Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[Country Chickens]

He hatched!

Once he got moving he rocked right out of there!



Soo glad! I can live with this one being the only one. After listening around on here, I realized that those early eggs are often not even incubated. But, I have to admit, I really wanted one from this first batch! Whoopee!

Okay, great oracle of guinea keets, what do you see? I'm seeing pied, and I'm guessing pearl based on his suspected parentage.

PS, sorry if he's too gooey and I should have waited...I'm just too excited!!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Yay, Country Chicken! We like pippin and zippin! Hope he's out by morning all fluffed and dried peepin' away. And that's cool you have Silkies hatching at the same time for a step-sibling for the keet. Sometimes keets are noisy miserable lil brats if they hatch by themselves, lol.

And congrats on finding a Guinea egg! Hope they all start layin' for ya and your season kicks in. I haven't made my brownies or my omelet yet... and now I'm feeling guilty those eggs are in the fridge and not in the 'bator, lol. But I have to keep a grip on my hatching numbers this season, have to have to have to have to have to have to!!! I'm contemplating on not setting any more eggs for a month after I set my next batch (which will be Batch #8)... I know I'll go thru withdrawals tho

I just peaked in my hatcher... 2 Coral Blues and a Pied Brown have hatched, and somethin' else is on it's way out

I took the 2 early keets out earlier and they are snuggled down in the brooder. I think I have 26 good eggs total to work with this hatch (including what has already hatched). There's 4 that look like late stage quitters

but I left them in the hatcher anyway.




ETA - for some reason your post with the wet keet pic was not there when I posted this, the last post I had seen from you was about the zipping... just some new BYC wierdness I guess.

 

[Country Chickens]

Yeah, I'm excited that he'll have some broody buddies--that's workin out well! What occured to me to try next time is have silkies hatch a day or some before the guineas are supposed too. That way the humidity in the bator will pop up high for the guineas!

Your keets sound gorgeous! But you probly knew I was gonna say that. And don't let me give you a guilt trip over the eggs in the fridge...you gotta eat, and you can't stay sane and hatch them all!

So now I need to go look at the Marans thread and figure out how fiesty they are as chicks. I will be getting 20 day old Marans chicks on Tuesday or Wednesday in the mail, and I'm trying to decide if I can put all these babies together. Silkies don't mind getting a jump on their brood mates and aren't too peck-happy, so I'm hoping that will work. If I do, 'twill make for some pretty cute pics!!!

Good luck with the rest your hatch! Sounds like lots of happy babies popping out!

 

[PeepsCA]

Sneak Peek...
Hatch #4 in progress!




Several Pied Browns, a regular Brown, a regular Lavender, a Pied Lite lavender, a Buff or a Blonde, a Lite Blue, and a few Coral Blues so far

Sigh, still no Chocolates, but oh well. I really need a male Chocolate DANGIT! See this is the kind of thing that keeps me hatching... I need to stop needing colors, lol.

Some of these guys are ready to be moved over to the brooder, but they can stay in a while longer and climb all over the eggs that haven't hatched yet so they'll kick it into gear and hurry up!

 

[PeepsCA]

Update... I moved most of them to the brooder. Had to scatter starter feed everywhere, they were having a screamin' toe eating frenzy.
LOL @ the lil Coral Blue on the upper right strecthin' the wings like woohoo I'm freeee !!!

Still 6 more wet keets and 7 eggs left in the hatcher. I'll pull out the keets when they are fluffed and dried, and leave the eggs a day or so longer. I think the last 7 are quitters tho

 

[Country Chickens]

That's a nice batch! I'm laughing at the chocolate need...and also feeling a little guilty. You know I've got a dozen chocolate eggs on order, right? I'm cheating!

So, the good news on my hatch is that...

::drumroll::

We got a second keet! He pipped this morning and had popped out by early afternoon. Which means two our of four of these first eggs I believed viable hatched--I can work with that! Unfortunately, there's also bad news. The first little keet--in the pic above--had the umbelical cord wrapped around his leg. I didn't realize and didn't see, and it got tighter and tighter as it dried. This afternoon after running crazy all day I finally caught on that his leg wasn't behaving normal and took him out and snipped the cord, but the leg doesn't want to stay up in place normally. It will go there (mostly in place) if I hold him and I've held him a lot this evening. But, once I put him back in the brooder box he flops around and generally comes to rest with the leg dragged back behind him again. Right now I've got a bandaid attached to the good leg holding it up and mostly in place, but he can't walk or get around. Any thoughts or suggestions? Have you ever had this happen?

