Better planning needed for hatching

It's not quite a disaster, but I have had to give it a great deal of thought. When I ordered my Sablepoot eggs from South Yeo Farm in Devon I thought I had planned the timing perfectly. The eggs would hatch a week before Easter and mean that a friend could easily look after them for the couple of days that I am away.  That was on the basis that Good Friday was on the 25 April. I've no idea why I thought Easter was that late, and I only discovered my error when in work and the subject of holidays arose.

Normally it would not really matter and rightly or wrongly I have left eggs in an incubator whilst away before, just for a few days. But that was well before lock down and hatching. Timing could not be worse this time. The hatching date of the sablepoots is Friday 18th. The planned date I am leaving.

What to do? Hope they hatch early? Leave them for a friend to look after?  Well there is only one thing to do. Take the incubator with me. 

I have bought a cheap inverter for the car. It plugs into the 12v supply and converts to 220v with a socket for the mains plug. 

Sounds crazy, but the incubator will be in the boot whilst I drive and I can set up the incubator and brooder in the caravan when we get there.  Mad? Maybe but it will be fun to see what happens. And it won't be the first time I have taken the brooder away in the caravan. I did the same last year with a hatch of quail. They all turned out fine.  Although they were a week old before we took them away.

I will let you know how the journey goes and how the eggs fair especially as they are at the pipping stage whilst traveling.  I will need to make sure the eggs are stable in the incubator so they don't roll around and crack.  I may have to leave the dividers in for traveling or, maybe use some egg boxes to set the eggs in, just while we travel.

Hatching plans for 2014

Any plans to hatch your own in 2014?
Personally I thought I may have hatched my last back in 2013 when majority of my pure breed birds were stolen from my plot early September 2013.
The festive period has brought many more reports of theft, from Poultry to Pigs. Majority of these I have seen reported via Twitter.  So any thoughts of restocking my original plot with more birds and hatchings over the next 6-12 months has well and truly disappeared. 

 

This left me in somewhat of a grim mood for a few days (Rachel would say, only a few days?!)

 

In order for me to hatch in 2014, I have had to make a difficult decision.  Land to keep all my birds including the recently hatched Welsh Harlequin ducks is just not available.  I am getting to crunch point with all the poultry in the garden (it looks as though a team of Tamworth piggies have been resident for a few months). Sadly I will have to move the ducks on.
I can see the Benny Hill type scene now as I slip and slide around trying to catch the little blighters whilst at the same time trying to avoid Treacle the merciless.  Treacle is in a way the perfect broody. Don't even think about going near her chicks, even if they are now 16 weeks old and bigger than her.  On cue, every September she goes broody, and there is no point trying to break her.  So I will definitely be hatching under her again this year.  What I hatch will depend on circumstances and egg availability at the time she goes broody, which I will let her do naturally.

 

I have enjoyed hatching from eggs purchased from breeders, but I still have a desire to create my own so to speak.  From my own trio, I will hatch say a dozen and take it from there.  The overall aim to enter a bird or two into a national poultry show.  Yes there will be plenty of cockerels and below standard hens along the way, but it is something I have dealt with over the last year or two quite well.

I have a fairly good starting point I think with my Silverlace Bantam Wyandottes.  I am hopefully acquiring a cockerel shortly, and his location along with a couple of my older hens, will be top secret.

 

As and when required, I plan to move him in with the SLW bantam hens for three weeks, collect eggs and then move him out again.  This way I hope to control any potential complaints from neighbours due to crowing.

It's the only way I can breed at present, and rather than stay grumpy and frustrated for months on end, this way I can at least develop my SLW obsession.

If you know anyone who may want Welsh Harlequin Ducks, please get in touch.  I have two drakes and  three females.

Thanks for reading

 

 

 

Quail hatching

So off I go again. The incubator is set and the 21 quail eggs are in position.   They are the courtnix type, a mix of white, light/golden, dark brown and the Japanese colour type.

Most incubators these days will allow you to hatch different breeds and my corti 25, which has proved very useful hatching chickens, states that it will incubate 50 quail eggs at a time.

The incubation period for quail is shorter that hens as 18 days, so to make sure I don't miss candling and turning off the auto turning mechanism I have made a calendar note.

