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I would like to ask everyone to please not threadshit. Show some love for the baby chickens, y’all.  Our annual hatch of baby chickens has begun! Every year we webcast the hatch, then place the camera in the brooder box for the next 8 weeks so you can see and hear 24/7 the chicks live, play and grow up. We have two eggs, #10 & 11, pipping early! They may or may not hatch today, it's up to them. The pips are on the top of the egg, on the left side of each and may not be readily visible. Also, while the chicks inside the eggs are peeping, so are the two baby chicks, Alice and Pumpkin--so you may hear them. Actual hatch date SHOULD be Saturday the 29th, starting at 7AM, so this may be spread out over a day or so. Watch the hatch at the links below, one with chat—keep it PG rated, LOTS of kids (including mine) and teachers & very young kids in classrooms watch the hatch! We have zero tolerance for hate, really bad language (the occassional standard cuss word is OK, ie: ‘Holy poo poo that’s a big chick!’ or ‘drat, what’s taking so long?’ but nothing extreme), racism, etc. and will ban anyone not playing nice and being a decent human being. We try to answer questions both in this thread and in chat: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chickam2008 Or watch here, full screen, no chat—best for kids: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chickam2008/pop-out If you want more Chickam or chicken info, I’ve got a site here: http://jackshenhouse.com/Chickam.htm The incubator, our ReptiPro 6000 mini-frig style on the table, the brooder box where the chicks will live for the next 8 weeks taking up all my floor space:  Close-up of the eggs (photo by inveigle):  What the Hell is Chickam and where are the girls?! Sometimes a chick is just a chick. As in years past, we are doing a web broadcast, with sound, of baby chickens hatching. After the hatch the cam will be placed in the brooder box where it will run 24/7 for the next 8 weeks so everyone can watch the chicks as they grow. If we have a hen go ‘broody’—that is, go into ‘mama’ mode—we may recruit one as mama to the chicks. Right now none of the hens are broody. At the end of 8 weeks the chicks will be old enough to be turned out into our existing flock where they will live. We have been talking to the eggs so they will know our voices when they hatch (yes this is weird, but it works). READ THIS, YOU GOON, YOU, SO I DON’T HAVE TO ANSWER THE SAME QUESTIONS 900 TIMES IN THIS THREAD! Why am I just seeing eggs, and what’s with the numbers? ***There are 7 eggs in the incubator for this hatch, with more eggs on the shelf above for the next ones. There should be a total of THREE hatches this year--one now, one Saturday April 5th and another Sunday April 13th.*** With this incubator we can do staggered hatches like this. The cam (and this thread) is started as soon as we see the eggs rocking back and forth, hear the chicks inside peeping or see eggs pipping. This means the hatch is imminent and the chicks are about to start coming out. Once they do, it’s kinda like watching popcorn pop—they tend to start slow, then everything happens at once, and after a while it tapers off. The numbers are so y’all can cheer on your favorite egg. We have a new camera! It is a Logitech c920. It has a MUCH better picture than the old one, plus the old one had been scratched up and ravaged by baby chicks over the years. So less eye strain, yay! What’s taking so damned long?! You’d take a while too if you were a newborn fighting your way out of a damned eggshell using only the tip of your face in cramped quarters. But seriously, here’s the process: The chick rotates into hatching position inside the shell, with it’s head at the large end of the egg. Then it ‘pips’, or pecks an airhole in the shell. Then it rests a bit as air now gets into the shell and helps the chick dry out and the blood vessels that have been keeping the chick alive in the shell ‘draw down’. Then the chicks starts to ‘unzip’ (my own term and not scientific at all) the shell, pecking as it turns in the shell and struggling/kicking/stretching as it goes. THIS TAKES HOURS. It’s a major struggle and exhausting for the chick, which will stop and rest from time to time. Usually anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight, but most are about 2 hours or so. When the chick gets the shell unzipped enough—about 2/3 of the way around—and does come out, it comes out all at once very quickly. There is no rushing the hatch, it takes as long as it takes. NO, I cannot help/poke it with a stick/shake it like a drat maraca. Only in extreme cases where we fear the chick will die otherwise do we ever assist a hatch. It has happened in the past, though. I thought you weren’t supposed to open the incubator, AAGGGHHH!! Calm down. This is a new incubator that is different than the tabletop styrofoam ones we used to use. This new one is a ReptiPro 6000, originally manufactured for the reptile hatching trade, but then the poultry folks got ahold of it. It’s basically