The 7th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-A-Long!

[wicket 07]

Lockdown at 12:30 9 out of 14.

 

[GitaBooks]

Such cuties. I have a black and white spotted pullet. She is a leghorn mix. Can't wait for her to start laying.
You have some cute babies there. Good job on assisting!

Thanks.

I love the spotted chickens.

see what others in your area are selling them for on Craigslist

Update on the eggs that dropped to 10%: lost all but 1 NN. Sadl none of the milke Fleur d'uccle made it, I'll have to try to add that breed some other time. For added fun the poor chicks that made it past shrink-wrap got frozen-hatching bator broke when I added extra water. Must've accidentally sprayed into the thermostat.

Meet lucky-

I'm sorry to hear about the chicks you lost. Incubating certainly isn't as easy as it sometimes sounds.

I hope you get your d'Uccles one of these days.

wanted to share this . Had 4 eggs go in to lock down Tue evening. Figured I would save myself some clean up and put a puppy pad in the bottom of my DIY bator, that i'm now using for hatching. Put my drawer liner on top of pad and added my dishes with sponges. Got it all heated up and the 4 eggs in and the humidity started dropping after awhile. My dishes were full, even with the top of the sponges so i didn't want to add more to those to avoid drowning babies. I just started dribbling water in thru a vent in the top on to the drawer liner and in to the puppy pad. OH MY GOSH those are the bomb ! They collect the water and it spreads out and the humidity goes right up where it needs to be. No worries about drowning or opening the bator or anything. The pads that were suggested before were pretty good but they pull the water deep and you only get the moisture off the top. The puppy pads are thin so you get more humidity from the water spreading out. And how much easier can it be than to just dribble some warm water anywhere into the bator if u have a pad on the bottom ? Worked GREAT for me so i had to share.

Thanks! That actually sounds like a great idea.

If you learn to listen to the pitch of their cries you will know the difference between their usual noise and when they scream hysterically about real danger. The group of five I had warned me of dogs harassing my sheep and I ran home from the neighbors house in time to run them off and no one was injured. Except me. Because my Shetland ram was p!$$3d that I had failed to keep the fence secure and they had gotten through. I was walking with my DH to the spot where I saw the dogs go under the fence when I here rapid footfalls and BAM! My ram hits me in the butt and sends me flying about 8 feet. I did manage to have enough grace to land on my feet. Then he followed me around BAAAAing at me for twenty minutes. I figured the translation went something like this: "You let DOGS through the fence! Who do you think I am SUPERRAM!? There were FIVE DOGS! FIVE! And it was just ME standing between the girls and those DOGS! FIVE DOGS!

I'm glad everyone was okay. Sounds like the dogs wouldn't have injured any ewes with that bad boy in with them though. LOL.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh! If you don't speak it maybe it won't happen.

After all these 70-80 degree days I AM SPOILED!

Had to pull the winter coat back out this morning. After shorts last week it was depressing. Yes, I'm spoiled.

I know! It got so warm and then all of the sudden its back to coats and hats. That's spring for you, about as wishy-washy as you can be.

 

[Cynthia12]

Do you have your straight jacket on too?

(inside joke from the Turkey Hatch a long).

ron, never matters how long I've done this, I always worry during lock down. And you know all of the different reasons for that worry. This time, my turner stopped working right during the first part of the last week. It was stuck in the front angle. All the way forward. I thought at first, maybe I'm just not seeing it when it's changed. Well, I finally decided to look 20 mins later one day..and it was still in the same position. I had started thinking how others on here had said their turner had stopped working right..so that's why I started watching. When I saw it in the same position, I found a Yahtzee box and put it under it..lol...to change it. And to see if it would change. Well it did. Then, it stopped again later in the day. I just took them out and put them down on their sides. Candled for lock down, saw something I had ever seen. It looked like the blood vessels were stuck to one side of the egg in a couple, and one had definitely quit. I am worried about a couple that looked similar, but I could see movement..will see if they make it through lock down. :/
I thought because they were further along that this wouldn't happen.

 

[ronott1]

ron, never matters how long I've done this, I always worry during lock down. And you know all of the different reasons for that worry. This time, my turner stopped working right during the first part of the last week. It was stuck in the front angle. All the way forward. I thought at first, maybe I'm just not seeing it when it's changed. Well, I finally decided to look 20 mins later one day..and it was still in the same position. I had started thinking how others on here had said their turner had stopped working right..so that's why I started watching. When I saw it in the same position, I found a Yahtzee box and put it under it..lol...to change it. And to see if it would change. Well it did. Then, it stopped again later in the day. I just took them out and put them down on their sides. Candled for lock down, saw something I had ever seen. It looked like the blood vessels were stuck to one side of the egg in a couple, and one had definitely quit. I am worried about a couple that looked similar, but I could see movement..will see if they make it through lock down. :/
I thought because they were further along that this wouldn't happen.