Some suggest the humidity and temperature is slightly different to incubation hen eggs, but the reference books I am using require similar levels to chicken eggs.  I'm currently running at 37.5 degrees c and 54% humidity well within the ranges suggested.

You can candle quail eggs at 7 days as you do with all other egg types but the markings on the eggs can make this difficult, so I use my brinsea candler rather than a torch that has worked on some of my hens eggs.

This is my first time hatching quail eggs, hopefully not the last, but having been through the process several times before with hens I am feeling relatively relaxed about the whole process.
I have had a couple of enquiries locally for quail in particular males which is a little unusual but something that will be beneficial as no doubt there will be a significant number of males hatched.

My own quail eggs have been hatching out at 60-70% of all eggs set by local hatchers.  Ok but not the best hatch rate.  I did have 9 females to 2 males and this ratio may have been a little high with some suggesting 1 male to 3 female.  With the loss of a couple of females recently it has improved the ratio and I hope the will have a positive effect on the hatch /fertility rate.

I have recently written a piece for Homer Farmer on keeping quail, published in their September 2013 edition.  Whole books tackle the subject so I'm not suggesting this will tell you everything, in fact it is just a snippet of information.  But just as if you are going to keep chickens most important is to ensure you can provide the right type of continuous care and attention and to understand the commitment you are taking on, in addition talk to your neighbours about keeping them, especially if you keep the males.

Thanks for reading.

You need the lows to appreciate the highs!

What a day I had Sunday. I have been harping on about it for long enough on twitter now. I'm still no closer to knowing what caused it, but the potential reasons for the chicks I have been hatching all of a sudden moving on to the coop in the sky have increased. So I am putting it down to bad luck and will be keeping a close eye on future hatches.

I had 11 chicks in total, most were 2-3 days old. 3 gold lace Wyandotte chicks were recent hatches, they had fluffed up and so I added them to the brooder.
Long story short, one check all seemed fine, 30minutes later the gold lace were dead on their backs with 2 lavender Araucana staggering around and one silver lace wyandotte in a similar condition. I put them straight back in my incubator thinking it may have been a heat issue. Sadly they did not make it.

There are many theories including loss of heat, infection, bullying, fighting or maybe it was just a defect inherited from parents.

It's sad, but it is time to move on. I have 3 Araucana Lavender bantams and 1 silver lace Wyandotte bantam to add to the 4 silver lace hatched 10 weeks ago and 2 croad langshan.
I'm lucky to have these and hope the silver lace will be good enough to create a breeding trio from.
Looking forward, I am still fascinated by the Wyandotte, so I'm sure they will be on the agenda at some point again soon, but I'm thinking long and hard on what breed to hatch next.

I currently have 2 CLB females at 4 weeks old and I hope a wheaten maran to go with them, but what other pure breed would you add to this collection producing dark brown and blue eggs?

The leghorn has been suggested and I like this idea due to the white eggs that it lays. I also like the idea of Rhode Island Red. Great looking, good layers and of course a good size.
Some careful thinking required over the next few weeks is required.

I am also being drawn to ducks, specifically the Welsh Harlequin. I don't want many, just a drake with two ladies. To hatch or to buy a trio, that is the question. The other decision is how to provide a water source for them to bath in. Plastic paddling pool, trug, old bath?

Short term there is a pause in the hatching whilst I catch up on all the veg jobs I have been putting off. Main crop potatoes need to go in, carrots and parsnips need sowing, along with runner beans, butternut squash and sweetcorn.
It's amazing how in control you can feel in February and March, then all of a sudden it is 1st May, we hit the panic button and I find I sow everything at once and end up with a glut of veg.

Thanks for reading

Hatching AGAIN for breeding!

We're off again! The incubator is running and the first 6 eggs were set on Thursday 4th April. Lavender Araucana eggs in great condition and of great shape kindly provided by Mark at Norfolk Bantams.  I love the look of these birds and they lay blue eggs so I'm excited at hatching and hopefully keeping some hens and maybe cockerels.


On Friday 6 more eggs were added (allowing for a 24 hours settling period after being tossed thought he post by royal mail) this time it was the turn of the silver lace Wyandottes. I am not holding out much hope for these as the eggs that have been sold to me are not of regular shape. 4 out of 6 appear to be elongated. This to me suggests there is limited chance of hatching.

My Wyandotte Silver Lace Bantam 5 weeks old

I'm very disappointed with them and will certainly not be using this supplier again.

