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

[Lucky Lemon]

On day 6? I would give it longer, unless an egg is VERY dead I won't toss until day 10.
-Banti

Thanks, I was thinking I'd give them all until Day 10... just don't want an exploding egg. (I experienced a rotten exploding goose egg once and now I'm scarred for life! HA!)

The one I tossed this morning was obviously not okay. No air cell and it looked like the yolk was all broken up into floating pieces. (no veining)

 

[BantyChooks]

Thanks, I was thinking I'd give them all until Day 10... just don't want an exploding egg. (I experienced a rotten exploding goose egg once and now I'm scarred for life! HA!)

The one I tossed this morning was obviously not okay. No air cell and it looked like the yolk was all broken up into floating pieces. (no veining)

Yech!!

Supposedly you should smell it long before it explodes....... Did you smell anything?
-Banti

 

[guineapeeps]

...

These are just too cute. I don't have enough room for all my chickens. Please don't post more pictures that will tempt me to get guineas. Here's my nerdy momma, with one little baby deciding to show itself: Can someone tell me how to explain to her I just want to look at them? Momma Scooti is a bit frightening the way she glares and growls at me right now. I swear, I don't want to hurt her babies! [/quote Ahhhh....your keets are sooooo cute! I love my Guineas, but I always wish they would stay as cute and sweet as they are when they are little. I always fine it amazing what they morph into as they get older!

 

[mlm Mike]

Chicks started in one bator

Did the hatch finish up?

Guinea and some two week old seramas with them

Keets!

Some birds moved to the grow out pen today

Very nice!

Okay, here are those guinea candling pictures I promised. Had to wait for them to be far enough along to actually see something! These are on Day 6. I also have a batch on Day 20 but the camera can't pick up the washed out veining on those.







Also, here is my special egg. We had an accident during early incubation, as you can see:



But if you look inside, you can see that all was not lost:

Excellent. Thank you very much!

 

[mlm Mike]

Hey y'all, I began incubation on May 25th, at 9 pm to hatch out a dozen Ameracauna x CCL (blue eggs), 14 FBCM (dark chocolate eggs), and 5 EE/BLRW x white rock (mint green eggs); and am I ever excited to see what hatches out!! Woot! Woot!! I bought the blue and dark chocolate eggs, and I raised the hen/roo of the green eggs (they are a couple of mutts). This will be the second hatch I've done in my life so far, and I'm pretty certain I've got "hatch fever"... LOL!!!

I don't believe that I'll be able to candle the FBCM eggs due to the intensity of dark color (5 to 7 scale). But, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be open to hearing what they are... Thanks in advance.

Good Luck!

Well my OE roo may have got an extention on his life. Crystal, one of his girls has gone broody and I don't want to leave her with out a protector at night. I have him and his too girls roosting in a falling down shed while my replacement roo is with his girl in the coop. About a six weeks ago they tried to kill each other so they can't free range together. I fear if I move her to the coop it will break her broody vibe. Long John got slated for Freezer Camp when he jumped me 2 weeks ago for putting the sheep up from their grazing before feeding him and his ladies their grain first. (Which wouldn't work because the sheep would have just run over and gobbled up his grain.)

He embedded the full 2 inch length of one of his spurs into the calf of my leg and even got stuck there. I had to reach down and pull him out. He has been increasingly aggressive this year and I am done with him now. But since I really want Crystal to hatch these eggs he is getting a temporary reprieve. After they hatch I will take care of him and add Onyx to Yellowlegs pen and use half the Bantam pen for Crystal and her brood until she has the chicks grown enough. Then she can go to Yellowlegs pen.

I am really eggcited about these eggs. 5 of them are SP Bantam Wyandottes. 1 of them is Crystal (OE2) and Long John (OE1). One of them is Yellowlegs (OE2) and Tizzy (Sapphire), 1 is Pepper (SBEL) and Lord Argent (SPBW). I have a pullet from the Easter Hatch that is Sapphire/SPBW and she is such a pretty little thing though you can definitively tell she is quarter Leghorn. FLIGHTY! She screams like she is being murdered when I pick her up until I tuck her under my chin and talk to her for a bit.

Good luck with the hatch. Don't turn your back on that rooster.

Sadly my update is not good. We had about 53 eggs on the nest. Tonight one of the guinea hens went after an egg and pecked it until she cracked it open and pierced the yoke. I thought she was going to pull the egg to her breast like she does sometimes.... I am so upset. I know how everyone here says once birds get a taste for their eggs they will break them and try to eat them all the time. Because of this I had to take all the eggs away from my guinea hens. I had eggs from May 13th through today. Never saw a guinea sit on them once. So upset. I was hoping for baby keets without having to get an incubator. Now I am going to have to scramble the old eggs and try to feed them to the guineas / my cats.

Sorry

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.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pyxis

Okay, here are those guinea candling pictures I promised. Had to wait for them to be far enough along to actually see something! These are on Day 6. I also have a batch on Day 20 but the camera can't pick up the washed out veining on those.







Also, here is my special egg. We had an accident during early incubation, as you can see:



But if you look inside, you can see that all was not lost:

Awesome Thank you!! I am adding them to our candling sections in the notes!!!

