MAY 2016 "Land of the Free Because of the brave!" Hatch-a-Long Hosted by, Mike & Sally

[SunnysideFowl]

Ok, i look terrible but the photo in general is too funny not to share.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

My update:

Louise hatched her 7 eggs earlier this week. Four were hatched when I went out in the morning and the last three were out by the afternoon.

I found out that I couldn't add her to the others, even thought they were just a few days apart. The Silky moms would have killed the chicks and beat Louise up...lol.
I have a 4 foot rabbit cage top that fits in the brooder, so I put Louise in there with her chicks and the Silkies are on the outside.

Although none of their reactions are a surprise...I still had hope that I could work magic or something.

(Delusional...check!)

Two guinea eggs quit on the bottom broody. In her defense she does have 2-3 hens who lay eggs in her nest everyday. So now I'm trying to decide if I should put the viable guinea eggs back in the bator and just give them both eggs due on the 16th. They're both thin and then I'm done with broody hens taking up nest space. Yes, just decided...that's what I'm gonna do.

I'm due to hatch on the 16th from the incubator. I've had a few hens that laid eggs in the broody nests that were set on for more than 12+ hours when we've been gone...so I added those eggs to the incubator as they occurred.

One egg got missed and looked to be about 4 or so days under a broody when I found it. The egg has 12?? written on the end of it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard peeping out of the egg last night.

I've never hatched a single chick by itself...so I set the egg in one of my containers (no holes for air flow), I wet a portion of paper towel and hung it over the side of the container and I set a folded sandwich baggy on top to hold humidity in...but left about a 1/4 inch along two sides to let fresh air in. Humidity in the incubator is approx 44% (calibrated properly finally...lol)
The chick was already out this morning with zero issues. Super happy it worked!!

Here's pics of what I did in case any one needs this info.
The paper towel on the side was also dampened and the bag just placed loose on top. Super simple!



The chick came out of a smooth blue/green egg, very high chance it's from a pullet that was hatched last year from my original pair .
These pullets are backcrossed to their father to see if he has the blue egg gene or just the hen.
I was expecting chipmunk coloring.
Everyone's colored with green legs...and I got this yellow chick with light legs???

Exciting, surprising and totally unexpected!

The egg

Original hen that was paired with rooster below. She's the grandmother.

The rooster (they're molting, no tail) with the hen above makes the hen that's drinking water.

And the hen drinking water X the above rooster made THIS chick with NO colors...

Who just wanted to cuddle and sleep.

Awwwww. I gave him my toque to cuddle with. (Hurry other little chicks and hatch!!!)
And I just realized I haven't turned the eggs at all today. (crap!) Catch you guys later!!!

 

[Cynthia12]

Good luck with yours too!

I hear chirping! An internal pip!

 

[AmyPaperlady]

Look at what I woke up to this morning!

 

[sasafras4u2]

Photo shoot! Some of the May HAL chicks

Croad Langhans hatched on May 23rd.

Sizzle frizzle silkie hatched May 8th

Black sizzle frizzle silkie

Smooth sizzle

Isabelle leghorn

Ayam cemani 2 clear toe nails

Ayam with 2 pink toe tips

Ayam Cemani

 

[sdubski]

Pip! At 7pm, lucky number 13 (Ameracauna mix), no action since. Going to bed hoping to wake up to more. Day 21 starts tomorrow at noon.

 

[Scovy Momma]

 

[Cynthia12]

To Sally and Mike, and those that donated prizes, and to those that entered those fun and cute contests.

 

[shahtir101]

I'm not sure if l asked about chicken show transport boxes here but this is the one I made. There are 3 dividers and the ones on the end can hold a pair and the one in the middle can hold a trio (of seramas) I added places for waterers to be attached incase they need to stay in there overnight or all day. I am super happy with how it turned out!

 

[shahtir101]

Today was awesome! My silkied hen got reserve champion female and champion female silkied! Finn got 4th place in the males prospect class. Truffles made it into the second tier and Kingsley got 3rd place silkied male! I'm very proud!