Re: Ack! Chick Hatching Help??

My Name Is Nobody wrote:

The bird people seem to think peeling hatching chicks is generally a no no.
I tend to believe there are cases when a viable baby might need some help.
I raise Toulouse Geese, Muscovy Ducks and various Chickens. We like to let the mothers hatch their eggs, and incubate as a backup.

I have not incubated before--I always let the hens do it. This batch of easter eggers I have don't sit their nests. They would get a big old clutch, then abandon it and go lay elsewhere. That was fine with me, but Carl was dying for peeps and set up an incubator borrowed from my neighbors. We have two hatched peeps, one who has pipped. Carl kinda put in 1-3 eggs per day for a week, so we will be having a staggered process here.

<snip>

I liked this method better and now that is how I help the viable babies who are starting their hatching process yet seem to run out of gas...

Thanks! I appreciate the advice very much! These are just back yard cross bred chickens, said to be Acurna and Andalusian but looking at chicken breed sites I think they are just cross breds, tan in color, two rumpless and two with tails. My rooster is an Old English Game Cock. Hopefully the chicks will turn out pretty. We gather up eggs on a somewhat haphazard basis. I have a Rhode Island Red rooster and two hens, chicks from this spring, so I might have them laying next year as well. All are free range.

Thanks again.

Eileen Morgan
The Mare's Nest
http://www.themaresnest.com
.

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