Saturday at 11 am 6 further eggs were added, this time goldlace wyandottes. Very good size and condition, so fingers crossed these will hatch a good cockerel to go with the two hens that I hatched under my broody last year.


Ideally I wanted to set all the eggs at the same time but the postal system prevented this and I thought it best to get them in the incubator after 24 hours rest.  The longer I left them, the closer they got to 7 days old, and it is suggested the hatch rate reduces after this period.

So the main hurdle to overcome with this hatch is stopping the auto turning on the incubator.  This should generally be stopped at day 18 for chicken eggs.  As I set my eggs in three batches with around 24 hours between each batch, I'm faced with day 18 being spread over three days.  Not ideal really but the plan is to stop the auto turning on day 18 for the first batch of Araucana's, then manually turn the silver lace and gold lace Wyandotte eggs for the remaining day to two days.  With that sorted I also have to turn attention to the hatching dates, again spread over three days.  I don't have a spare incubator so I will be allowing the chicks to hatch and moving them out the incubator to the brooder as soon as possible (recommended minimum period is 24 hours) to try and prevent any damage or contamination to unhatched eggs.  All fingers and toes are crossed for a good hatch rate so that I can start breeding! 

I will of course let you know how it works out and I'm sure there will be some hens and cockerels available in 10 weeks time if anyone is interested.

Thanks for reading, more updates to follow.

Cream Legbar & Vorwerk hatching update

Cream Legbar Chick 1 day old

I had hoped to be bringing some positive news tonight with the first hatching of the Cream Legbar yesterday at around 8am and the beginning of pipping of the Volwerk egg.

Sadly the Volwerk chick struggled to hatch and after 24 hours needed assistance. It went to plan fortunately as the best advice in this situation appears to be leave well alone.  However, after a few hours of hatching it became clear that the chick could not walk properly. After a few tweets, splayed leg was suggested and it made total sense, and I have no idea why I did not see it earlier.

This is when the chicks legs spread apart a bit like they are dancing on ice, badly. So I recalled reading some time ago that the best thing to use is a plaster as the non sticky part is just the right width apart for the legs. So with the legs taped together, I hoped the chick would start standing.

Sadly it was lying down and shutting its eyes, almost giving up. Now I'm quite stubborn when I want to be and whether this is the right thing to do or not is debatable. I decided to try and feed a piece of crumb to the chick to give it some energy.

Cream legbar bottom, Vorwerk top not standing

It would not open it's beak, so I pried it open gently and popped the crumb in. It took it fortunately and has been taking quite a few, but I can't get it to peck off the floor or food dish.

I guess I'm giving it the best chance possible, but over night, it will have to fend for itself.
Fingers crossed.


Thanks for reading.

Naughty naughty

So, I have done something I shouldn't.  

I candled the remaining 2 eggs last night.  Most suggest this is a bad idea.  I have never candled so late before so why now?

Well I have had concerns for a while that the 2 eggs are not progressing well.  The air sacks seem too big for my liking.  However I will let them continue until at least 23 days just to make sure.
I guess I just could not resist checking.  This is my first time using an incubator, all previous hatches have been under a broody hen, and no sane person is going to try and remove a broody from their nest in the last 2-3 days.  

They sit tight and defend their nest with that prehistoric beak!  Its a little like the final scene in Zulu!  
Plus it hurts and I have been given enough wounds in the past so would do everything to avoid this.
However in the incubator there is not a crazy hen trying to peck your finger off your hand, you can just lift and check.  Naughty naughty.

I will have to sit tight now and wait.  Its day 20 out of 21, so not long.

More updates to follow tomorrow - official hatching day! :-)

Wyandotte hatching update day 18

Day 18 of the hatching of Silver Lace Wyandotte Bantams in the new incubator is proving to be exciting, for me anyway!

Hatching egg, candled at 18 days

I candled the eggs again last night and saw what I am hoping is a chick, moving around in the egg.  The photo is to the left and you can quite clearly see the blood vessels.
There are some quite strange air sack shapes going on in both of the remaining eggs.  I hope this is not a bad sign.

As it is 3 days before hatch, I have removed the 4 non-fertile eggs and the dividers separating the eggs and the auto turning mechanism has been turned off.
It is recommended to increase the humidity for the hatching period.  I had no idea how to do this until I read Katie Thears Incubation, A guide to Hatching and Rearing book and the instructions that came with my incubator.

