New Chickens

[jwcarlson]

17 baby chicks arrived in the mail this evening. 13+2 females and 2 males. They sent a couple extra in case of losses. They got here in about 24 hours. Heat pack still warm and there must be some sort of green shipping gel that they include. All appear healthy and happy. Drinking and eating already.
Better pics soon. They are Jubilee Orpingtons.

Here's a picture with some roosters and hens in it. They seem to vary in color quite a bit. Excited to see how they look when they grow out. I can already tell they're going to have a really ugly akward stage. A few of them are pretty dark, some pretty light, lots of striped ones.

[jwcarlson]

Forgot to include the pics of ours. Should have got a pic of all of them in the box... whoops.

[Second Hand Pat]

Good to hear they arrived alive and well Jacob. Looking forward to pics of the awkward stage lol.
Pat

[brewmaster15]

Awesome Jacob! Congratulations on your new flock! Those are a really interesting looking breed!

[danotaylor]

Awesomeness mate!

[LizStreithorst]

It's always exciting to get a new batch of chicks. Best of luck with them. The gel stuff they add to the bedding contains water and probably nutrition to the chicks while they are en route.

[jwcarlson]

A few better pictures.

We lost one of the hen jubilee orpingtons yesterday. I don't think she ever ate or drank and was probably doomed from the hatch. Everyone else is still looking good. Went to the small animal swap yesterday and found someone selling American Bresse chicks. Our youngest's teacher, actually. So we've got 20 in the brooder now. Two goslings come this week. The chicks are doing well. I hate these heat lamps because they're basically fire starters. But it's too cold to just have the brooder plate which they're using pretty frequently now. We've got a couple more cold nights (20 degrees tomorrow night) and then I'm hoping to be able to ween them off to the plate only. I think they'll be OK. I like to brood them a little cooler anyway, I think they feather out a little quicker. And everytime I've let a hen raise chicks she has them out in the cold wandering around and what-not. So I don't think they're as fragile as some people think.




The bresse chickens are "dual purpose" and lay an extra large or jumbo egg once they get some age on them. Hoping that we've got at least a breeding pair or trio of them, but worse case we can always eat them.

Here's what they look like all grown up (credit to ambresse.com):

[danotaylor]

Jacob we have a chick that is chirping but doesn’t appear to be able to break free from the egg shell. I actually think it may have died today. Would it be problematic to break it free manually? It’s prolly too late anyway tbh. No more chirps from the egg.
On another note, 1 did fully hatch out today!

[jwcarlson]

Without chirping, it's probably gone. It might have pipped internally (into the air sac at the fat end of the egg) and not been able to pip externally. They seem to live quite a long time if they can get through the shell to breathe. Assisting a hatch can be kind of hard because their breathing (to my understanding) triggers something that causes the blood vessels to start... shutting off(?), I don't know the term. But the blood vessels that line the egg begin withdrawing the blood into the body. If you help too soon you can cause the chicken to bleed to death really easily as a single blood vessel breaking can make it happen. It's worth seeing if it's holding on though. If you can candle sometimes you can see the internal pip and you might be able to see if it's moving. I'd break into the air sac if you can see it. Gently, obviously.

If it's alive, leave it in the egg. Wet any membrane that's exposed. And get it back in the incubator... see what happens.

Hope it's still hanging on for you, but not chirping probably isn't a good sign. I'm meticulous when I incubate and I rotate the eggs within the incubator at least once or twice a day when I turn them. And mine always hatch very close together. But a lot of incubators have a lot of variation within the chamber even if they're small.

[danotaylor]

TY Jacob. Our little incubator rolls the eggs continually, very slowly. I don't know what "pipped" means, but I will look it up at work tonight. This is my wife's project so I am trying to stay out of it, lol. It was chirping a lot yesterday, but today is silent :/ The hole it poked in the shell has a little tuft of feathers sticking out but that's it. Doesn't that mean it should be able to breath though?

[jwcarlson]

Pipped is poking through the shell. And yes, that means it should be able to breathe. Sometimes a chick ends up with its head under the wrong wing or at wrong end of egg. Sometimes they get unlucky and damage a blood vessel and bleed out. And, frankly, sometimes they are just not fit enough to survive to begin with. I don't open eggs until it's been about 18-24 hours since they pipped because some just wait until they unzip. This one sounds like it isn't alive though.

[danotaylor]

Thanks mate. I checked it again when I got home from work this morning. Definitely was dead. Broke it free and it was fully formed and feathered. Just not strong enough to break out I guess. Poor little bloke

[jwcarlson]

Thanks mate. I checked it again when I got home from work this morning. Definitely was dead. Broke it free and it was fully formed and feathered. Just not strong enough to break out I guess. Poor little bloke

Well, dang...

There used to be a better guide than this:
Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service

It was on the University of Illinois site/extension office. But it looks like you have to request access now:
Incubation Troubleshooting | | Illinois Extension | UIUC

The Mississippi State one looks alright too. There's obviously a lot of possibilities with incubation, but this breaks it down by failure type as far as what might have caused the problem.

[jwcarlson]

19 chicks and 3 goslings
We have been bringing the grass to them, this is their first yard time. It was 80something today. More than warm enough for yard time for a couple hours.

[jwcarlson]

Forgot the picture...