a tabletop cabinet incubator and is also a mini-frig that can keep your beer cold when it isn’t hatching baby chickens. Because of the way it’s built, in order to have proper ventilation and allow O2 IN and CO2 OUT, you have to open the door. In our case, 5 times a day, which is also when I turn the eggs. Last year was the first year we’d done it and it was a big leap of faith for us, but other people had done it successfully and you can’t argue with success. Ugh, they look slimey and hideous! Why are they bashing the other chicks & eggs? Again, you weren’t exactly the Gerber baby and covered in chocolate and unicorn dreams when you first emerged, either. Rest assured they dry out, rest, get fluffy and cute and perk up after a few hours. After the chicks dry out, get strong enough to stand and run around, we remove them to the brooder box where they will live for the next 8 weeks. After all the eggs have hatched we place the cam in the box so you can watch them. While still in the incubator, the hatched chicks tend to run around and rather brutally play soccer with the still-hatching eggs. This actually helps stimulate the hatching chicks into coming out, most likely to kick the rear end of whoever was kicking their damned egg. The older chicks will also trample the fresh chicks but they never hurt each other. It all looks pretty rough, though. Why so few chicks? Here at our new house in the northern Nevada High Sierras, we have higher altitude to contend with. We are at 5000 feet above sea level, and with that naturally comes less available O2 and lower air pressure. Plus we have a hideously dry climate. There is also a whole ‘nother thing with sea level chickens (ours are still considered such since they were hatched there) laying eggs with larger pores in the shell which makes for more moisture loss, which makes for a crappier hatch rate, yada yada. My research has revealed that it is MUCH harder to hatch eggs under these conditions, haha. That, combined with the fact that you are a HUMAN trying to do the work of a HEN further lowers the success rate. Hens make it look ohsoeasy and no doubt laugh at people trying to hatch eggs. We have the optimal setup we can get without buying a HUGELY expensive professional cabinet-style incubator. The hatch rate will likely be about 20%-60%. Where’s their mama? We are their mama. No mother hen is necessary, although if any of our hens go broody (go into ‘mama’ mode), in the next day or so we’ll bring her in and see if she’ll accept the chicks (most do accept them, broody hens LOVE chicks and watching a mama with her chicks is freakin’ adorable). Broody hens don’t give a rat’s rear end if those are their eggs or not, all they care about is OMG CHICKS. If a hen isn’t broody she’ll just run away from the chicks, and you can’t force a hen to go broody. If no mama hen, the chicks will bond to us and be much tamer pets. What happens to the ones that don’t hatch? There are about 900 things that can go wrong during the incubation and hatch. We keep the incubator running for three days beyond the hatch date to catch any stragglers, after that the unhatched eggs are removed. In order to learn what happened with the unhatched eggs I take them outside and crack them open to see how the chicks developed and look for problems that might explain what went wrong. This is messy and disgusting, yes—but also invaluable and necessary, it helps a LOT for future hatches. ALSO—sometimes a chick will hatch but won’t live. Sometimes they will die days after hatch after you’ve named them and become attached to them. Mother Nature knows best and some congenital defects are fatal. We do the best we can but losses DO happen.  NAMING THE CHICKS!List yer name choices here now! Nothing my kid can't say without getting her mouth washed out with soap or us called to the principal's office, and no names previously used. As they hatch, our 14 year old daughter will draw names out of a hat for each chick, so everyone’s name gets a fair shot. One name per Goon to keep it fair! You cannot assign a name to a specific egg #, sorry. If you post more than one name we’ll choose one to drop in the hat. I’ll update the egg # below with the name & hatch time. What kind of chickens are these? We have a small variety—this year with a weird twist. Our 12 year old Head Hen, Bear, suddenly came back into lay after not laying eggs for years, and Cam, our Americaunas mix roo, has become completely smitten with her. They have a real May/December romance going on. The 3 dark green eggs you see are Bear’s eggs, which we decided to try and hatch. Bear being so old, they may or may not hatch, we’ll see (hens normally fall out of lay between the age of 5-7 years old, normal life span for a chicken is around 7-9 years). The 3 large brown eggs are mystery eggs as far as parents go, and just for laughs there’s one little Belgian d’Uccle bantam egg. As they grow we’ll be able to better ID who is what. While we’ll have tiny and large chicks all together and various breeds, they should all get along just fine barring the occassional natural