3 that day and put them in the refrigerator where I had about another 2 1/2 dozen.

When I decided to buy an incubator and set the eggs I took out the original 3, plus 4 that I thought had been laid the previous day, plus a dozen that I had brought up to my wine bar to sell to a customer. These eggs sat in the garage untouched for four days until I could get the incubator and get it set up. On the morning of SuperBowl Sunday I gathered my 19 eggs and set them. I then decided why not and grabbed 3 more Ameracauna's out of the fridge. Now the interesting thing is that I only had one Americauna laying at this point (and she wasn't laying everyday) since two had gone broody and had younger chicks and hadn't restarted laying and one of my other girls had quit, so those Ameracauna eggs were pretty iffy at best. As of now, day 23, all but two of the eight purebred (my roo is an Americauna) Americauna's hatched! Out of the total of 22 eggs, 12 of those have hatched. Oh, and one when candled on day 16 was not fertile. My roo is very good at his job!

I thought some would find this impossibly successful, (IMHO) successful hatch as interesting as I have.

So I have 6 purebred Americauna's
6 mixed with either Barred Rock, Buff Orpington or an off chance my Brahma layed. These plus one of my Americauna's were the only one's laying at this time of year.

I've never had mixes so anyone have a guess on what they should look like? I should say that my roo is a Silver and I have 8 that are black w/yellow butts and tips and 3 yellow w/leopard markings and 1 tan w/darker head and back. One of the yellows I know is out of my Buff Orpington egg and she hand her cheeks are puffy like the others. Will I see cheek puffs on any of the brown egg layers since their dad an Americauna?

I post pictures later, I've gotta go feed! I was just so shocked to see all the new babies from last night!!!! I wanted to share!

 

[wolftracks]

Been almost 24 hours since my first pip. This is day 22 and I only see the 3 pips, but no one is out yet. These are small, just barely a crack pips, but I hear them in there.

 

[daisychick]

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All of my layer flock are from hatcheries and they are all sweet and kind to each other and are healthy as can be. They also lay a ton of big yummy eggs. I love hatchery chicks too. I only try to hatch out the fancy breeds to test my luck.

 

[daisychick]

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Well as long as you can hear them, then lets hope for good things and that they get the heck out of those shells.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

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I was surprised how long they took to go from pip to hatch. Once they start zipping it's fast but those little pips seem to stay there forever! I had 4 hatch last night, three that had pipped that morning and that was the evening of day 22, this morning at around 7am another one hatched that I never saw pip (I thought the one that hatched at 5am was stuck in a different egg

) I think you're going to have little chicks soon!

 

[SteveH]

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[SteveH]

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[SteveH]

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