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

[PeepsCA]

Yah, in that pic keet #2 looks Pied Pearl Grey now, he's pretty dark. Lots of white just like the other one. And that's good news about the keet in the cup! Hope he continues to improve and he's truckin' around normal soon. I'm glad you at least got a pair of keets, after all your stressing!

The only thing I've ever done to try to increase fertility is to make sure they have an adequate diet (typically a 16% protein layer feed, plus veggies and sweet feed), have access to oyster shell, and to free range my breeders more. So if yours already get out and you are feeding a layer feed and oyster shell, that's about all you can do. The rest is pretty much up to them and the weather, lol. Oh and also you wanna make sure the breeders have no access to any medicated starter or grower feeds, I've read that Amprolium and other meds in medicated feeds can cause the Hens to lay infertile eggs.

Being that it was so early in the season when you collected the eggs, the male may have only bred the Hen or Hens once or twice during nice weather, then gave it up. Usually the sperm can stay viable in the Hens for 14 days or so, and they use it daily to fertilize their eggs (that just seems weird to me, lol). Maybe the Hens just have not bred again and the 2nd batch of eggs didn't get fertilized after the first few (meaning maybe the Hens ran out of viable sperm to use... cold temps can effect the sperm quality ). That's my guess anyway.

So there's 23 keets total from that last hatch, as of this morning. That's the magic number so far. 7 quitters is too many tho, on top of all the clears and blood rings I pulled out long before lockdown, from a full batch of 42

A few more Coral Blues this time, plus a Buff, a Buff Dundotte and a Pied Cinnamon. The last keets to hatch were having a hard time in the brooder with all the bigger, active earlier hatched keets, so I separated the littlest to a brooder of their own so they have a chance to catch up. One of the late hatching Coral Blues is tiny tiny, it might not make it. It's eating a little and I added electrolytes and vitamins to the water, it's just not that lively. I hate it when they struggle... but I'm doing all I'm going to do for it. Being a nurturer by nature it's hard not to fuss over it, but I really don't like trying to fix keets that don't thrive... weakens the gene pool. Still feel guilty tho.

Ahaha, you have to wait til May for your Chocolate eggs, that's gonna seem like forever! I've never ordered eggs, or hatched any shipped eggs before. I've always been worried that for the price, the hatch % would be too low since I'm way out in left field compared to where the best hatcheries/breeders are. Hopefully you get a good hatch rate, can't wait to see some Chocolate keets this year even if they aren't my own, lol.

 

[Country Chickens]

Ohmygosh! That is soo helpful about not letting breeders eat chick feed! Not for our guineas, they have no access (unless you're counting the occassional bit of stolen cat food?) and I'm guessing you're right that it was just temp swings and so on. Our weather has been all over the place, with yesterday almost 80 and today chilly and rainy in the low 50s and headed colder over the next couple days.

BUT we couldn't figure out why our new splash silkie pullet (who's gorgeous and has a very nice roo) has suddenly started laying infertile eggs after we brought her home. The breeder was getting fertile eggs, so what was up? Well, we had them in with our half-grown out silkies that are eating chick grower, and they all kept trading around where they ate. I had no idea that would be a problem!

At least the last couple days she and her man have been seperated, so maybe we'll start seeing fertile eggs soon. Crazy!

I feel your pain on the little or weak keets. It's always soo hard to not hyper-mother them! In fact, I'm not sure I win that battle. But, I try to at least make sure the keet/chick is meeting me halfway. You can't do it for them, you know? It's usually pretty clear if a chick is going to fight for it or not, I think. What's hard is when they're fighting...and losing. But, come to think of it, I don't think we've ever lost a chick or keet that had good spunk. Those are the ones that work with you.

Yeah, we'll have to see how shipping these eggs works out. I keep reminding myself that if even one bird survives, I'll at least have those chocolate genetics in my flock. Of course, I want a lot more than one to survive, but I try to keep my expectations low with shipped eggs! And, no worries. Even with my cheat I am sure you will get a chocolate keet long before I do!

 

[PeepsCA]

Glad you have your Splash and her Roo separated away from the grower feed. Hopefully you'll get fertile eggs soon, keep me posted on how long it takes. Just curious how long it takes to clear the system.

Here's the crew of 23, now down to 22 tho, the Coral Blue (front left) that I figured wouldn't make it long made it thru the night but didn't make it thru the day. He/she wasn't ever up on his/her feet and finally gave up this afternoon. I was hoping being in the other brooder with all the keets would stimulate it, but it didn't help. Sometimes it was alert and pecking at feed, other times it was droopy and lethargic, then it just stayed lethargic and I knew it was on it's way out. I put it back in a brooder by itself so it wasn't getting stepped on while it gave up. Poor baby

Cute hatch tho otherwise...