GOOD MORNING HATCHERS!!!

Hi Sally, please no yelling in the mornings!

On day 19, no visible action yet. I keep talking to them watching for egg movement. Come on eggies, you can do it.

Good Luck!

Five pipped this morning

Four Ameracauna/Barred Rock/Australorp mix, one Lavender Orpington.

Wonderful news!

Today is Day 6 here and I candled again to look for air cells - YAY! I finally can see air cells in my Olive Eggs. I can't see much else - they are VERY DARK. I know that one has a saddle air cell, but they can hatch from that still right? I tossed one egg, so I still have 8 eggs in my 7 egg capacity brinsea! LOL I can only turn them about three times a day (due to my work schedule) so I hope that doesn't affect them too much. They go about 10 hours during the day without being turned, but I turn them as soon as I walk in the door. I hope I can put the auto turner in soon (if any eggs don't show progress by day 10 I will take them out and then have space for auto turner).

One other question, one of my Lavender Orpington eggs, which I can see into just fine), only has one tiny little vein, should I give it a few more days and see if it keeps developing or do you think it's an early quitter?

I'd give it time

Unforunatly both of the chicks passed

I an so sorry.

It's been a busy week and I've fallen behind trying to keep up with all my subscribed threads. Our broody EE hens hatched lots of adorable fluffy chicks. I'm not quite sure exactly how many but roughly 15 little black EE/ Marans mix chicks.

These two hens are sisters from the same hatch and same parents. They go broody and raise chicks together each year.

My silkie chicks have started hatching in the incubator. We have 2 little early birds that hatched this morning, day 20. 1 blue and 1 splash.

Congratulations, nice pictures!

 

[Lucky Lemon]

Yech!!

Supposedly you should smell it long before it explodes....... Did you smell anything?
-Banti

Nope, didn't smell anything, was checking the eggs under my broody mama goose and picked that one up and it exploded! I can still remember the smell.

 

[BantyChooks]

Nope, didn't smell anything, was checking the eggs under my broody mama goose and picked that one up and it exploded! I can still remember the smell.

EWWWWW! Well, you should be safe as long as you sniff them regularly..... It should be more noticable in an enclosed room....
-Banti

 

[Blooie]

So the Silkie gang is going out to live in the outside brooder today! They are all strong, healthy, and know how to find food and water and Mama Heating Pad, so out they go! This is the longest I've kept chicks in the house in a long, long time....they are all about a week old give or take a day depending on which day they hatched. They are just adorable - but they can be adorable OUTSIDE!

 

[DwayneNLiz]

We woke to find a few CLBs, BLRW, and OEs have hatched. All other eggs 20+ have pipped &/or begun to zip. Just as I was about to celebrate, I noticed the temp is 103 and one thermometer shows that the temp range in the past 24 hours has been 106-95! One chick is dead. The others are panting. We removed them quickly and gave them water. We wrapped the remaining eggs in cool, moist paper towels, and found that every one of them is fully developed, but DIS. I feel like a mass murderer. Bill looked like he was going to cry. I am sick to my stomach. Luckily Curtis (12 years) was allowed to stay up very late last night to watch a movie and wasn't up yet- he's very sensitive about our animals, but I guess we all are. I'm going to soak in the tub for a bit. My head hurts.

sorry to hear this!

Have a dozen or more mixed eggs(silkies, EE, slw, slw/Orpington mixes) in lockdown right now. Nothing from them yet. We discovered that the fan went out on our incubator and DH2B fixed it by Macgyver-ing a computer fan in, for right now but not before it looked the first two staggers of our last hatch... We did get three chicks last hatch but lost one that was hatched with wry neck for unknown reasons(it was responding to treatment well) also lost another little one that was still waiting for its navel to close. Ugh was a hard week in that way, but we got our chicks back from the kindergarten class that hatched them and they got 14/18 eggs!!! So we have 14 more fuzzy butts! So good to see all those littles after the last two weeks and the abysmal last stagger in the hatch. In the last two weeks we lost our lf rooster, a SLW/buff Orpington cockeral chick 6 weeks, a SLW hen, a salmon faverolles chick, the little one with wry neck, and the one that was almost out of the egg. We also almost lost another hen, and Isa Brown, that has been virtually plucked. So I'm excited to see the little ones start hatching in lockdown but they may be a little late due to the temp issues. At least they're much closer to the right air cell sizes though still a bit off.

I also dropped an egg this morning that isn't due to go into lockdown for two more days. Ugh I could've cried. It didn't break the membrane and I painted all the cracks with nail polish but it's pretty well cracked and dented on one side. It was one of those awful slow motion movements where you almost catch it like 4 times before watching it and hear the sickening crunch as it smashes on the counter. Uh oh. It fell maybe 8 inches it's just not my day. You can imagine after patching it up since then I've touched nothing.

We also have one of our silkie hens broody again she's on 5 eggs this time around and just last night decided she'd go crazy chicken and see if she could make me bleed! I didn't buy I am pretty peeved at her. DH2B is afraid of this hen when broody and last night he informed me she's been like that with him both times she's gone broody. Well thanks for telling me I just thought you were being a baby about her little pecks. Now I believe him that hen is nuts! Not sure I'll ever let her set again. This is her second chance as last time she began attacking chicks even her own chicks and had to be removed from them and placed back with the flock.

