Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[Merrymouse]

Good to know! Hopefully new one will get here tomorrow! Old one seems to get hotter than it should.

I have limited experience with hatcheries. 5 of my birds came from mpc, the rest i hatched out or they came from around here. I'm suddenly nervous aout it. Haven't bee able to find white giants around here though so I guess we'll see.

I have had bad luck with hatcheries the two times I used them but I ordered in cold weather and I just think its too much stress. Once all 17 chicks showed up dead and last year I lost prob like 3/4 of the chicks I ordered. I don't think Ive ever lost a chick I hatched myself or bought locally. I know tons of people use the hatchery and have no trouble at all so I either just had flukey bad luck or it was just too cold when I ordered.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

how do you get such clear pictures? Im assuming these are inside the incubator still.

Yes, those are in the incubator. The clear view that the incubators offer is a HUGE help, I also have an expensive camera that makes it looks like I know what I'm doing.

 

[Merrymouse]

Aww shucks, View attachment 2031646 I'm glad I have been able to be of some help to others! That's what is so great about hatch-a-longs, you learn so many different ways of doing things from so many different people willing to share their experiences, both good and bad!

You never know! I can't stand the humidity here in Georgia, maybe we'll escape back to my Hubby's homeland eventually and we can share our hatching addiction in person. lol!

Actually my daughter and I were in Georgia last April visiting colleges and we thought it was so lovely. She was just talking about it today, how nice it was to sit outside in the warmth...it was only i the 20's here today and shes my kid that loves summer so winter in New England is not her happy place.

 

[Merrymouse]

I live in AZ, in our state thread, when I first saw them, I thought they were absolutely the ugliest little things I'd ever seen, even asked one of the ladies if it had mange or something..lol.. I got some from one of the ladies and have been hooked ever since..

I think they have that effect on alot of people. At first your like ??? weird??? and then your like Hmmm, I kinda think they're cute. Kinda like those Sour Patch commercials..first they're sour then they are sweet

 

[AgnesGray]

I have had bad luck with hatcheries the two times I used them but I ordered in cold weather and I just think its too much stress. Once all 17 chicks showed up dead and last year I lost prob like 3/4 of the chicks I ordered. I don't think Ive ever lost a chick I hatched myself or bought locally. I know tons of people use the hatchery and have no trouble at all so I either just had flukey bad luck or it was just too cold when I ordered.

Oh my goodness, how awful that must have been to receive a box of chicks that had all died. Of the ones that 3/4 died, was there a common cause of death or were they weak in general? Do you mind saying which hatchery they came from? That must have been such a disappointment!

I wonder if I should quarantine the ones coming in from my hatch for a while? I'd rather have found a local breeder, for sure. So far no luck. Can't find the orpingtons I want either.

I lost two in the one box i got from a hatchery last fall. One had an injured leg and neither of them would eat. The other 5 of that batch seem ok so far.

 

[Merrymouse]

I keep hearing the song from Wizard of Oz that they sang when they were in munchkin land watching them pop up and down lol

LOL totally hearing that now to!

 

[Merrymouse]

Oh my goodness, how awful that must have been to receive a box of chicks that had all died. Of the ones that 3/4 died, was there a common cause of death or were they weak in general? Do you mind saying which hatchery they came from? That must have been such a disappointment!

I wonder if I should quarantine the ones coming in from my hatch for a while? I'd rather have found a local breeder, for sure. So far no luck. Can't find the orpingtons I want either.

I lost two in the one box i got from a hatchery last fall. One had an injured leg and neither of them would eat. The other 5 of that batch seem ok so far.

The time that all 17 were dead was Meyer. Now I have to tell you we had a blizzard, a big one, so it was cold and the chicks were delayed somewhere, it was just terrible. I stayed home from work for 4 days waiting to pick them up. At that time I did not get paid for time off either. On top of that it was my first time getting chicks, I was so excited and it was just so sad, all those little dead chicks.

Last year, my brain is failing...I think maybe it was cackle? not sure. I ordered like 20 chicks.
I got 6 marans (3 wheaten, 1 cuckoo, 2 black), 6 silkies, 4 polish, 4 spitzhauben. They arrived on the day expected. I drove to the distribution center instead of waiting for them to come to my local post office to save them more handling and time. 9 were DOA . The others were very weak, I gave nutridrench and got them warm right away. They just continued to go down hill. I ended up with 2 silkies 3 Marans, 1 Polish and two spitzhauben. The 2 silkies, polish and 2 spitzhauben were all cockerels so after all that I ended up with 2 wheaten Marans and one cuckoo maran. So three out of 20. And actually the cuckoo Maran I may have confused whether it came from the hatchery or not because at the time I hatched my own also. So I may have just ended up with 2 out of 20. Not great.

 

[Merrymouse]

A few Silkies hatching from this morning. I see another one starting to zip now so I'm going to try my darndest to record it with this GoPro. lol

View attachment 2029621View attachment 2029622View attachment 2029623

So cute! What colors do you think you have there?

 

[Merrymouse]

On a more positive note, once I finally figured out how to make the GoPro record longer than 60 seconds I was able to record this Silkie hatching!

The little one spinning his legs around on his back LOL!

 

[Merrymouse]

I hear they are like little fuzzy babies they adore being coddled, but worry it will be way too cold up here.

I think they can take the cold weather just fine.