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

[Merrymouse]

I’m a bit late to the conversation on vaulted and non vaulted but for whoever was asking, here’s one of each of my two chicks:

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Crest size is bigger on vaulted as they are growing but once fully grown you rarely notice.

Ok I definitely have one with a puffy head like the picture. I wish I knew this before its one of the three I picked up to be friends with my singleton hatchling...I actually picked it because I liked the poofy head and that one is acting very much like a cockerel. It doesnt really cause harm correct? Unless they bump it or get pecked too hard correct?

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Ok I definitely have one with a puffy head like the picture. I wish I knew this before its one of the three I picked up to be friends with my singleton hatchling...I actually picked it because I liked the poofy head and that one is acting very much like a cockerel. It doesnt really cause harm correct? Unless they bump it or get pecked too hard correct?

I wouldn’t worry about it! People complain about the vaults but generally speaking, a vault like what my chick had there I’ve never ran into difficulty with even if they've had a peck to the head or what not etc.

Some vaults are extreme where practically the whole brain it’s out of the skull...I choose not to breed these but there’s nothing saying they’ll die or automatically have brain issues.

My line is primarily non vaulted, most British silkies are where as most USA Silkies are vaulted.

I’ve got some USA ones hatching soon hopefully so I’ll see what their vaults are like if they have them.

The vault isn’t said to be sex related, however, every vaulted chick from my birds has been female. Maybe just luck in my case!

Don’t worry about the vault though, yes they can get injured and it does happen but people seriously over react about it at times!

 

[Merrymouse]

Day 21. Here's what's hatched so far. 5 Isbar (4 blue, 1 splash), 2 Cream Legbar, 2 Marans, 2 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, and 2 Double Silver Laced Barnvelder!

2 pips on the Barbezieux eggs. Unpipped but look good are 1 Isbar, 1 Barbezieux, 1 Silver Laced Orpington, 1 Swedish Flower.

I'm pretty confident the 2- 55 Flowery eggs are DIS even though I haven't pulled them yet. They were just too big. They didn't loose the right amount of moisture but there was no way to tinker with it because all other eggs were looking so good.

Here's some pics of the new chicks added to the ones from Wednesday. Also a pic of the Cream Legbars. It's my first time having these but I believe I have 1 male and 1 female? Or maybe 2 males? Confident they're not 2 females. Guessing based on the color and head spot.

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If I had to guess Id say two boys. If you could show the backs of both in good lighting I may be able to see better.My cream legbar boys from last spring were so pretty and sweet, always jumping in my lap. It was hard to have to let them go.

 

[Merrymouse]

Sorry to keep you up and waiting for news, CluckNDoodle, but it was too late after I finished to check in.


(You might notice that I say "she" and "her" when I am talking about Valor. We actually have no idea of her gender, but we decided to hope for the best and therefore guessed she was female.)

As it turned out Valor was more tired than we thought. Piece by piece, we took of the whole top half (the air packet half) of the shell, membrane and all (didn't see a single blood vein in the membrane). Once again, thanks for the coconut oil tip, @LilyD, it made all the difference. The membrane near the zip was so dry that it was like a second layer of shell, and Valor was so dry that we put coconut oil on all exposed places to give she some moisture.

After the top was off Valor was still wiggling so we thought she would make it out by herself. We added a wet rag and a cup of water and, of course, Valor in his bottom shell. For five minutes we say on our hands while we watched before deciding he just needed a bit of time. We forced ourselves to leave the room.

10 minutes later (we had set a timer and everything) we were back. No progress. We took Valor out and angled the egg so it was angled down, helping her out. We chipped off a bit more of the shell and added more coconut oil and Valor "hatched"!

But there was one problem, her head appeared to be stuck under her wing. My helper panicked, saying "I can't do this!" This was probably the scariest part of the whole process. I comforted my helper, and we continues. With cue-tips I held the wing back and tried to push up the head so my helper could slide the cue-tip covered in coconut oil under, but the head was stuck. At this point I panicked and said stuff like, "she's not going to make it! She has a birth deformation that makes her head stick to her chest! We can't help her, we should 'put her down'!" My helper comforted me and said "it's just the membrane. This is a healthy chick, she is going to be okay." We tried again, and my helper was right, the membrane was sticking the head to the chest. With the help of the coconut oil we freed her head, but she still kept it curled down under her wing.

We put her in the incubator and left her for the night. I was literally shaking with relief that we didn't kill the chick. We watched a movie to calm our fears about the poor chick downstairs. By the time we finished it was 12:30 at night.

The next day I checked on Valor. Because she had been in the egg for so long I guessed that she was running out of the yolk in her stomach and I had it in my mind that if she was strong enough I would give her food and water. But now that she was half-dry I saw that my fears had been confirmed. The chick was too skinny and it's legs and neck were not thick enough to ever support any weight. The beak was too large for her head. I realized that Valor would never survive. We culled her this morning. I don't know what method was used because it wasn't me who did it.

Yes, I am sad. But I think it was better this way, because I wouldn't want Valor to live her whole life in pain.

Even if the assisted hatching didn't work I'm glad I got the experience. I know now that I should have acted sooner, so I will remember that for next time. Thank you everyone who helped make it possible for Valor to be able to stretch outside of the egg and enjoy freedom, if only for a few hours.

So sorry she didnt make it. But you did the right thing

 

[Merrymouse]

I wouldn’t worry about it! People complain about the vaults but generally speaking, a vault like what my chick had there I’ve never ran into difficulty with even if they've had a peck to the head or what not etc.

Some vaults are extreme where practically the whole brain it’s out of the skull...I choose not to breed these but there’s nothing saying they’ll die or automatically have brain issues.

My line is primarily non vaulted, most British silkies are where as most USA Silkies are vaulted.

I’ve got some USA ones hatching soon hopefully so I’ll see what their vaults are like if they have them.

The vault isn’t said to be sex related, however, every vaulted chick from my birds has been female. Maybe just luck in my case!

Don’t worry about the vault though, yes they can get injured and it does happen but people seriously over react about it at times!

Good to know. All the other babies have nice round "normal" heads. Thanks

 

[Merrymouse]

Why are ducklings so stinking cute? There are 4 out and 2 left pipped.View attachment 2027046View attachment 2027047

I can't even!!! They are the cutest!

 

[Merrymouse]

Oh and I had to run up to Rural King for..... stuff, and they had black copper Maran pullets for $5, so I got 6. If my family asks, I totally hatched those from my own eggs....

Whats shared on BYC stays on BYC...our lips are sealed.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Actually, I am focusing on 4 breeds. French Black Copper Marans, Cream Legbar and the gold variant, Silverruds Blue, aka Isbar and Aloha's. I like the color variations of the SB and the egg colors are interesting.

Beautiful breeds. You'll have quite the colorful egg basket.

Never heard of the Aloha breed. They look pretty cool. Good for you helping such a breed take off.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

you should be able to sex the cream legbar. Of my two I hatched last year they were both boys! It was the year of the boys for me!

If I had to guess Id say two boys. If you could show the backs of both in good lighting I may be able to see better.My cream legbar boys from last spring were so pretty and sweet, always jumping in my lap. It was hard to have to let them go.

These are the newest pictures. 2 days old and all fluffed out. What do you think now? These are Cream Legbars in case anyone else wants to take a guess.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

These are the newest pictures. 2 days old and all fluffed out. What do you think now? These are Cream Legbars in case anyone else wants to take a guess.

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You definitely have one of each! A little cockerel and a pullet.