sibling dust-up. Just like last year, we found that our cold winter had made big fluffy chickens butts REALLY fluffy…and our Giant Cochin roo, Weedcat, couldn’t…ah…seal the deal with the girls. Bloop the bantam d’Uccle roo didn’t have that problem, the banties not being fluffmonsters. So just like last year, my daughter and I went out a few weeks ago with a pair of scissors and gave anyone with a big, fluffy hiney a butt haircut. We also shaved away their dignity while we were at it and got major stink eye from all of them. But one week later, viola! The eggs were all testing fertile! The eggs incubate for 21 days, we turned the eggs by hand 5 times a day. The O and X registration marks are so we can easily tell which ones have been turned. Several times during the incubation cycle I candled the eggs (shined a bright light through them in a darkened room) and removed any that were duds and hadn’t developed. That’s why, if you notice a number missing, there are gaps in the numbers of the eggs left. The remaining eggs you see have chicks inside. HATCH A--The eggs—If I know the breed/parents, it’s listed, otherwise wait & see: #1—Dark Green, Easter Egger (Bear) #2—Dark Green, Easter Egger (Bear) #12—Dark Green, Easter Egger (Bear) #5—Large Brown Egg, breed unknown, pipped 12:15PM 3/28, hatched 9PM 3/28, named Bad Mr. Frosty by Pessimism #10-- Large Brown Egg, breed unknown, pipped 12AM 3/28, hatched 3/28 at 11:45AM, named Cattywampus by Cerebral Mayhem #11-- Large Brown Egg, breed unknown, pipped 6AM 3/28, hatched at 7:15PM on 3/28, named NotASandwich by AtomikKrab We also have two chicks already in the brooder box—one, a 1 week old Barred Rock named Alice, was a rescue from a local feed store, she was being pecked to death by the other chicks and we volunteered to take her. Well, one chick is a bad thing since chickens are flock animals, so we had to get a little buddy, Pumpkin, a 2 week old Danish brown Leghorn, for her. They are a bit older than our chicks but should all get along fine. (photo by inveigle)  HATCH B--11 eggs, hatch date 4/5. No bantams in this batch.  #7--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #8--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #9--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #10--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #11--Light blue, Americaunas #12--Light blue, Americaunas #13--Light blue, Americaunas #14--Light brown. Pipped 10PM 4/3, hatched at 10:30A, named Patches by McDragon #15--Light brown. Pipped 4/3 at 4PM, hatched at 3AM 4/4, named Jellybean by ApathyGirl #16--Light brown. Pipped 11AM 4/4, hatched 1PM 4/4 named Jerk by MrNonacho #18--Medium brown--pipped at 7AM 4/4, hatched 3PM on 4/4, named Pie by Chicken Doodle Hatch C--4 eggs from Bear, hatch date 4/13, none hatched. All infertile on breakout. Hatch D, the final hatch for 2014--11 eggs. 3 Bantam Cochin, 4 dark green Bear eggs, 4 blue Americaunas eggs. Hatch date 4/22. In the picture below you can *just* see the pip on #11, the one behind the shot glass--the pip is on top and to the back left, the bumped-out spot.   #1--tiny, light brown bantam Cochin #2--tiny, light brown bantam Cochin #3--tiny, light brown bantam Cochin #4--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #5--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #6--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #7--Dark green, Easter Egger (Bear) #8--Light blue, Americaunas (Bug or Rose) Pipped 4/21 at 11:45AM, hatched at 5:30PM on 4/21, named Ratchet by Nevileen #9--Light blue, Americaunas (Bug or Rose) Pipped 4/21 at 9:30AM, hatched on 4/21 at 3PM, named Ribbit by Fluffy Bunnies #10--Light blue, Americaunas (Bug or Rose) Pipped 4/21 at 10AM, assisted hatch on 4/21 at 6:30PM, named Buzzard by Super Two #11--Light blue, Americaunas (Bug or Rose) Pipped 4/21 at 6:30AM, hatched 4/21 at 12PM, named Cowbell by spookygonk Also, here is a link to last year's thread if you want to see it: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3544925&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1 Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 16:05
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 09:28 |
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Ask any chicken questions you like! No, we don't eat our birds, but when I was a kid we raised chickens for table so I learned how to slaughter and process them. Home-grown chicken tastes incredible, by the way. These days we just keep our birds for eggs and as pets.
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Mar 28, 2014 16:18
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I think chicken are more like velicoraptors, myself. I got me a yard full of dinosaurs.
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Mar 28, 2014 16:21
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We have a shitload of hawks up here, especially Red Tails. Right now our flock is securely housed in an enclosed run so there is zero chance of predation of any sort--we also have coyotes and things like racoons and skunks to worry about.
