Winter Hatch for C.Maran? Ugh.

[aart]

Honestly the only reason for the hatch is to take advantage of a broody hen. If I can get a few chicks under her then that's a clutch of replacers that I don't have to feed/water/care for (based on last year's experience). If these don't work out, I'll shift gears and go full on with a replacement hatch with as many eggs as I can fit into the incubator. In that case I'll set up the QT coop for chicks again. But if that's what I end up doing I'll also wait a few more weeks until the two red broilers start to lay becaus I want at least 4 eggs from each one of them crossed with our roo.

The QT coop is currently waiting to house the future backyard flock, where I'll have to choose between two sprinty cockerels (Fayoumi/EE versus Leghorn/EE) over some selected hens (2 leghorns, 4 EE, 3 SL Wyandottes).

Sounds like good plans....Good Luck!

 

[LilRedRoo]

Thanks! So far so good; temps have been stable and I am guessing on humidity. Tomorrow I'll check air cell development and see if my dud is still a dud and if my casualties are gone or still hanging on.

 

[LilRedRoo]

Update for Day 7

Egg 6 - Welsummer - dud; removed and discarded; one of the cracked ones
Egg 13 - Leghorn - blood ring and dead chick; one of the cracked ones
All the others are alive and well for now.

4 (Australorp), 10 and 11 (Leghorns) look alive, but are the 3 remaining with major cracks. We'll see how they do. Air cells look good, so I guess the humidity is adequate for keeping up with the potential for evap. Egg 10 had a very small fetus compared to the rest, so maybe it died. I'll know for sure next time.

5 (Barred Rock) and R2 (Aussie) were extremely active

a couple EE's are so dark it's hard to see what's going on

all the rest look good, and air cells of all but one are very consistent, so I'm leaving it as-is on the humidity. I removed the red plugs at Day 4.

I'll candle sometime between Day 12 and Day 14.

 

[davemonkey]

[Hurray!! I finally figured out how to "reply" from this computer. I had to switch browsers.]

I’m glad that the duds were the cracked ones and I hope the rest make it for you. The main thing to remember, and the HARDEST part to keep (and you probably won’t if you’re anything like me) is to not open the incubator until they’ve all hatched. Honestly, I’m not 100% sure that it really matters, but some people swear by it and I know we did have several die during the last day or two of the process (and we opened the incubator several times to hold the babies and even hatched a couple in our hands). But maybe they would have died anyway…just weak chicks? I don’t know…I just know that next time we will leave them alone until all is finished. But honestly, how “constant” is humidity when eggs are hatching underneath a hen? And didn’t you have a couple chicks die at the same point of hatch under a broody? Just something to think about I suppose.

Anyway, the kids are going to absolutely LOVE the hatch day. Once you see a “pip”, it’s like you want to sit there and watch…except it’ll still be another 6 -24 hours before anything happens after that. Blah.

 

[LilRedRoo]

Yes, we had a couple die under the hen, and I dount the humidity is kept constant for any length of time, nor the temperature for that matter. The hatch should be fine, except that I'll miss it. The night of Day 17 (morning of Day 18) I have to leave, so Meilnda can just keep the kids from opening the incubator, and then I get back on hatch night, so we can check on the eggs and see how it's going. This will be a lot of fun!

 

[LilRedRoo]

Candled yesterday and so far all seem alive, but one of them I am not sure about. We'll see. The air cells of the 4 cracked eggs are noticably larger than the others, so I have placed them directly over the water resevoirs in hopes that it helps. I guess that's just the way it goes.

Too much humidity could be bad for the others though. The air cells look fine, but I'd like for them to have been just a touch larger by yesterday. I may put them under the hen on Day 18 and then hope the other chicks hatch out about the same time so I can sneak them under her without issue. If not, that's how it goes sometimes.

 

[davemonkey]

So, any news? Did you end up putting any eggs under the hen? Did any hatch out?

 

[LilRedRoo]

Howdy! Yes, we put the eggs under her just before I left out of town, which was right at "night" 18. There were 8 eggs left from the original set, and 5 of them (3 EE x RIR, 1 Ausssie x RIR, 1 Leghorn x RIR) hatched. 3 others (BR, Leghorn and EE) were shrinkwrapped internally and died trying to hatch. So mama Maran has 5 chicks. One of them nearly died a few days ago when it couldn't get up into the nest with the others (the first night after I got back from the trip). Melinda warmed it in her hands and massaged it back to life, and it is doing well now. Melinda took a couple of pictures of them outside learning to find food, and if I can get them downloaded I'll post a couple of them here.

The EE's are red, red, red...obvious that Little Red is the father. The leghorn looks like a leghorn, but will probably feather out with lots of red coloration as it matures, and the other one is jet black with yellow wing tips.

 

[LilRedRoo]

There's a yellow-footed EE living in my room...do what? The little chick that nearly died got trampled this morning by the other hens and ended up under the feeder, got cold, and Melinda brought it inside. She's keeping inside until it gets some feathers and is stronger. Cute little thing better be a pullet, because I hate to think I'm putting up with all this chirping for a cockerel I don't need. Still waiting download pics...


Edit for update - Melinda just brought in another chick (the leghorn cross) to keep it company; mama hen is probably going nuts.

 

[LilRedRoo]

Update plus the pics. Update is that yesterday Melinda took the two chicks to the mother and it was nice, but another hen stepped on the little chick, created chaos with the flock, and the little thing go trampled to death. Here are some pics of the chicks and Mama. The lightest colored of the reddish chicks is the one that died yesterday evening. It was pretty weak and slow from day 1 and I was sure it would die regardless, so I can't really say I'm surprised. All of these are from a RIR rooster, and it's obvious which chick comes from a leghorn hen, an australorp hen, and the EE hens.