Thanks, a hot bath and chicken therapy, and I'm feeling much better. Sabrina the Sebastopol/crested goose got a new pen today, and Bill painted one of his yard sale finds and planted it with "hen & chicks" so we're all good here. (=

Awesome! i love stuff like this!

Yes. Well there is a broody on Icelandic chicken eggs too.

I could have brought home 20-30 Welsh Harlequin duck eggs from herding Saturday, but I forgot to go back into the arena barn when we were done.

The owner of the place got rid of their ducks so I missed my chance.

how could you forget?? o my goodness

I will be selling most of them.

oh really??

This is the EE that hatched last night I am hoping that it was fathered by our silky roo..
thoughts??

Look at that ball of fluff!!!

I had two poults hatch over the weekend. Not many but most of my girls took a break for a few weeks.

This one, I didn't hatch but is a guest at our house at the moment lol

AWWW!!!!! a fawn!!!

Roar

i thought you were a cat? now youre a lion?

And my broody hen is out and about with the chicks. So far, she's doing great keeping them together, keeping them warm, and keeping the other birds away. She all out jumped on one of the higher ranking hens! She's gonna do just fine protecting her babies.

YAYYYY!!!!

My 2nd chick for this week hatched. Right on the day it was due. It was another EE eggs I was hoping fathered by the silky roo.. The good news is the one that I posted the other day from my EE hen looked like this and by feather sexing it is predicted to be a pullett.. we shall see.

look at that face!!

Well I want to raise pigs for meat, so that works, I hear those cute little things taste good too, but we can raise real pigs too, as long as you and kiddo dress them up and they look so sweet the lilpiggies can come too, and well birds are here ducks geese keets and whatever else shows up, who cares

may i come as well?

but theyre too pretty! You eat the ugly ones

pigs eat people too right?

very much so

There is cheeping coming from underneath my broody. She, of course, is being a nerd, and acts very offended if I so much as look at her, so I guess I'll have to wait a while before I get to figure out how many her eggs hatched. Technically, it's two days early. I thought that only happened with incubators.

I had the opportunity to spread some learning yesterday. During a conversation I was having with several coworkers, knowing that I keep chickens, one coworker made a half-joking comment about pregnant chickens. I casually mentioned that chickens don't get pregnant; a comment that was met with blank stares, then the hesitant statement from said coworker that of course they must, because they have babies. My reply, 'Yes, they have chicks; they lay eggs, and if the eggs are fertile, they can hatch them out' lead us into the conversation of how a hen doesn't need to mate in order to lay eggs, and then into misconceptions around what can and can't happen with fertile eggs. One coworker routinely had been throwing out any store-bought, refrigerated eggs older than 2 weeks, for fear they might start developing. It's always a surprise to me when I find myself in these types of conversations; so much of this seems like plain common sense now. It does make me wonder what misconceptions I carry around that I could use some correcting on.

ignorance is bliss

71 out so far. Giving them until tomorrow afternoon before I call it finished.

holy cow 71 how many are still due?

I dont believe Mike and I are having anything else until perhaps Halloween in the fall. @mymilliefleur

maybe just sleepy!!! have faith!

oh dang!!! I think you have it under control as much as you can sweets! how are they now poor things I also hate broodies just sayin!

I LOVE halloween!!!

I'm hatching MOR Burd and that is that!! SHHH, Bubbles! No more chatter! *slam bang crash*


Mrmmmphhh! Mmmm MMMPH! MRBBMHH MFF.

crazy white polish

if you keep doing polish maybe i'll buy some eggs... or with my horrible hatching rates - drive to you and pick them up

Hey y'all, I began incubation on May 25th, at 9 pm to hatch out a dozen Ameracauna x CCL (blue eggs), 14 FBCM (dark chocolate eggs), and 5 EE/BLRW x white rock (mint green eggs); and am I ever excited to see what hatches out!! Woot! Woot!! I bought the blue and dark chocolate eggs, and I raised the hen/roo of the green eggs (they are a couple of mutts). This will be the second hatch I've done in my life so far, and I'm pretty certain I've got "hatch fever"... LOL!!!

I don't believe that I'll be able to candle the FBCM eggs due to the intensity of dark color (5 to 7 scale). But, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be open to hearing what they are... Thanks in advance.

Good Luck!!!
the crosses sound beautiful

Unforunatly both of the chicks passed

So the Silkie gang is going out to live in the outside brooder today! They are all strong, healthy, and know how to find food and water and Mama Heating Pad, so out they go! This is the longest I've kept chicks in the house in a long, long time....they are all about a week old give or take a day depending on which day they hatched. They are just adorable - but they can be adorable OUTSIDE!

You're so mean

 

[Chaos18]

oh really??


i thought you were a cat? now youre a lion?


but theyre too pretty! You eat the ugly ones

At least that's the plan.
A lion is a cat.
They all look the same when they are bacon.