BlsdMama Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Today is awful weather here in Iowa - freezing cold, ice, and snow. I could be resentful.... But, lol, it's hatching day! And we have nothing to do because it's a crappy day. How perfect did that turn out? DD made cinnamon rolls, we're playing Agricola later, on my second cup of coffee and we have two little fellas out of eggs and six more have pipped their shells! This is a blue F1 Olive Egger. Her (I hope) color is so pretty now that she's drying. My little kids are pretty excited. We haven't hatched in almost four years! 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Awww. There is nothing quite like watching chicks come into the world. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocolate-chip chooky Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Eep! This is my favourite type of chicken thread :) Please post more photos as more chickies emerge. How many will you keep? Can you keep the boys too? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 So cute! I would love more pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Oh adorable! i can't wait to put a batch in the incubator again but have to wait till we come home from our next trip away ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyoffive Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 How hard is it to do this? I wanted to try the last few years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 One of my best memories is hatching ducklings. I did it at the private school where I worked and my kids attended before we started to homeschool. My class stayed afterschool to watch; we ended up ordering pizza and staying until 8. So cool! Enjoy the memories. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 4 hours ago, chocolate-chip chooky said: Eep! This is my favourite type of chicken thread :) Please post more photos as more chickies emerge. How many will you keep? Can you keep the boys too? I'll post more pics in the morning. The absolutely most adorable little black Easter Egger hatched. He is a little tiny ball o fluff with fluffy cheeks. I will definitely not keep all the roosters - we keep trying to keep a couple but the last time didn't go well - we had one attack DS (he was two) with spurs. Got rid of him and the other one got very protective. We're going to try a couple again, keeping the most mild mannered ones. However, the breeds I'm hatching are very desirable so I don't think I'll have any issues finding homes for them. The entire batch is almost all showable blue splash marans with a few lavender ameracaunas, one frizzle, and one black EE. 3 hours ago, mommyoffive said: How hard is it to do this? I wanted to try the last few years It really depends. I had a styrofoam incubator for years and after a particularly rough hatch, I sold it and swore to never incubate again. A Brinsea Octagon 20 came across my Craigslist for $75 and I jumped on it. If I get the hatch I'm hoping for, I'll do it again and again. I love hatching. What I don't like is "doing away" with chicks that are shrink wrapped messed up humidity. Hoping I nailed it this time. It's so dry here right now because the furnace is still running but I had the humidity up to 60% going into the hatch and it should be rising with each chick opening up. I'm hopeful. The premise is really easy. Get fertilized eggs, stick them in the incubator, make sure they are turned 2-5 times a day, candle occasionally, lay them flat on day 18, and wait for babies on day 21. The reality is that your incubator really is a determining factor. :( I hate that they are expensive and I hate that that matters. If you're okay with some loss, then a styrofoam incubator can get decent hatches like the Hovabator. I was once okay with a moderate level of loss. Then, and not to be a drama queen, but well, kinda, I had a hatch start on approximately August 3, 2014. I remember the date so well because I had DS on August 4th. Well.... No one wants to be the one to kill the weak ones, right? And, to be fair, no one really knew that the very weak don't make it, and if the 'bator loses a lot of humidity the chicks will get "shrink wrapped" in the membrane and not be able to make it out of the egg - permanently deforming them. So when I came home on August 5th, there was one that I had attempted to help (too weak to get out on his own - he did suck in his yolk but he couldn't survive) and I think two eggs shrinkwrapped. I had to kill three chicks. It might not have been such a huge ordeal, but being a new mom with a new baby, I was pretty horrified. And DH is a feller who can do hard things but he wanted no part of this either. I sold the incubator pretty much immediately and said I'd never do it again. And I haven't. Then the Brinsea came up. I hope this goes well. I'm supposed to take a second batch into the preschool later this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mothersweets Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 Hatching chicks is so much fun! How many have you gotten? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 13 hours ago, mommyoffive said: How hard is it to do this? I wanted to try the last few years If you have a good incubator and get everything right it's relatively painless but if it goes wrong it can be a bit awful. First go for us the temp must have been slightly too high which meant they hatched early. Because of this I hadn't taken them off the auto turner so had to open the incubator which of course caused humidity issues so we ended up having a couple of stuck chicks. We attempted to assisted hatch after 36 hours and one survived and one didn't. The survivor had feet issues which we corrected with some duct tape sandals but after all the effort it ended up being a rooster and turned nasty with the kids. our second time I was a lot more confident and had a good painless hatch which was a lot of fun the only downside was deciding what to do with the roosters when they got older. basically i think each incubator is slightly different and once you have it worked out it's ok but the first couple of batches with a new incubator can be a bit traumatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 Also ymmv but I couldn't eat eggs for about a month after the hatching. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 6 hours ago, Mothersweets said: Hatching chicks is so much fun! How many have you gotten? Fifteen so far! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted April 16, 2018 Author Share Posted April 16, 2018 The black is an olive egger, and there is a lavender Ameracauna and a Blue Splash maran - can you tell the difference? I can't either! :O 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mothersweets Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 They're so cute!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 Now I really really want chickies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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