Can we talk chickens?

trestlecreek

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I'm not a member over at BYC,...
I have chickies due in a few days,...just thought maybe some here might have some due to hatch as well?
 

trestlecreek

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:thumbsup What breed? I have Bantam Cochins in...
 

Quail

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I have two late in the year broodies! One broody is on 13 eggs....7 Welsummer and 6 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. The other broody is on 11 eggs...5 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and 6 mixed bred eggs from my bantams.
 

trestlecreek

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I had wondered if my bantams may 'think' about being broody. One of my hens appeared to be thinking about it these last few day, but I have read it is pretty late in the year? I would have preferred to just let the hen do the job, but I had a nasty mean hen(full size-other coop) kill all of hers as they hatched last month, so I collected to incubate these.... my banties are much nicer than the full sized hens I have out there...
 

trestlecreek

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:hit
I waited 25 days,....no chicks.
On day 19, my electricity went out for a few hours.
Have to wonder if that wasn't the problem.
It's so frustrating I could scream!!! I saw all of the little heartbeats during candling around day 12-14.:hit
So, I have put another set in the incubator.
 

ksalvagno

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Sorry your chicks didn't hatch. That had to be a big disappointment. I hope your next set does just fine and we see some pictures of cute little chicks. :)
 

rebelcowboysnb

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Usually power outages are not that big of a deal. I've had outages well over 24 hours with my incubator out in the cold an still had good hatches. Most bad hatches are ether shipped eggs, temp spike above 103, bacteria related or a humidity problem.
 

trestlecreek

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Well, that is what I was thinking from what I have read and heard.... It dropped to 85.0 F during the outage, and was down to that temp for about 2 hrs. That was the only drastic problem that happened...

I'm really not sure what the problem was. My temp. was a little low at first(96.9-100.0) and I was able to maintain it at 99.00-100.5 during the last week. I wonder if the temp was too low? My humidity ran 60%-65% the entire time.
I had read that low temp was better than high,...so that is part of why I kept it lower, and my incubator would not hold steady at first... it would not hold within the degree until the end....
I collected these eggs myself, so I know they were good....none were older than 2 weeks....
So I put some in the incubator last night and I have it from 99.0-101.5 at the moment...

Just from candling those eggs that didn't hatch, it seems that 1/3 died at around 14 days, 1/3 died at around 18 and the other 1/3 died just before hatching....

This is my first time to hatch out chicks,....so I'm learning .....;)
 

trestlecreek

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Thanks Karen!
Yep, it was a disappointment, but I am good and ready for the next time, assuming these hatch out. Those 21 days seemed to go on and on forever. :lol:
Had to get set up with the brooder, the lights, the box, the shavings, the feed, the room, etc...so now all I need is the chicks,..LOL.
 
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