Washingtonians

[Selena]

RIR # 2 came out wonderful. Beautiful and healthy.

#3 I've named Quasimodo. His beak is twisted, his right eye is misplaced...

I'm not pleased with this hatch at all. The other 7 eggs show no pips (but it's only day 22), and I tried candling at first, but couldn't so I didn't try anymore. I've kept the humidity and temp correct. ARGH.

 

[Selena]

I've moved my Wheaten Marans to a larger tank (one week old and dust bathing. I love it. LOL), and have the RIRs in the smaller tank. I don't know what's the most humane way to cull Quasi. I'm amazed he's alive, to be honest. He's in with his only sibling and is so affectionate.

I'm concerned about my BC Marans hatching next week. I KNEW I shouldn't try to hatch eggs again. But why would I listen to myself, eh?

Nivtup: Congrats on the hatch!

ETA: Well, I ended up checking the other RIR. 2 developed yet dead chicks. I don't know HOW developed, as I only opened up the air sac side and didn't break through the membrane. I tapped them with the spoon end of my dental pick (I have different types of picks that I use to clean my vintage sewing machines. They work well for other things too, like gently breaking into eggs, it turns out. ) The rest are liquid. I rocked them and the membranes moved like a waterbed. YUCK!

So 5 duds, 3 dead-in-shell (only one tried to hatch), 1 deformed, & 1 beautiful bird (who will probably turn out to be a roo. Just wait!). I followed advice and instructions!

Should I contact the folks I got them from? I'll admit, I should have never tried setting the one that looked like a double-yolker, but I figured "what the heck?".

 

[UrbanChickenMama]

Ack Selena,
I have no experience in hatching. I'm so sorry that you are having such a bad hatch rate.

I hope your one beautiful one turns out to be a lil girl for you.

I'd definitely tell the seller - they need that kind of feedback. Maybe there is something they can do on their end to improve for future buyers.

 

[Selena]

Well, I told them. I let them know how poor that hatch was, and how I was confused because another batch I had in there came out with 75%. The answer I got was that the poor hatch rate had to be from fluctuating temps. If that's the case, why did I have wonderful development on the marans and a 75% hatch, but only had development in 50%, and 20% hatch on the RIR? The only times I opened the lid was to try to candle the one time, and later to move Marans to the other incubator to finish hatching. Both times I only opened it enough to slip my hand in.

Furthermore, the first batch in the incubator from a different breeder had a worse time than the RIR! Those Marans started out incubating sitting on a plate rack, in an aquarium under a ceramic Heat Emitter and I had to hand turn them for the first 5 days before getting the bators. Then I transfered them to the bator, then I had to open the bator to set 2 more batches of eggs. If any eggs had poor temps, it'd be them! But no, I got 75% of them, and if I hadn't been squeamish, I've checked the last 2 unhatched for development. I bet I would've gotten 100 % development! But after tossing eggs last year that exploded on me...

Man, I'd rather deal with GI bleeds and fresh Trach tubes any day!

BTW, my gorgeous Wheaten Marans came from a BYCer on here. I want to give her a shoutout, as I'm thoroughly impressed with these little ones. Even more so now that I see how poor the other breeder's eggs were! The healthy Marans came from "The Farmers Wife". Thank you Julie Gabbard!


I wouldn't be so sad about the RIR except that I had 2 people wanting to buy them.

 

[Selena]

Here's a pic of my first hatched Marans:

I swear, he's the nosies hatching I've heard! I heard him from the incubator in the kitchen, across the house from the bedroom. Woke me up that morning. He's got good lungs, that's for sure!

 

[Selena]

Ok, just gotta share.

Yesterday I bought 4 storage totes for nest boxes as I was finding the eggs on the ground lately and not in the old nest boxes which I hated anyway. I figured I could just set them on the ground until I figured out how to install them in a way that I could still remove them for easier cleaning. Well, I just went out to check on eggs and whatnot, and I found one upside down. Not surprising, since the birds mistook them for dusting boxes and would flip them around. So I pick it up and TA DA! My little Brahma-silkie cross is under with a pink egg! She made a nest in the dirt while she was trapped. LOL.

Shortly there after, I came up with a brilliant idea to install the boxes, but obviously not soon enough.

BTW, the boxes are Sterilite Ultras in Large #1626. http://www.sterilite.com/Category.html?Section=Storage&ProductCategory=141#
I now plan on building a wooden shelf out of 2x2 and 2x4 where the boxes will just set in. That way, I can pop them out when they need to be cleaned, and yet they can't be turned over. I'll post pics when I'm done. They're too big really for the mixed birds, and roomy for the others, but I wanted them to be big enough for the cochins. Besides, they were on sale for $3. All the wood is from my "Christian Chickens Pile" (so called, because it's left over from the addition to Christ the Rock and I have permission from my DH to use it for the chickens.) so they are FREE! (and holy!

jk..)

 

[chookchick]

Jenn, You could go on over to "Raising baby Chicks" and give yourself a good scare reading all the posts about chicks stuck in the mail system for days...I'm sure they'll be fine!, but if you chicken out (sorry) there are three feed stores down here that carry chicks, and at least one in Puyallup.

 

[Selena]

Helaine: Thank you! Yeah, I've been suspecting that it's a boy. He was the only one that hatched with dark wings and he's kinda caramel colored when the other two are more yellow. I can almost hear the "Sesame Street" tune.. "Which one of these is not like the other?..."

Congrats on the pullet! YAY!


Jenn: Thank you too! I know that Del's here said they were getting them at the end of March, but that was some time ago, so we'll see. Perhaps they'll be early.



Oh, and guess what y'all? The single "healthy" RIR has pasty butt. I have NEVER had that problem! What a horrid hatch! So I've been wiping her butt with a soapy cloth and today I finally decided enough was enough! I Pam'd her butt! Let's see it stick to THAT! They have plenty of water, plenty of feed, and are warm and seem happy... but I think it's strange that the RIR hatch was almost a complete failure.

 

[lisahaschickens]

HI All -

I am located at the north end of Vancouver, WA and am just starting out with new chicks and a new coop in a new house in a new state! I am blogging about it here: http://lisahaschickens.wordpress.com

I have lots of good pictures and fun stories, so please check it out!

My chicks are two and half weeks old now:

6 Marans (straight run, still figuring out sexes)
3 Buff Orpington pullets
5 Ameraucana pullets
1 "Mystery chick" (free rare chick from McMurray)

The other day I was out driving around and I saw the sign for Gopher Boy farms, so we are very close together!

 

[lisahaschickens]

oh yeah, and in response to Jenn's question about ordering chicks through the mail -

my experience was really good. I ordered 25 chicks + 1 "free rare" chick from McMurray and found someone to split the order with me on Craigslist. The hatchery gave me a delivery window of "sometime during the week of Feb 9th" and the post office called me before dawn on Monday Feb 9th and they were there. I drove down to get them, worried that they'd been stuck at the post office all weekend, but when I got them home, I found 27 (they gave me an extra Marans) breathing, peeping chicks, 0 dead. They got used to the brooder and found the food and water withing minutes. I gave ten to the lady who split the order with me. I lost one the first night and one the next day. That's it. The other lady lost zero so far and they are now 2.5 weeks old, so 25 out of 27 made it so far. They are all beautiful and healthy with no deformities and are growing like weeds. I would definitely do it the same way next time.