Oh, and we've had two more silkies hatch, and two more that look to. Assuming this two hatch that leaves only one silkie egg, and I don't think it will hatch cause when we candled it the air sack was in totally the wrong place. Speaking of which, I noticed your pics above show eggs hatching upright? I've always laid mine on the wire for lockdown. Thoughts?

 

[PeepsCA]

Yay, 2 keets!! WHERE'S THE PICS!?!?! WHAT COLOR,WHAT COLOR!!!???

Whoa... believe it or not I have never had that umbilical cord thing happen to a keet before, that's a new one for me, lol.
OK... therapy time:
Brace up his legs with tape or a band aid like you would for splayed leg, (I use a thin strip of vet wrap, dallied around each leg and then I twist the ends together in the middle of the keet's legs... this is my custom splayed leg fix, works like a charm), and then sit him in a padded cup or a small bowl of some sort, where he can see the other keet and chicks in the brooder and be warm but not too hot. If you can make a donut out of paper towels or soft tissue that helps hold them in (it also gives you a little ledge to sprinkle starter crumbles on). Pad the bottom with something that gives him traction.

(I know, what kind of Guinea nut has pics of this stuff on hand? Me, lol).






He may not be too active at first, but he will instinctively start doing squats eventually, (lol) and start using the leg and strengthening it, and he should work his way up to bailing out of the cup because he's figured out how to use that leg normally... but keep putting him back in til he immediately gets right out and you see he is using the leg like he should. Keep him braced/taped for a few days, at least a for a day after he's moving around normal. If you aren't using game bird starter, add a little boiled egg yolk to his crumbles, the extra protein and amino acids help heal and strengthen. (Keets need high protein anyway).

Only bad thing about this method of therapy is that you need to give him drinks of water often (dip his beak in it til he drinks/swallows,every couple hours at least), and you'll also need to put him face down in a pile of food with the others to peck at several times a day too. I usually use water with vitamins and electrolytes added to it for this. (You can also tube/syringe feed him a slurry if you're experienced with it, but it's better if he learns to peck at the starter feed from the start). It might take a couple-three days of doing this cup routine, but I have nursed some pretty twisted/crooked keets back to health like this with good success before. It's just a major pain in the rear! (Hopefully he is not dealing with a rotated femur, but if you get him braced up ASAP his chances of being fixed are pretty decent).

Another option is to use a frozen pizza box (I know, sounds weird LOL), cut down to a height just above his head when he's on his tippy toes (or would be) and I put some paper towles in the bottom for traction/padding (and I tape the box to the side of the brooder so it doesn't fall over, lol). The narrow box will keep him upright and only allow him to move forwards and backwards... amazingly this has worked for fixing leg issues and equilibrium issues with good success for me too. But again, you need to give him food and water on and off thru the day. You might have to pick him up a few times and set him straight cuz he's flipped over or stuck, but... like I said, this method does work, lol (Nurse Peeps' Keet Physical Therapy!)

Pffft, you orderd Chocolate eggs!!! CHEATER INDEED!!!! You just jinxed the eggs, bet they will all turn out to be belligerent males!

Good luck with your little guy!!!

ETA...
Yah, I've always hatched with my eggs sittin upright in egg cartons... I used to use the regular paper egg cartons with the tops cut off and the bottom of each cup cut off, but I started using these clear plastic carton bottoms instead (with holes melted in the bottoms with a quick touch of a red hot screwdriver heated on my stove for airflow,lol). I like em much better, I don't have to cut up cartons in a rush for each hatch... these disinfect easy in bleach water. I need to get a few more of them, I don't have enough... wait no I don't, I don't need 2 hatchers going at once this season!!!!

 

[Country Chickens]

No jinxing my eggs!!!

I don't have any brown genes in my flock except the blonde boy (I think that's right) and according to hubby we were still missing something else genetically. Plus, I've always wanted chocolate.

Okay, I've set our little guy up. I took the banaids off earlier (ouch!) cause he kept falling on his face. That's cause we were missing the cup! Now I handcuffed his legs in a bit of pipecleaner cause I don't think I can ever do bandaids again. Here he is, grateful to be upright and left alone!



And another pic, showing the back of his head. Pearl pied, right?



