Chick Hatching Diary #4

While I slept, the chicks continued to hatch, so that in the morning of 3/16, I found 3 more chicks.

#20 (4959) multi-colored brown chipmunk, with “freckles” on head, small comb - from SFH x CH green egg

#21 (4960) black with dark brown face, large white neck spot, single comb - from PA coop (SFHxCH pullet’s?)

(The other chick that hatched with lots of blood & gunk later died - PA coop brown egg)

I then left for work at the Heart of the Catskills Humane Society, and on our way home, we did some errands. By the time I checked the hatcher again, it was 6 pm. From that time until bedtime, there was plenty of activity and hatching.

#22 - (4961) reddish brown head with small black “freckles”, and a dark chipmunk body, single comb & muff; hatched from a Dad’s coop brown egg

#23 - (4962) yellow/ brown chipmunk, small comb; from SFH x CH green egg.

#24 - (4963) brown chipmunk with distinct V-shape on head - from SFH x CH green egg.

#25 - (4964) silvery gray chipmunk with light blond highlights; v-shape on head - PA coop green egg

#26 - (4965) silvery gray chipmunk with gold, brown “freckles”, more distinct brown V-shape with black edges; silvery muff - PA coop green egg

#27 - (4967) Bielefelder male - 2nd one hatched! (wb # 4966 slipped from the pliers & wasn’t usable)

#28 - (4968) - gray with bright yellow head spot, muff, single comb - Dad’s coop medium brown egg

#29 - (4969) - mostly black - from Dad’s coop light brown egg; started to zip on 3/16 eve, but by 3/17 am hadn’t hatched - it was stuck, so I took of the top of the shell & let it hatch out of the bottom half.

Now that the oldest chicks, hatched on 3/14, were or going to be 3 days old, I needed to move them to the brooder. So the evening of 3/16, I moved 10 chicks, which consisted of #1 thru #7, #20, #23 & #24;

Three of them were from the PA coop green eggs; one from Dad’s coop brown egg & all six from the SFH coop’s CH green eggs. I temporarily put zip ties on their legs, but the next day, I switched them out for wing bands, which are so much easier to tell who is who, and from what egg, etc. Since I only had a few left from last year, I ordered 1,000 wingbands from Cutler’s Supply, and with shipping they came out at $0.08 each - which I think is very reasonable for being able to track their lineage or at least hatch date/ age for the rest of their life. I wasn’t going to wingband the ones that are soon going to their new homes this Saturday, but once they’re out of the incubator/hatcher, I’d have no clue who or what they came from. They are so much better than leg bands which need to be changed as they grow or else they’ll cause lots of problems. One of my projects during the winter was to digitalize all my breeding, chick and hatch records - got a great start, but haven’t finished yet. And now I have all these!

Anyways, Monday evening, I took 10 chicks out of the hatcher & put them with their older "siblings" from the 3/7 hatch. The bigger chicks thought the new chicks' legs were "earthworms"! The "bullies" took one of the chicks, grabbed its foot and dragged it across the brooder! I've put chicks together that are one week apart before and never had this happen!

So I quickly put all the young chicks in a box to keep them separate, and put the brooder lamp so that both ages could still get their needed heat.