What's wrong with their feathers?

[chick-among-us]

I've had these under a scovie broody until now - scovies naturally do a drier hatch for themselves.  With that one exception noted air cell size seem to be right where they should be. 

This clear top jobber has two water wells on the bottom.  Decided to drain the smaller one and try to drop it down closer to 65% H now so I can stay out of it later on closer to hatch. Cardboard cartons are going to hold humidity in thier own right. With this rig easier to add more than take out - VERY limited venting and with what little there is, everything is clear and open now.   Once they start hatching humidity is going to raise up with fluids anyway isn't it?

Thanks! 

I have used cardboard cartons and had lots of trouble with sticky chicks...to the point they shellacked themselves into their shells. Evidently the cardboard sucked moister FROM the eggs..I switched to the styrofoam egg cartons done the same way ( hole in the bottom of each egg cup) and have had much less problems...I'm like y'all I do dry hatching from chooks instructions....we hatch for customers...and do well...also I prefer broodies... I do have a question...why did you remove the eggs from the broody? Can they not hatch under ducks? My broodies often get 100% hatches on shipped eggs, so was wondering why you removed them to an artificial setting? Just wondering....what kind of babies will these be? You said special ...from chooks...sounds like you are having fun,I know it's exciting sitting with your nose plastered to the hatcher... Our sportsman incubator is OFF! Sigh....to quiet.

 

[EdenCamp]

What was your humidity level using the cardboard and having problems?

I used carboard because it "breathes" and trying to be logical, more closely mimics natural bedding. Figgured it would stabilize moisture levels after wicking up ambient humidity. And yes, maybe absorb some hatching "goo". I would be VERY interested to hear other's experience of carboard vs styr cartons.....

This morning, after removing water yesterday eve, hatcher has resettled at 100 temp and 35% humidity. Debating dripping a bit to keep it more around 40% and then bump around 60% once pipping. Thoughts?

Some of my scovie broodies are in safer locations than others. My farm cats are VERY active preds. Leaving a few duck eggs and stuffing shipped eggs often has a very crowded nest. The duck eggs won't hatch til after the chicken eggs but ducklings are quite a bit bigger and less fragile - worried about squishes from mama or ducklings, getting bumped out the the nest..... generally being paranoid.
Less so with my own eggs from established flocks - you get a bit more cavilier when you aren't trying to milk every possible hatch from bought eggs trying to establish a flock base.....

Plus, I #'d, charted origional egg color and size of the eggs received. If I don't know what chick came from which egg can't band and tie back to that info for going forward. Even better if eggs are marked with pens/lineage from parent stock for line breeding records. When I say AR, I mean AR! But, if I'm going to work to selectively breed toward SOP, need to do all that. Am I risking a bit lower hatch going this route? Maybe, but I need the records.

These are choc/mauve silkied AMs from Chookschicks. MissChickenLittle lives fairly close and also has a batch hatching out this week. The more info we can track & share the better we can work on this together. We both have SQ BBS Am's eggs from different lines coming in and I also have hardfeather choc/mauve AMs from Pipsnpeeps hatching in a few days.

 

[Thespoiledchicken]

If anyone wants some Silkie Feather chicks I have 6 of them for sale. They are Blue's and Splashes about 3-4 weeks old.

Pick up in Mattituck, NY or ship at your expense.


Trish

 

[ChooksChick]

What was your humidity level using the cardboard and having problems?

I used carboard because it "breathes" and trying to be logical, more closely mimics natural bedding. Figgured it would stabilize moisture levels after wicking up ambient humidity. And yes, maybe absorb some hatching "goo". I would be VERY interested to hear other's experience of carboard vs styr cartons.....

This morning, after removing water yesterday eve, hatcher has resettled at 100 temp and 35% humidity. Debating dripping a bit to keep it more around 40% and then bump around 60% once pipping. Thoughts?

Some of my scovie broodies are in safer locations than others. My farm cats are VERY active preds. Leaving a few duck eggs and stuffing shipped eggs often has a very crowded nest. The duck eggs won't hatch til after the chicken eggs but ducklings are quite a bit bigger and less fragile - worried about squishes from mama or ducklings, getting bumped out the the nest..... generally being paranoid.
Less so with my own eggs from established flocks - you get a bit more cavilier when you aren't trying to milk every possible hatch from bought eggs trying to establish a flock base.....