Apparently you may not necessarily need to add more water but just reduce the temperature by half a degree to 37 degrees c and this increases humidity.

My Incubator manual also helped my understand things a little clearer.  Its not the level of water in the incubator dish, but the surface area of water.  So if you fill two dishes with water a quarter full each, it will produce higher humidity than if you fill one dish to the full capacity!

So, I am still clinging onto a little hope that the two remaining eggs will hatch.  If they do, it will go a little way in helping me set up my little project of breeding pure breed poultry, 1) to ensure their survival, 2) for fun and 3) to encourage other chicken keepers or want to be keepers, that pure breed is an option over hybrid birds.

Wyandotte Goldlace bantams at 14 weeks

Here are a few photos of the Gold Lace Wyandottes, taken more recently in the snow!

Not happy hens on the snow

I seem to be getting as addicted to taking photos as I am keeping hens and hatching chicks!  Nevermind!  Could be worse!

Wyandotte Chick with mum

I resisted the urge to drone on about it.  The hens did not like it at all but I quite enjoyed our little wintry spell.  Certainly made a change to all the mud!

Hens and chicks, sheltering from a hail shower

In the last half hour we had a heavy hail storm.  I had let the Chickens our earlier in the day.  Seems the boys climbing frame has another use in the winter!





Thanks for reading.

Hatching Wyandotte's Again :-)

Photo from Backyardchickens.com

So I have the bug!  Not the norovirus thing or the flu, or worse still man flu, I have the the Egg Hatching Bug.

I had considered purchasing an incubator middle of 2012, but had not really given enough thought as to what to do with all the lovely chicks that would then become hens or cockerels.

The good news down at the allotments is that they are allowing me to keep chickens on my plot.  This has resulted in me revisiting the idea late 2012.  I have decided to breed Wyandottes to start with!

 Well a few days into 2013 and I have, sat in front of me on my desk while I type, 6 hopefully fertile Silver Laced Wyandotte Bantam eggs.

On the 8th January I also took delivery of my new incubator pack, which included a brooder, water and drink feeders and cleaner for the incubator.  Everything you need really to get started.

So with the incubator set up and running for the last 17 hours, in 7 hours time I will be setting the eggs in the incubator and starting the 21 day countdown.
Who knows if the eggs will hatch at this time of year, the cockerels may have been "active" so to speak in the mild spell of weather, but if too cold, they are likely to be on strike!

I have been conscious this time around about turning my eggs whilst waiting a day or so after royal mail has played volley ball with them through the post.  This is of course another factor that could effect fertility, but supplies of Wyandottes are practically non-existent around by me and the thought of driving a 300 mile round trip to get some is not very appealing.

I have had some very useful advice over twitter from Norfolk Bantams (Twitter @norfolkbantams) recently.  I have been searching for gold lace wyandotte bantam cockerel but with out much luck.  Now apparently (you can tell science was not my strong point) if you breed a silver lace with a gold lace and then breed the siblings, you would end up with 25% of the chicks hatching as gold laced and the rest as silver laced.  Its obviously an approximate figure, but very interesting. :-)
To help me along my way I have just purchased some breeding books from Grant Bereton (twitter: @gbpoultry) Happy days!!

The eggs I have purchased are from show stock, the male won a first place at the Malvern show and one female won second.  I have lots of fingers crossed with this batch!

Updates to come again soon on the silver lace hatching and the gold lace chicks now 12 weeks old.

Thanks for reading.

Wyandotte Chicks are 7 weeks old!

photo from virginmedia.com

"I can't believe it".  Said in a Victor Meldrew/One Foot in the Grave voice!

7 weeks ago Pinkey and Perky, soon to be Apple and Blackberry (if they are hens) hatched into the big wide world of my back garden.

2 Little Wyandotte Chicks, they could have been any breed at that stage.

Now 7 weeks on they have grown, and developed fantastic markings with unique personalities.



My Wyandotte chicks



I am at the stage now where I try to move them onto growers pellets.  They have been on Chicks crumbs since day one and they are devouring the food every day.  

