The eggs are coming along nicely

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Wow...good quality video, it is usually harder to see the embryo. Looks like your incubator is doing well.

If your flashlight is 2+ years old it may be time to pick up a new chinese knockoff. I just ordered a couple of "10,000 lumen" flashlights for $5 each on ebay (okay they probably aren't really 10k lumen but they are likely darn bright,they also sell 15 and 20k lumens for $2 more..lol). Course if the light is too bright I suppose it could damage developing eyes, but probably not through thick dark colored shells.
 
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So if those eggs are on day 11 then your chicks will hatch around April 1st, and I hope to be picking up chicks on April 3rd. Both of us will have chicks the exact same age give or take a day, but you will get them 2 days before I do.

Maybe we can start a baby chick thread (so we can post lots of photos/videos in a "shared" thread as they grow up, and it looks a little less like constant bragging if there are two or more of us doing it).
 
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So if those eggs are on day 11 then your chicks will hatch around April 1st, and I hope to be picking up chicks on April 3rd. Both of us will have chicks the exact same age give or take a day, but you will get them 2 days before I do.

Maybe we can start a baby chick thread (so we can post lots of photos/videos in a "shared" thread as they grow up, and it looks a little less like constant bragging if there are two or more of us doing it).



Sounds like a plan!



So I also ordered some whiteleghorns at the feed store too. Ya know, chicken math. Lol
 
When do you get the leghorns? Same week?

I didn't order any but my feed store turns out a schedule of breeds by week, and happily on April 3rd they will be getting in Americanas and Golden Laced Wyandottes, two breeds I would love to add to the flock.
 
things are little less formal at this feed store. He was helping me load feed and we were talking about chicks. He offered to order me some with the rest and said a couple weeks......its been a couple weeks and I need feed too. Maybe I should swing by there? Lol
 
I have 26 hens, mostly Barred Rocks, some Reds, a few Blond sex links and a couple of small hatched hens that give us 15-20 eggs a day, so we're up to our eyeballs in eggs.
 
I like your set up much better than mine. . . we had our babies in a playpen in the guestroom. I'm sure you can just imagine how much dust accumulates in just one day with the bedding. I was constantly mopping and dusting. . . I was so happy when hunny said it was warm enough for those chicks to go outside. OMGoodness!! Grandma used to order her chicks once a year and then keep them under the stove in a box. My other Grandma would keep them upstairs in a bedroom too. Sure wish I could have asked them questions on how they controlled the dust issues.
 
Not much to it. Just a box and a heat lamp. We used to use a kiddy pool wrapped in cardboard for walls.
 
I like your set up much better than mine. . . we had our babies in a playpen in the guestroom. I'm sure you can just imagine how much dust accumulates in just one day with the bedding. I was constantly mopping and dusting. . . I was so happy when hunny said it was warm enough for those chicks to go outside. OMGoodness!! Grandma used to order her chicks once a year and then keep them under the stove in a box. My other Grandma would keep them upstairs in a bedroom too. Sure wish I could have asked them questions on how they controlled the dust issues.

The "dust" is from their pin feathers. Each little feather has that sheath over it, and as the sheath flakes off to expose the feather it creates tons of dust. I have only kept chicks in a brooder once and even though I have a very high animal mess tolerance level the dust and poop with chicks was really quite bad even with daily cleaning. Since then I have hens raise them in the coop so the mess stays outside.
 
JamesY the chicks may be staying in that corner to feel safe (vs. being in the middle of the large open space). Might try putting a feather duster in there, or a box for them to hide under and see if they use that. Keep in mind chicks were meant to sleep under warm dark safe mother hens, and the constant "peeping" that a lot of chicks make is actually a distress call. When they have a mother hen the only time they "peep" is when something is wrong and they are calling for their mother (both the hen and I check on any chick we hear peeping).

As far as heat sources, I really like the heating pad caves that people set up, or I have used a ceramic heat bulb (that lets off zero light so they can sleep in the dark at night).
 
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How exciting! Are those all sex links?

Will you check the other 15 eggs to see if they have pipped and then assist hatch?

I am guessing the feed store chicks are probably hatching right about now too. Can't wait until I can pick them up on Tues/Wed, I will call the store everyday to see when they come in (for a whopping 3 chick purchase).
 
So far the hatch count is 50 of 60! One more pipped so it may get even better!


If you wanna swing by I'll give you 10 or so. :)
 
So far the hatch count is 50 of 60! One more pipped so it may get even better!


If you wanna swing by I'll give you 10 or so. :)

Three will be enough drama (especially with two broodies that will probably fight over them).

Maybe a certain breed is pipping later than the others? I know OEG bantam eggs hatch at 19 days, since you have a variety of breeds that could affect the date. Regardless if it pips I would see to it that it hatches, and if it can't hatch on its own in 24 hours I would "unzip it" with a pair of tweezers (which IMO is perfectly safe to do as long as the membrane is dry, if there is even a drop of blood or veins in the membrane then opening the egg will cause the chick to bleed to death).

Only had to assist hatch once, the chick was in the egg backwards (maybe a humidity issue) and pipped with its little foot, but could not open the shell because his head was stuck on the narrow end of the egg. He was peeping/screaming and all the other eggs had hatched so I grabbed tweezers and unzipped the egg around the wide end bit by bit. He came out tired but perfect, without help he likely would have died after a day or two as he couldn't do it on his own.

I have also checked to see if full term eggs were alive by putting a single egg in a bowl and watching carefully to see if it moves. Within a minute or so one can usually spot slight jiggling if the chick is alive inside, they are pretty active at that stage, sometimes you can also hear they talking/werbling. Cool thing is if a hen was hatching them the chicks/hen start talking back and forth a couple of days before the hatch which helps them recognize her voice. While humidity is important a real hen would get up off the eggs once or twice a day and roll them around a bit anyway so they are tough.
 
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I have 26 hens, mostly Barred Rocks, some Reds, a few Blond sex links and a couple of small hatched hens that give us 15-20 eggs a day, so we're up to our eyeballs in eggs.
Feb 2 and I'm getting 6 to 16 eggs a day, my girls are doing a great job. Sad thing is, I've lost the last rooster and 5 hens, I got a shot at a fox, think that's what is taking them, I really should have used a shotgun, holding a flashlight and aiming a . rifle at the same time are not the easiest thing to do. Anyway, I'm keeping a closer watch on the girls, I don't want to loose any more, especially when they are doing so great producing eggs.
 
Feb 2 and I'm getting 6 to 16 eggs a day, my girls are doing a great job. Sad thing is, I've lost the last rooster and 5 hens, I got a shot at a fox, think that's what is taking them, I really should have used a shotgun, holding a flashlight and aiming a . rifle at the same time are not the easiest thing to do. Anyway, I'm keeping a closer watch on the girls, I don't want to loose any more, especially when they are doing so great producing eggs.
You might want to consider getting weapon light. I have one on a shotgun and I can use the strongest part of the beam almost like a laser sight. It should be good enough for a fox, and it frees up a hand so you can shoot better.
 

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