They may hatch hard but should be ok. The biggest problem with not turning is death during the first part of incubation. Later, it causes them to not develop as well--like wet sticky chicks hatching.

I have burnt out turners in both my Genesis and Brinsea incubators. I need to get another spare motor for the Genesis turners....

 

[flocktastic]

   And here is a different one than your local..I don't use the plugs...ever. 

As in, you leave them in the whole time or out the whole time?

 

[GitaBooks]

Day 15 candle and the clears from earlier were still clear so I tossed them 32 eggs felt like so many to toss. My first time incubating a huge batch and it goes like this. Of the 8 that were developing a few I think 4 look like they are quitters but I'm not sure. Will look at some pictures here on and decide what to do.

It can be so hard to decide when to toss and when not to. However, the more quitters you get rid of the more you can focus on the ones that are still alive and give them the attention they need.

Candled today, and have for sure 13 alive and well. 2 I think are dead; no blood vessels visable, no movement. What do people normally do? Remove them, or leave them in?

I leave them until I can be sure, since you never know. Some chicks can be quite sneaky about pretending to be dead

.

They are ADORABLE! It would be easy to get hooked on them. 'specially like the blue and yellow ones. I better not come see them, some would probably jump in my car.

Moved more chicks out of the house last night to a raised outside brooder on the porch and the ones in that brooder graduated to a raised chicken tractor in the yard. I just keep chanting 'no coccidia, no coccidia' over and over. So far

Just 1 group in the house currently and part of them are going to live in TX tomorrow...then 50 ish to begin hatching Friday. OH MY.

You have green grass. That is amazing! Is that water? Those are some lucky ducks!

Our grass turned green in one week. It looks so nice. I can't wait until the trees start getting their leaves.

I finally got over to my neighbor's house to candle my HAL eggs!

The Welsummer eggs from a friend's flock were all clears.

The flock is 6 years old and she wondered if the male was still fertile....he's not. Of the 12 shipped Mille Fleur d'uccle eggs, 3 were non-starters and the other 9 are looking good!

Of the 19 Icelandic eggs, 16 are looking great...one clear, one blood ring and one quitter, about day 5. So 25 left.......
I have two broodies

that will be moved to "private quarters" tonight. If they stick on their new nests, I'll be splitting the 16 Icelandic eggs between them. I guess I'll be testing my MHP (Momma Heating Pad) on those little bantams.


Happy First Day of Spring!!

....even though it is 42F here and will be down below freezing tonight...and the next couple of nights...I am feeling winter release her grip!!

SRPING!!! Yay!

My poor Lucky has a busted leg. He really will be lucky if he makes it. Must've busted under the egg turner (hatcher broke and had to transfer the hatching chicks to the main incubator in a hurry).



I might try 6 more NN eggs; I have had them in the fridge for a week but I cracked one open today and it was fertile, so it doesn't hurt anything to try. If even 1 hatches I'll feel better about losing so many to my stupid planning.

I hope Lucky gets better soon. Chicks are really tough little guys, especially when given a little extra TLC.

 

[generaldsherman]

I hope Lucky gets better soon. Chicks are really tough little guys, especially when given a little extra TLC.

Yep, all better. What a champ!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RattleCan]

I love EE's too, like you said, fun to see how they change. This is what I have set. 21 of 22 made it to lock down. A couple of wonky air cells in there. I have a bunch hatch from this same person for the Halloween hatch a long..here is one of them..can't wait to see what I get this time. Your birds are sooo pretty! Love that one up front.. the coloring!

That hen is super cute! I'm not sure if I've ever seen an EE that I didn't think was adorable. It must be the puffy faces

That picture isn't my own birds, it's some of the parent stock to the eggs I have hatching today. The two chicks I have so far are both little dark ones, one is almost solid black with brown on the face and the other is dark brown with light brown wings and face. I'll probably take a bunch of pictures of them growing up so I can see how the chicks compare to their final adult colors!

 

[ShrekDawg]

my DH is getting really good at doing coolerbator if you get the main supplies he will do one for you.

That is awesome. Wish i were nearby so i could get one or hed tutor me LOL imay make one or buy a hovabator

 

[Brittsplace]

Lockdown at 12:30 9 out of 14.

are those the mini eco? or the mini advance?