Jack's Henhouse: Year 16 Of Chickam!

This year got off to a bit of a faltering start.

To begin with, we had to delay Chickam. First because while we traditionally hatch chicks over Easter weekend, this year Easter fell on March 31st--while it was still too cold to get quality eggs, with the chickens not sufficiently revved up and in full breeding season ninny-headedness.

Also, there was me having to have major surgery--last September I was diagnosed with Severe Aortic Stenosis, and on April 30th of this year underwent a TAVR procedure to replace my aortic valve. While all went well (thanks in large part to friends and family who donated), it meant that Chickam got pushed back to a hatch on June 8th.

But this turned out to be something of a serendipitous event--the chickens were in full swing, with no danger of freezing temps harming the eggs.

On May 18th I set 29 eggs in our ReptiPro incubator, and on the 10th day of incubation candled (held the egg with a bright light under it to see inside) them to check for viable embryos.

Out of those 29 eggs, 22 had developed chicks!

21 Embryos

1 I suspected had quit, but I kept in it anyway to give it a chance

7 Duds (no development, these were removed)

Of the 22 viable eggs, 6 are bantam eggs, the rest standard-sized eggs. Thanks to M. sitting out in the coop to see which hen laid the eggs, we knew some of the moms of the 22 viable eggs: Bort Grungus, Scraunch, Pickle, Gretchen, Dubious Intentions, Imminent Disaster (not sure), Nyx, Rapunzel (bantam, 2 eggs), & Swiffer (a frizzle bantam Cochin, 3 eggs, God help us). Swiffer's chicks will carry the frizzle gene, but may be smooth coated. We'll know as her chicks' wing feathers come in--curled feathers means a frizzle! Swiffer's eggs are important because Swiffer passed away suddenly on June 4th, four days before the hatch.

But when things are going well, is when things will start NOT going so well. One week before our hatch date, at dusk one day the power went out.

It didn't come back on right away, and I knew the ReptiPro would only hold the 99.5 temperature the eggs MUST have for a few minutes.

But we had five broody hens out in the coop! The kid rigged a cardboard box and an animal carrier with hay to serve as nests, and ran out to bring in two of the broody hens. We tested them in the nests with eggs we'd previously gathered, so we wouldn't risk the incubating eggs.

The first two hens refused to sit on the eggs. Okay, they were swapped out and we tested the remaining three.

Success! Deliciousaurus (hatched last year) and Uptown Bus, a 5 year old veteran broody hen who's raised chicks before, accepted the eggs.

By now it was full dark, so the test eggs were swapped out for the eggs from the incubator, each hen getting 11 eggs.

The power came back on three hours later, and once the ReptiPro had warmed up again, I gently took the incubating eggs from the hens and put them back in. Our two darling hero girls got a couple of other eggs to sit on the rest of the night.

We had no way of knowing if all this had harmed the embryos, but figured we'd had our Chickam Drama for the year (because there's always something).

But the very next day, while my husband was doing the 2PM egg turn both racks in the ReptiPro collapsed. Eggs, hygrometers, racks--everything came crashing down.He did his best to catch everything, I ran out there and we carefully removed the eggs & reset the racks, hygrometers & eggs. He doesn't know how it happened.

I checked the eggs with a flashlight and only found one that was cracked--but that one VERY badly, I doubted it would survive. It was a BAD fall, all of the eggs took a heavy tumble so it's entirely possible we'd end up with a zero hatch rate. At 15 days into their 21 day incubation the eggs are roughly half yolk, half chick.

The badly cracked egg is #8 (unknown mother), and there was some blood seepage from one crack. I doubted the chick would survive, but as an experiment decided to give the chick a shot. These pictures show the cracks (the egg was profoundly damaged, not all of the cracks show in the pictures).

Away I flew to the Internet for help. I knew I only had a few minutes and because of previous egg repair failures, had an idea how I wanted to repair the egg, but got confirmation online. Following instructions from this poultry abstract online, repaired them using Micropore Surgical Tape--paper (not cloth!) medical tape and clear school/craft glue (wax doesn't work).

