Hatching Chicks

It’s Christmas in Ohio and the hens are nestled in their coops, the rabbits are snuggled in their nice warm barn, and the spare bedroom has been turned into a makeshift hatchery. We are working to repair our cabinet incubator-perfect timing when it went on the fritz since the hens have slowed down to almost nothing. I put lights on the hens last week on a timer, and mixed some feed up with some supplements to help get them pushed through any residual molts and start to get back into production. Our olive Egger pen has several home growns who are probably a good 7 months almost and should start laying any day. Every egg that is laid currently-mainly just one hen in the silkie pen who also tries to go broody the minute she has 2 of them there-is going into the smaller incubators as well as some Eggs from other breeders to try and get some growth on a couple new pens.

This last round, I’ve been making note of toes especially in the silkies. I had 2-3 with fused toes that I’ve never had before. I’m not sure if it’s nutrition, weather, incubator, or genetics related but it is going to be monitored and if there are more with the next hatch, I’ll be separating hens and attempt to identify the offending bird to put into the eating egg coop. I’ve been told toes can go either way, but as it’s a first, I’m inclined to blame anything else than the genetics for now. The chicks appear to move well and as long as they are thriving, they will be relocated to layer only homes.

I’m carefully monitoring a variety of shipped eggs from the month of December. It definitely will be lower hatch across the board since nearly all arrived with detached air cells. I’m trying a couple different methods to get them to reattach and the embryos that do grow to be able to successfully hatch. We may even do a larger order of a variety of eggs just to try a couple other ideas I have, but just need the eggs to not wipe out the wallet as we test things.

I’ve updated the website with anticipated availability of eggs and chicks. Some I will not sell eggs since we are trying to build our pens as well and so as they kick back into full production, I’ll be keeping any each week that aren’t pre-sold or if there are extras from each sale order that week.