Plus, I #'d, charted origional egg color and size of the eggs received. If I don't know what chick came from which egg can't band and tie back to that info for going forward. Even better if eggs are marked with pens/lineage from parent stock for line breeding records. When I say AR, I mean AR! But, if I'm going to work to selectively breed toward SOP, need to do all that. Am I risking a bit lower hatch going this route? Maybe, but I need the records.

These are choc/mauve silkied AMs from Chookschicks. MissChickenLittle lives fairly close and also has a batch hatching out this week. The more info we can track & share the better we can work on this together. We both have SQ BBS Am's eggs from different lines coming in and I also have hardfeather choc/mauve AMs from Pipsnpeeps hatching in a few days.

I've used both cardboard and styrofoam. I don't really notice a difference between the two, except in cases of extreme humidity and the cardboard turns soggy then...but it's really humid in here in the spring and fall and dry in the summer and winter with the heater/HVAC running. When we don't have heating or cooling it's as high as 85% humidity in the room. It's petty gross. Sticky.

Anyway, I'm delighted you recognize that the egg color can change during the hatch, because it does with these, often. Some of the birds have a richer color and the egg darkens through the time frame, while other shifts the hue, depth, etc.

What I've been surprised about is that all of my chocolate Am hens (likely split as it was one split, 2 fluffy hens in w/Choc dude) seem to have very good blue egg color and not anywhere as green as some of the B/B/S that haven't any Orp to kick out brown overlay. It's good not to have to breed that out, for certain! I'll get some shots of the month-old Mauves for you guys when it stops raining...all are hard-feathered, and now comes the time when I have to work to figure out who is split and who isn't. It's going to be a summer of pairings to deduce who has what genes...

 

[kelly77]

Hi I stumbled upon this post ..just curious if you had ever breed them, if so what did you come up with? I tried to follow the story but you have 243 replies on the miracle pair

They are beautiful

 

[EdenCamp]

There have been a number of folks that have hung in there from early on and others that have passed on the baton. I read EVERY post, it took time - quite a bit of it actually. Some have branched out to other colors. Chookschicks has been round about as long as any left from early on - can say she has been AWESOME!
There are others if you flip back a ways or looking for other color projects.
If you're seriously thinking about coming on board really reccomend reading through the whole dang thread - you'll learn a LOT!

 

[ChooksChick]

Chicks are popping like movie theater popcorn!!! Ka-POW!!!

I'll get some shots in the morning, and post them, plus some shots of the Mauves from the last batch.

 

[LBKS]

Haven't updated in a bit, but one of my Chooks' chicks is normal feathered and a total sweetheart. The other sweetie isn't quite what I'd call full silkied-feathered:


For comparison, the silkied-feathered chicks from CatKai are full on hookless and are totally hairy looking. See the two white-ish chicks in the middle-back here (and ignore the non project chicks hanging out). I really like this 'clumpy' look though, I think it's gorgeous! I'm also curious if this chick is a double recessive for the version of the hookless gene it has or if it's a carrier with an oddly co-dominant expressed appearance. Thoughts/ideas/am-I-way-off-base? I know the only way to know is with a controlled next-generation breeding. Hard to wait!



As far as hatching, I have some potential silkied-feathered chicks in lock down from when I picked up mister handsome rooster and his lovely ladies. One pip so far, looks like it's resting in shell before the push. More in the second incubator cooking.

Thanks to the new temp/humidity logger I determined my hatcher was total junk and was the culprit in my temperature spikes. Using the incubator the eggs were in this time around for the hatching. Hoping to see better results.

Whew, sorry for the block of random updates, but thought I'd get it out while my phone was cooperating to offload some pictures.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

 

[LBKS]

8 chicks out drying off so far. One more mostly out when I left for work, and one other that needs some help. (The 'help' egg's pip was bloody and on the bottom of the egg; I initially thought it was dead, but it was just weak and barely breathing. I peeled back a bit of the shell around the pip (while trying figure out what 'killed' it) and then wet the membrane before wrapping in a wet paper towel with pip side up). I'm guessing the assist chick may have been kicked around by the hatched chicks, so I'll be driving back home over lunch to check on it and re-wet the paper towel. The other chicks that hatched are out of the incubator so they don't further disturb the other eggs.

How are the rest of you doing? Any new additions?

 

[EdenCamp]

Good for you! Nicole and I have hatches this weekend. PO did a royal number on the shipment tho.
Freakin gorillas! Can't do anymore than Renee does on a packing job.

PO has stickers now for eggs - have to ask for them. Then they have to place them with LIVE animals so they won't get treated like regular packages. Been told insurance is available on eggs now too. Open them up at the PO and if you can show them detached air cells they have to pay. ABOUT TIME!