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Mar 28, 2014 16:30
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^^^Dude, I'm not a dude, dude.  As far as I know, some studies say that the hen can somewhat control the sex of the chick at the time the egg is created, but I don't know how true that is. Other than that I don't know of any way to control the gender of unhatched chicks. As far as extra birds, male or female, we rehome any we don't keep. Hey, if I was making up a backstory on eggs it'd be one Hell of a lot more weird and involve time travel from the dinosaur age. I do know of a person who bought fertile eggs at Trader Joe's, took them home and successfully incubated and hatched them, though. 
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 16:44
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Also, chickens love chicken.
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Mar 28, 2014 16:53
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Also, this is Bear, the shameless 12 year old fossil that is laying the dark green eggs: Her 1 year old boyfriend, Cam (originally named Camilla):  VVVV Hey, the joint is littered with chickens. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 17:09
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C'mon, you goons, bring on the names! Y'all have a reputation to uphold, here.
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Mar 28, 2014 17:18
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Pobama posted:"Hello, ma'am, this is Jim from Aarons, you really need to return those incubators you leased or we're going to send over our repo guys." Repo guys are simply tossed into the coop. Fresh meat. One name per Goon, guys! Pick one and stick with it! And before we even go down that road, we already have: Dinner, Nugget, Burger, Shake and Fries. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 17:22
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Tortuga posted:Flight MH370 This is assuming chickens can fly.
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Mar 28, 2014 17:27
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SquirrelPrincess posted:Naming hat submission: Rocket We already have a Rocket from last year, sorry. Three eggs pipped now, #10, 11 and 3. #10 is going at his shell hammer and tongs and popping bits off of it.
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Mar 28, 2014 17:29
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Tortuga posted:I thought they could fly unless you clipped their wings? Depends on the breed, actually. Slender chickens can fly a certain amount--not like sparrows or hawks (unless unwillingly assisted by said hawk) or anything. Mostly they use their wings for jumping up or down off things. Heavy breeds like Cochins or birds with inefficient feathers for flying, like Silkies, can't. If you think you are interested now, wait till you watch one hatch.
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Mar 28, 2014 17:40
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#10 is peeping and all pissed off, and you'll see it's beak poking out now and then. In a bit he'll stick his beak out and bitch his brains out.
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Mar 28, 2014 17:44
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As far as baby daddies go, in addition to Cam pictured earlier, we also have Bloop the MilleFleur Belgian d'Uccle rooster (a bantam, and likely the father of the banty egg):  And Weedcat, the splash Giant Cochin rooster:  
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Mar 28, 2014 18:03
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rcman50166 posted:pls get small furniture to take hilarious internet photos with, tia Way ahead of ya. The kid is planning a LEGO chick playground. Also some chick-scale Godzilla movie rampagable tiny cardboard buildings, once they get a bit older and they learn what mealworms are. We had a Scrambles, sorry.
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Mar 28, 2014 18:08
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Internet Kraken posted:Name one of the chicks Mighty Cluck. Besides the fact that it's an rear end in a top hat thing to do and it's FUN to bitchslap your siblings? Actually it's just instinct, baby chicks instinctively peck and in so doing learn what is food/water, they need no mama to show them. Lots of people who raise turkeys will put a few baby chickens in with the turkey poults so they can teach the damned dumb turkeys where the food and water is.
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Mar 28, 2014 18:14
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Also, if you want your name to be considered only for a Bear baby, mention it in your post.
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Mar 28, 2014 18:40
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This is the view of the entire incubator, with the next two hatches in the upper rack. Today's hatch is on the bottom. I still need to open the incubator 5 times a day to get good air in and bad air out, and turn the eggs on the upper rack. On the upper rack, the army-green eggs are Bear's, the light blue ones are Americaunas eggs from either Rose or Bug. The 4 brown eggs are mystery mama eggs.
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Mar 28, 2014 19:17
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It's going to be a bit on #10 yet, the hole you see is all she has done right now. She needs to unzip her shell at least halfway before she can come out. When the chicks DO come out, I'm betting that just like last year, they will RUN for the back of the incubator to the fan--it runs all the time and they have learned to associate that noise with 'mama'. That's another reason for us talking to them before they hatch, so they learn that WE are mama, as well. They forget about the fan after a couple of hours anyway. EDIT: I lied, the clever girl pipped the bottom of her shell first then worked her way up the back, she's about 3/4 of the way unzipped and should be out in about 20 minutes! Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 19:35
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#10 hatching NOW
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Mar 28, 2014 19:39
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Ladies and gents, we have a slimey chicken. #10 has hatched. We will name her after the kid gets home from school.
