Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

Spoke too soon about having 5 eggs with movement...realized late last night one looked a little different. Checked them all again this morning - looks like for that one egg the veins have detached from the shell somehow. It's very glowy now with a very dark mass floating. Worisome. So I'm down to 4. With another failure that late in I am starting to wonder about the incubator. Will be sticking a temp/humidity gauge under Miss Bigfoot...if she's good, she's so gentle I think I may just move the eggs under her instead. A cold snap is coming and if the incubator is having trouble, I'm more worried about device failure than broody failure.

EDIT: incubator temp is still bang on according to my thermometers and Bigfoot actually seems to be running a tad cold underneath...so I guess won't be moving eggs...ugh! Frustrating! With only 4 good ones left I am super worried now about getting those few through the last few days of this process. Starting to think now I perhaps just really jumped the gun with trying to hatch before it was ambiently warm enough. On the plus side, Scruffy is beginning her descent into broody madness so I should get a second chance with her as long as an upcoming cold snap doesn't completely mess that up.

 

[fuzzi]

How long did you wait after hatch to move them under? The only other chick swap I did was with the cackle ones I got last year, which of course is like 2-3 days old by the time of the swaperoo.

It was the evening of their hatch. I woke up in the morning to discover the first one had hatched, two others followed shortly after. I took them to the coop after dark.

I used my egg "basket".

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well I have just learned what Bigfoot's broody poos are like I have had many an indoor broody and therefore many an indoor broody poo, so I thought I knew what I was in for, but this is truly a new level. I guess it's what comes of a hen whose regular poos were already approaching what my smaller past broody's poos are like. Bigfoot came out so normally and then just...garden-hose-esque poo rocket for several seconds straight. She seemed quite pleased with herself and is back on the eggs, but the smell...THE SMELL. I cleaned up poo mountain immediately but HERGH...and I can't open a window because it's cold out and I have to keep it warm for the incubator... Oh this is going to be a fun few days lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Oh man oh man. Tha hatch anxiety builds. A couple of eggs are moving a bit on their own. But I feel like I should not be having to do this with the incubator...although there is SNOW outside again though and I have to have a space heater running in the room to keep it within the spec listed in the incubator instrutions (min 75F!). So now I have the temperature set high and an incubator cozy to keep it warm in lockdown conditions (extra water and vent open more).

I do think the ambient temps are one of my main battles with this particulat incubator. I live in a cold place and it wants absurd room temps. I got fed up and ordered a Brinsea since they are supposedly able to handle much cooler room temps like my house normally has, but it won't get here til tomorrow at soonest...at least I can use it for the next round I'll be doing.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well so much for me getting sleep tonight. I already had weird dreams last night of the eggs themselves dividing and multiplying like cells...so it's either going to be more of that kind of surreal weirdness or I'll just have to give in and get up every couple of hours to see what's happening.

 

[DonyaQuick]

One scruffy chick achieved...who skipped zipping, hatching out suddenly and dramatically right as I was trying to get an updated pip picture...and then he/she immediately went kicking the other eggs clear across the incubator while I was kind of frozen in confusion. One actually caught some air somehow so yeaaaaah I opened the incubator to get this crazy little kung fu master out of there. I hope the other eggs are ok...those were some hard slams. Pretty sure I heard one of the others peep so fingers crossed.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Two more eggs pipped and chirping!

Meanwhile, I described the first hatching event to the Bing image generator and it seems to know exactly what energy that event had even if it still doesn't understsand how toes work.

Hatched chick #1 spent a couple hours in my hand drying off but has now transitioned to having a nap in a small heat lamp brooder setup.

Unfortunately looking like I may not be using Miss Bigfoot as a mom for these chicks...she is responding to chick chirps nearby from the incubator and hatched chick #1 with angry noises and hackle flaring. I feel like that is an extremely bad sign. Only other hen I had do that was Chungus a few years back and she didn't accept chicks after that response (resulting in having winter house Beans).

Scruffy also went broody and is currently in another room since I didn't want her trying to brood through the cold snap. She can also hear the chicks and is curious, not angry. Very different. But she's only been broody for a few days, so I can't use her really. I think she'd just unbroody within a day like she did once before when I showed her chicks too early. So, assuming that doesn't happen anyway, I'd rather get a new set of eggs started in the new incubator to move some fertile ones over to her.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Four successful hatches! All four chicks are different...white, yellow (which I presume will become buff), black, and I have no idea what #4 is! Unfortunately, #4 was both a bit big for its shell and got turned funny late last night, so it has tight tendons in its feet from having had them crunched up. Luckily I was able to quickly find an article on here about how to make corrective boots from card and paper tape, which it's now wearing. I was really debating whether to assist hatch with it around midnight because of how it had gotten turned, but the inner membrane still had so many red vessels I was too nervous and waited. Hopefully that was the right call and with the boots it will still be fine.

There is a puzzle in these chicks though.

• #1 White chick is from Scruffy's egg, Scruffy is white - color makes sense.
• #2 Black chick is Little Fuzzy's - exactly as expected.
• #4 is a Meep & Monster combo - although I don't know how it will turn out, I'm guessing it will be something barred-like because Meep is white and Monster has a barred gene.
• But the #3 yellow one...if that's buff and doesn't do a complete color change on me, then I'm a bit stumped! That color can't be from my stripey and black egger hens. The egg must have been either be a double within just under 24h for Meep/Scruffy/Dingus or a random surprise egg from one of my two older buff ladies who I thought are totally done.

The other two eggs I was giving a last benefit of the doubt are duds. One had reduced to a swirling mass of dead vascular structure and the other I think either never developed or quit within a few days. So it'll just be 4 for this round!

 

[DonyaQuick]

The card and tape boots almost worked for this chick. It did help significantly uncurl the toes in a few hours relative to how the feet started. However, this chick is big/heavy enough that it was eventually able to rotate it's foot inside the boot against the pull of the tape (my tape may be crummy, not sure). So, new boot design to anchor on a per-toe basis so that rotation isn't possible. Don't know if this will stay on, but it's worth a try. So far I'm seeing more walking attempts and better traction since the 3D print has a textured side.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Before and after comparison for boot chick. Two toes on each foot were fully curled under to start. A day of boots later, a couple toes on one foot are still kind of wonky but both feet open and it can stand and walk on its own, so I think we're done with boots and I'll let those toes be worked on by natural activity now.

I will have to track air cells next time...I thought I did good with the humidity this time around, but this chick is enormous compared to its siblings and was from a smallish egg, which I believe is why it had these problems and was also last out with a difficult exit.

Meanwhile, Miss Bigfoot is back out with her flock. She is normal sometimes but will then switch back into the broody grumps for a while. I will just have to keep eggs out from under her while she's out there. She was definitely having some kind of hormonal or metabolic struggle with being broody; maybe she just got going too early in this crazy weather season. Scruffy is doing a lot better in broody mode. As soon as temps warm up I'll try again starting eggs in the new incubator, then will move some over to her partway through.