The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching

Annual Hatch for 2013?

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vanalpaca:
So where is everyone at for hatching?

Last year I found that all my early spring hatching attempts didn't, probably due to room humidity OR nutrition which has been dealt with. The late spring/early summer timeframe hatches went off beautifully.

But, the eggs are still being found FROZEN, so I'm still a ways out from setting up my incubator...

Can we please have some photos here of your current hatches and maybe a clue as to future order availability?

Thanks

Beth C:
By this time last year I'd hatched 75. This year I am off and running with ONE chick! Yep, one. Out of 3 dozen eggs, 32 were clear, one had a blood ring, one had a crossed beak and didn't make it out of the shell, and one failed to thrive and I lost it at a week. Meanwhile the hens suddenly stopped laying. Other than a relatively mild cold spell, I don't know what happened. All are under 2 years old, diet is the same as last year, same amount of light as last year, I had 12 laying and over the course of 2 days all but 2 stopped. After they quit I started just leaving the lights on 24/7, but it's been several weeks and only one has started laying again. 2 of the 3 I'm getting eggs from are layers, not breeders, so I have 9 eggs in the incubator and 2 waiting for the next run. Very frustrating, since I normally don't hatch past February, but I guess I won't have a choice this year. :-\

Mike Gilbert:
Beth, have you wormed the breeder flock and checked them for external parasites lately?   One or two of my bantams shut down laying, and I found they were infested with mites.  Treated them, and they are looking better already, should start laying again soon.

Schroeder:
I have a LF BW cockerel over 3 LF W hens.  Only 4 of the first 18 eggs were fertile, and 3 of the 4 hatched.  They now are about 3 weeks old.  I realized the male hadn't been with the girls long enough, and put them together 24/7.  Second attempt 12 of 18 were fertile and I was thrilled with a 12 out of 12 hatch.  They are 3 days old.  I have 40 more eggs set for the incubator this weekend, and will try my best to stop myself thereafter (at least for awhile.) :o

One of the 12 had zipped its shell, but couldn't bust out.  I'd never had luck with "helped" chicks so I didn't intervene.  After 2 days in this state, and all others hatched, I decided to discard the egg that I thought was dead.  When I opened it, the chick started chirping loudly.  He was pretty dry by then, so I moved him to the brooder after dunking his beak in the waterer several times.  He had a club foot, for which I made a masking tape cast.  At 3 days he looked fine, but died at day 5.  I'll take 11/12 any day.
Duane

Sharon Yorks:
I currently have 50 chicks hatched, some have been sold, and some I am keeping...for now. More are due to hatch on Feb. 15th, 22nd, and March 3rd, but those have all been spoken for. My first available hatch dates to ship chicks is April 22 & May 6th. You can purchase chicks in later March or early April if picking them up. Below is a picture from one of my January hatches. I'm really pleased with the chicks I've been hatching.

I only raise black, blue, and splash LF.

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