I had to work quickly before the egg cooled too much. Using a bit of paper towel, I gently wiped the cracks with peroxide, then dried them with another paper towel before applying the tape. The paper tape is slightly sticky on one side, just the right amount it seems, because it stuck well to the dry eggshell. I braced the egg sideways in an egg carton while I worked. Paper tape in place:

...and then painted the tape with a thin layer of the glue. I waited for 1-2 minutes for the glue to dry, then returned the egg to the incubator.

I decided that if this egg or any of the others start to look or smell bad, I'd pull them. But after all this, if ANY of this year's eggs hatched it'll be a miracle.

On day 18 of incubation we stopped turning the eggs and moved them down to the bottom of the incubator to hatch. The repaired #8 cracked egg is on the right, in front.

As usual, two days before the official hatch day, the bantam eggs pipped and began to hatch. More eggs followed suit...even #8, the repaired egg! I may have lucked out here due to the stage the chick was at when the egg got cracked (day 15)--any earlier in incubation, and the chick may have died.

Of the 22 eggs, 10 chicks hatched--a HUGE improvement in previous years (and the big reason for moving Chickam for a mid-May hatch date in the future!). For daddys, we have four roosters: Bacon, a tiny bantam, Bobbie, a buff Brahma, Mjolnir, a buff Orpington, and Eggroll, a blue laced red Wyandotte. All of the roos except Bacon are BIG boys.

On hatch day we had an Extreme Heat Warning from the weather service (because what the heck, throw in another hurdle, fate!), temps inside the ReptiPro were spiking so I had to bring a fan into the roon the incubator was in.

But the brooder box was right next to it.

This was a problem, because drafts can kill new chicks. So we once again recruited Uptown Bus for our Chickam mom this year! Here she is with her first two chicks, we gave her more chicks as they dried out and got strong after hatching. She quickly realized what the incubator was all about, and watched it like a hawk for new hatches, then being very vocal about I WANT THAT CHICK.

We ended up with 10 chicks: 5 bantams and 5 standard-size. Their moms are listed when known, and certain chicks got either a colored leg band or a food color spot so we can tell them apart from their dopplegangers.

So in order of hatch, here are this year's Chickam chicks!

For the Rapunzel chicks I suspect Bacon the bantam roo will be dad...Swiffer was a bigger hen, so the big boys may have successfully gotten with her. Time will tell!

Big Cluckin' McGuckin (#26, a Swiffer bantam egg), with her white leg band. McGuckin had to be restrained from running off during picture time. As of 6/15, her leg band got too tight. We removed it, she now was a green food color spot on her back & chest.

Blaziken, (#24, a bantam) with a blue leg band.

Big Nasty (28, a Swiffer bantam egg). Swiffer's chicks tend to be fluffier, with shorter, heavily feathered shanks.

Mammon (25, a Rapunzel bantam egg).

Mammon has an interesting pattern on the top of her head.

Grug! (#17, Dubious Intentions egg, clean-legged). Grug! is very sweet and climbs into your hand if you reach into the brooder box.

Sticky (#8, repaired cracked egg, clean-legged). That's right, to everyone's amazement, that badly damaged egg hatched, and with NO help from us! Turns out from her elaborate markings of a chipmunk backstripe and Egyptian eyeliner, Sticky has one of our Americaunas hens for a mom--either Peanut or Cheese. Sticky is very healthy and perky, and earned her name--of course--from the tape her shell was held together with..

With the repair of Sticky's egg, I did my best to eyeball the zone where most eggs pipped, and avoid it...and it looks like it worked. Again, I got lucky with where the cracks ran. Although I'm willing to bet Sticky would have forced her way out of that egg regardless.

Here is Sticky's spent shell:

Takoyaki (#15, clean-legged). A very pretty chick, most likely from one of our black hens.

Owl (#27, a Swiffer egg). Owl has a yellow leg band. As of 6/16, her leg band also got too tight--these Swiffer chicks have legs like tree trunks!. We removed it, she now was a blue food color spot on her back & chest.