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 19:45
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#5 has a big pip on it now. I checked the Bear eggs and no pips yet, but they are peeping.
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Mar 28, 2014 20:19
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ENSENDA CURES MAIL posted:do you know how to sex chicks Not in the traditional way by looking in their vents--that takes years of experience. I go more by behavior once they get a bit older. Certain breeds you can also get an idea by the length of the wing feathers, and with others their feathers will be one color for males, another for females (those are called Sex Links). VVVV Oh for crying out loud...NEVER do we get normal animals. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 20:30
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Pig Benis Disciple posted:name one MEGATRON We already had a Megatron, sorry
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Mar 28, 2014 21:19
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Hogburto posted:is the light what keeps waking this chick up every time it nods off for half a second Nope, this is just what chicks do for the first week or so. They are like wind-up toys that run down suddenly.
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Mar 28, 2014 21:21
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^^^ AHAHA, don't have either yet--pick one! #3 will be out soon!
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Mar 28, 2014 22:33
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#3 is out!
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Mar 28, 2014 22:49
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Names have been chosen! #10, the large chick is Cattywampus, named by Cerebral Mayhem #3, the small chick is Mailbox, named by MisterOblivious
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Mar 28, 2014 23:24
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Shithouse Dave posted:Isn't that small one a bantam though? That might make the big one look extra big by comparison? Yes, but she's still big. She is at least part Giant Cochin, if not all Giant Cochin--and they are freakin' huge. I'll be able to tell her parentage better as she gets older.
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Mar 28, 2014 23:48
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Shithouse Dave posted:Weedcat is giant and bloop is wee... Do you have a middle sized rooster? Cam is in the middle, he's Bear's boy toy. Also, Bug is broody! We may try her for a mama, we can't try till tonight after dark though.
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Mar 29, 2014 00:08
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SuperTwo posted:Has there been a Drumstick yet? Yes
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Mar 29, 2014 00:43
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SuperTwo posted:What about Gizzard? Nope! Not used yet! We have used 'Giblets', however. VVVV This one is also free Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Mar 29, 2014 |
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Mar 29, 2014 00:56
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As far as using a broody hen for mama, none of the chicks will care if they know her or not--except maybe Pumpkin, the two week old chick. She's old enough that either she may reject having a mother or the broody may reject her, no way to tell without just giving it a go. If it happens that way, we'll have to do without a broody hen--it's got to be all of the chicks or none of them, Pumpkin can't be on her own, it would be cruel. We'll see later on how it works out.
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Mar 29, 2014 02:09
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#11 is working on hatching again and should be out in about 20 minutes
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Mar 29, 2014 02:44
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Blast of Confetti posted:what was this supposed to accomplish? They were trying to emulate how a dinosaur with a long, heavy tail might walk. The video is...strange.
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Mar 29, 2014 02:54
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#11 has hatched and is named NotASandwich by AtomikKrab! Also, I'm moving Cattywampus to the brooder box, she's strong enough. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Mar 29, 2014 |
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Mar 29, 2014 03:17
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Mailbox seems to have a bad right foot. I took her out and extended her leg and checked her foot, it seems normal and she flexes it, so we'll see how she does. I may have to splint it.
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Mar 29, 2014 03:48
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#5 is making serious headway on unzipping!
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Mar 29, 2014 04:14
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^^^^^^^ I aim to please! #5 has hatched and is named Bad Mr. Frosty by Pessimism! VVVVV AHAHA Oh my God.... Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Mar 29, 2014 |
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Mar 29, 2014 04:58
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| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 09:28 |
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Well Bug didn't work out, she wasn't broody enough and was pecking Pumpkin, who insisted on climbing onto her back. We removed her, then Pumpkin started picking on Mailbox. So Pumpkin got seperated since she's feathered out enough to do without the light for warmth. But she freaked out. So the light was moved over against the wire and we put Alice and a stuffed lion in with her, the heat from the lamp will be shared. Wampus and Mailbox have the stuffed bunny to cuddle with. The last two chicks, Frosty and Notta, will stay in the incubator overnight. Geeeeezz......more drama, please! EDIT: Wait, there's more! Alice was pouting and refused to go near the stuffed lion...she GLARED at it. We had to swap stuffed toys and Alice ran over and stood on HER bunny. Everyone's happy, thank Christ. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Mar 29, 2014 |
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Mar 29, 2014 06:39
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