And the second keet, who's still zooming around the bator. I'm guessing he's the same, but would love to hear otherwise!



Btw, I was wrong about the silkie chicks--it looks like we'll get them all to hatch! The fourth one popped out about an hour ago, and the last one has internal pip. I candled those two earlier today cause I'm playing musical bators tomorrow and needed to know if they were duds. Didn't realize chick number four had already pipped til he peeped--loud--in my hand! The fifth one looked good, air sack had moved up where it was supposed to and the chick was being lively. Yay!

 

[PeepsCA]

LOL cool beans, he looks happy and comfy! Good job! And yes he is a Pied Pearl Grey, very nicely Pied too! Lots of white. Congrats, hope you get him all fixed up, he'll be a cutie to have running around in the brooder, and gorgeous as an adult.

Tape or band aids eventually come off (when you want them to stay ON!)... they get dry poop and starter feed dust under them, and the oils in their legs all helps work it loose. But pipe cleaners will work too, the main thing is to keep those legs lined up and not let that gimpy leg go anywhere it normally wouldn't. How are his feet? Or mainly the one on his gimpy leg? He may need a tape shoe to help get his toes straight once he starts using the leg and baring weight on it. I can help with that too if you need it, some people use pipe cleaners for those too. I like to use the black electrical tape for fixin' crooked toes tho... and I call em flippers tho, not shoes, lol. They look like scuba diving flippers

(And yes, I have flipper pics, lolol).

The other little guy in the 'bator looks a shade lighter, even being wet, but maybe it's just the lighting (love that big window!). Get another pic of him when he's fluffed and dried and I'll be able to tell for sure. If he's the same as the other guy once he's all dry then he's a Pied Pearl Grey too obviously, but just going by that pic I'd say Pied Brown at this point. Since you have a Blonde male, and then you factor in that any Hen he breeds with could be carrying a hidden brown gene somewhere in her make-up bag... technically you could end up with Chocolates hatching. In fact that little guy could be Chocolate, his wings are white all the way up to the shoulder... I need to know his body colors and the pattern of stripes on his head when he's dry and I can tell you for sure, but of course take more pics, lol.

I have Buff males and Chocolate Hens, but no Chocolate males yet. And only 1 Brown male, but he's in a different breeding flock (with Chocolate and Brown Hens). Chocolates are one of my faves too.. they almost push Coral Blues out of the way... almost. There's 7 CBs in this flock I'm incubating from, that's why I'm gettin so many Blues, there's lots of blue genes swimmin' around in that pool (plus 2 Opalines, 2 Pied Powder Blues and a Porcelain). And then all the Buffs, Chocolates Pied Browns and Pied Cinnamons account for all the buff/brown genes. I am glad to see that not may Pied Pearl Greys keets are hatching from this flock. I was worried I'd get the same hatches from both flocks, or very similar. Last year my hatches were dominated by Pied Pearl Greys from my other light colored/Pied flock (I ended up keeping 14 that were heavily Pied. Beautiful birds, and I love to watch them fly!)
Cute Silkie Babies (I want some grumble crumble grumble), that's way cool your hatched went better than you thought it would

And hey check it out, you hatched a Koala chick too! Those are super rare, Congrats!
(It must be late, I'm off my rocker... sorry, lol)

 

[Country Chickens]

Yes, I'm especially proud of the koala!

Although, I have to say, the chicks really weren't that impressed with him. My little guy in the cup had already pushed out this morning--twice! He is doing a lot of squats and standing. I'm hoping that means he'll be fixed up in no time. After all, there was nothing wrong with his leg when he hatched--he just tied himself up in knots!

Here's a pic of the second chick fluffed. Looks like another pied pearl grey to me?



Sorry that it's not a great pic--I had to take it with my cell camera. I can get you a better one later, if you like.

So, side question. Do you do anything to try and increase fertility in the eggs? We candled our second batch (they will hatch in about ten days) and only two out of the eight were fertilized! This was surprising to me, as we had four fertilized out of seven in our first batch. I wonder if right now the only male doing any fertilizing is our two-year-old pearl grey male. The younger boys (who just turned seven months) acted a bit clueless when our pied hen started laying. So...maybe since the older male mostly hangs with the chickens he wasn't getting the job done? Idk. Any thoughts?

The Guinea Farm people emailed to say that my chocolate eggs will ship the first week of May. Just, you know, in case you were interested.