I'm sure some will already be aware of this, but I will cover it anyway.  Chicks tend to be moved onto growers pellets between 6 to 8 weeks of age.  It gives them more of the nutrients they need to keep growing.  They generally stay on growers pellets until they are between 18 and 22 weeks, i.e. when they start to lay.  They would at this stage move to layers pellets.  If you are keeping birds for meat, your chickens would stay on growers until they are processed.

So I am shortly off to buy growers pellets.  I will then start to gradually mix the pellets into the crumbs so that the chicks get used to them.



the catalogue pose!



I found last time whilst Treacle raised Rodney the rooster, shortly after I introduced growers pellets, Treacle came back into lay.  I recall it took 3 weeks.

So you never know, we may shortly have 2 hens producing eggs.  That would be a great Christmas present.

Both times I have introduced growers food to chicks, I have considered mash as an alternative. 

I regularly think about it, but having done research, I don't see that there is that much benefit.  

I'm shy, honest!



It seems to be more difficult to source, messier and more food wasted.

The only reason I can see people using it is if they have ex-battery hens they have rescued.  They will have been fed mash all their life.  Trying to move them to pellets could be a challenge.

I may be wrong on this point and would be happy to hear if there are benefits to mash.

Pinkey & Perky a few days old!

Thanks for coming back and reading!

Wyandotte Chicks Hatching

I was very pleased to see that one egg had hatched, so much so I actually bounced into work which has not happened for a long time.  

I could not get a photo yesterday morning.  The camera on my phone is not great, so when I returned in the afternoon, I took Rhys (my three and a half year old son) to see the chick as he was very excited.

With a little help we managed to get a photograph of the chick.  See right.

A very cute Wyandotte Black Lace Bantam.

Whilst out with the hens, I decided to watch Treacle for a while.  I noticed that one of the eggs had rolled out from underneath her and there was a crack in the egg. 

I managed to move the egg to the front of Treacle hoping she would pull it under her again for warmth, but she seemed to just watch it.

To my surprise I heard chirping and the egg started moving.  The chick was actually hatching.

I had my phone with me so I took a chance with the video.  See below.
Before you view it, a word of warning it is quite short.  As the chick started breaking through, Treacle pecked at it.  So I decided it would be best for me to tuck it under her.  She accepted it.  I have not edited the video.

 

So that is two out of six Wyandotte eggs that have hatched.  I have checked regularly and at about noon on Saturday 20th October, Treacle left the nest for the first time in approximately two days.  This is normally a pretty good sign that all hatching has finished.

I candled the eggs with an LED torch I have.  Two of the four un-hatched eggs appeared to have died very early on in the first couple of days.  One I believe was not fertile and the last I think died as day 15-17.  It's a shame but these things happen.

Chart from Avianweb.com
Image 7 shows the air sack according to number of days

For now I have disinfected the run with Stalosan F and will move it on Sunday to fresh grass.  I don't want coccidiosis which is a nasty parasite infection that can kill chicks in a few days.  Symptoms are chicks hunched up and blood in their droppings.
The photo below is of the two Black Lace Wyandotte chicks with Treacle.
They are tiny little things even compared to the Rhode Island Red chick I hatched earlier in the year.

I am becoming a little obsessed with hatching chicks and keeping chickens in general so watch this space! ;-)

Soon I will be posting my thoughts on the various old wives tales for breaking a broody hen and posting pictures of the new clean run for my other hens, Custard and Pudding.

Thanks again for reading.

Broody Speckledy Final 24 Hours

It is the eve of hatching in the Homer household.  For me its almost as exciting as Christmas! ;-) 24 hours and counting!



Photo from incubatorwarehouse.com

There are no signs of piping yet.  (This is where the chick has broken through the sack inside the egg to reach the air sack and started breaking the outer shell of the egg). Treacle has however become very defensive over her eggs.



Two days ago she happily allowed me to pick her off the nest and place her next to the food and water.  Now it's like playing chicken on the Silverstone race track with a Ferrari F1 racing car.  She pecks at anything that moves especially my hands and fingers.  She is so quick it is impossible to dodge.
I may have to start wearing gloves.  :-(

I have read that hens can hear the chicks chirping inside the eggs the day before hatching.  To encourage the chicks to hatch they call back to them.  I think I heard Treacle doing this today as I filled the food and water containers.  Fingers crossed these little Wyandotte chicks will hatch soon.

I will post another update tomorrow, hopefully with good news!
Thanks for reading.