How's your keet in the cup doing? Better hopefully!

 

[Country Chickens]

Unfortunately, I have the same kind of news. The little guy seemed to be doing well...he pushed out of the cup during the night and was dead in the morning.

Not sure what happened. I wonder, though, if there wasn't something wrong beyond the feet thing. His legs seemed to be coming together better, but sometimes it almost looked like his back was twisted oddly and while he was happy to take all the drinks of sugar/vitamin water I gave him, he hadn't eaten food yet. Or shown any interest in it, until during the night he died. So...idk. At least the other keet is going strong and being a totally adorable little guy! Now I'm especially grateful that we got the second keet.

Sorry about your little coral blue, but you're right that is an adorable hatch! Makes me excited for when ours give us the rainbow...even with the setbacks and losses, this hatching thing is addictive!

 

[PeepsCA]

Aww, bummer about the keet in the cup,

Guess he made his choice tho. Sounds like he did have other stuff going on. Sometimes the first eggs of the season don't hatch the healthiest keets. Some issues are obvious, but others are a mystery (like my CB). Good to read the other guy is doing ok tho!

 

[Country Chickens]

Thanks for all your help, though! These eggs were so early, and his was extra small...any keets are a bonus. But, we learned a lot about fixing legs from this and I'll always be watching to make sure the umbilical cord isn't tangled! It's nice to come on here and have people who can commiserate, help, encourage, whatever.

Tis much appreciated!

 

[PeepsCA]

Hatch FIVE, progress so far... (I was bored so I labeled them)


There's 10 more eggs that look viable, and 4 that are probably duds/late quitters. Smaller batch this time.

Are you guys getting sick of my hatch pics yet? LOL

 

[Country Chickens]

NOPE not remotely! This is a super useful pic--I might have to copy it over to my files for future reference. Thanks! I don't remember our lavender looking quite like that...seemed like they had more distinctive brown stripes? Would have to go digging for them to be certain, though.

Our one little keet is thriving and proving a fav with the whole fam. We got in twenty BC Marans today and some needed quiet away from the mass. So, I moved our older silkie chicks into the big Marans bunch and gave their spot in the baby brooder to the struggling Marans chicks. Well, the little keet was pretty insulted that he'd been left behind! Let me know in no uncertain terms that he was a big kid, too! And, he was. After listening to him peep for ten or fifteen minutes I put him in with the big bunch of Marans and his silkie buddies. As you can see, at first he may have felt a little overwhelmed...he's hiding in the corner with his silkie buddies.



But, after a little bit he was out-running the fastest of the Marans and standing in the middle of the food dish! I think he likes their energy!

 

[PeepsCA]

The Lavender keet above doesn't have the normal fully pearled keet markings/stripes, the middle head stripe is wider and the body colors are sort of blended together... this is what some call the solid pattern, but some call it Teddy Bear (I should have added that to the labels, oops). It's pretty common, even in places like Australia. It's a mutation of just the down, but I'm not sure how or why it happens. He will feather out as a normal looking Lavender tho. A lot of my keets hatch with the solid or Teddy Bear pattern, and I hatch them in all colors of the fully pearled varieties. (But I hatch plenty of normally marked keets too, lol). Most of the TBs are usually Pied to some extent... but this guy doesn't look like he's going to be Pied, at this point anyway. I'll get a better look at him in a couple days when he's fluffed better and has grown a little more. He may end up with just a few white chest feathers and some white flights... maybe.

LOL cute pic you posted, and that's funny he started screaming when his brooder mates were removed. Sometimes Guineas (even keets) are smarter than they look! And I'm sure he does like the high energy, lol, even as tiny as he is he probably feeds off of it. My keets are always are happier and more active with lots more keets in the brooder... mass stimulation.

Sounds like you have your hands full with multiple brooders going too, glad I'm not the only one, lol.

 

[Country Chickens]

Yeah, he acts a little like someone who's been caught up in a pep rally for a strange school but is still screaming the chants and having a blast! He's going to be soo excited when the other keets hatch...then not so excited when the three or four of them go live with their new family and he doesn't have his buddy bunch!

All that teddy bear stuff explains the lavender looking funny to me. I think we may have had one that turned out that way--white flight feathers and a few spots on the chest, but otherwise traditional lavender. I definitely remember having teddy bear keets that were solid pear greys when they grew up, and they came from the same place. They were soo cute!!! I hope we get some like that once the whole flock starts laying. Those keets are too snuggable!