Dordogne hatching:continuation from 'Welcome & Forum Rules'

[rosiepie]

Update: 1 TNN hatched during the night (very cute, perfectly formed and wanting to get out so am setting up the rearing box and lamp), three more pipped, 2 Leghorns pipped - can't really see the others as Suro is not an ideal hatcher for viewing!

 

[Marigold]

Great, sounds as if it was working OK then.

 

[NEWTODUCKS]

Congratulations-always an exciting/nervewracking time!! 08

 

[rosiepie]

Certainly is, I now have 1 hatched Leghorn also who is desperate to come out of the hatcher!

 

[tygrysek75]

How exciting is this.I can't remember how many eggs you have there, few more to come for sure.Chris must call you all the time

 

[rosiepie]

Well we have 18 in total, 9 in the incubator (1 Leghorn and 8 TNN's) and 9 hatching (3 Leghorns and 6 TNN's). Chris cannot call me as he has no internet access and the telephony aspect from here is well, a very long story perhaps for another time! I call him.

Anyway to the latest;
Only 1 Leghorn egg pipped and hatched not 2 as previously stated.
I put the little Leghorn in the rearing box with the the first hatched 'cute' TNN and all it did was pick on it pecking it's feet until it squealed and pecking it's head and beak so I put in a divider and all was well until.... two TNN's hatched and were creating such a furore by bumbling around, knocking over the remaining eggs and trying to commit suicide by drowning in water pots that I called Chris for advice and he suggested I put these two in with the first TNN. I got as far as putting one in but as it had not yet got it's balance and bearings in order when it was picked on I had to put it back in the hatcher - I did not get chance to put in the second one.
They continued to create a furore in the hatcher so I called the 'Chris hotline' again and he suggested putting them in with the little Leghorn which I did and up to now all seems to be OK. Trouble may ensue as there is another TNN about hatch and on pipped so who knows what will ensue!
The plan is to remove the divider so the first hatched will have to deal with three or maybe more other chicks and will hopefully stop being 'Mrs/Mr Bossy Pants' - we will see.

 

[tygrysek75]

Hi Rosie,this is normal that chicks peck at eachother toes-they exploring surrondings.For us looks like being mean and nasty.Red brooder light help or no light at all .You can also drop few of chick crumbs on the floor for them to distract them from their toes.The main thing is to make sure that they strong eunugh to move away from each other.They tend to sleep alot in the begining and look like dead,but they fine so do not panick to much.You can remove divider tomorow and see what is going to happend it is best when they together from very beging as they stert to recognized each other and making a new flock.I hope that everything make sense what I had wrote

 

[rosiepie]

Hi Tygrysek,

Thank you for your good advice, it is much appreciated. Overnight 2 more Leghorns and 1 TNN hatched so I put them in with the other 3 and they settled. The divider was removed at lunchtime and all is well but the first hatched TNN is still a 'bossy pants' and very bright.

I am now waiting for the last Leghorn egg to hatch or not so I can sanitise the Suro ready for batch 2....

Egg count in previous post was incorrect for batch 1 - we had 4 Leghorn eggs and 5 TNN eggs.

 

[tygrysek75]

Rosie,he may going to be a leader of the flock so I guess trying to establish himself allready :lol: They settle down eventually.How long you will wait for the last egg?Is in the second batch are eggs from hen who was killed on arrival?

 

[rosiepie]

'He seems to have settled down now. I will wait until Sunday. We don't know if any of the eggs were from Snowdrop - we hope so as she was such a nice natured, friendly little thing yet was top hen.

Opened the egg today as there were no signs after tapping it and listening to it. The chick was 'full term' but dead with a complete yolk sac, Chris said it may have contracted an infection when it was transferred from the incubator to the hatcher - we will never know

Second batch goes in tomorrow afternoon.

 

[rosiepie]

Hello everyone and apologies for not updating this post before. We have been sometime without internet access and when we got it back I could not get near the Mac as it was constantly in use by a certain person........ no more to be said as I have it now!
I lost two of the chicks in batch two for various reasons so out of 19 eggs we got 16 chicks (4 Leghorns and 12 TNN's) so not too bad considering.
Both batches are now integrated and generally getting on well - we have just moved them to a huge (at the moment) new box, we are using the electric hen (which I think is a great invention) and are on night and day.
It does look like we have a few TNN cockerels but we will see. We have a huge brown English Bantam Leghorn chick - think its a cockerel. We also have a tiny brown English Bantam Leghorn which we think is a hen but it is so much smaller than it's two counterparts (again I think they are hens) so interesting times ahead I think.
When they have grown out of their current abode the next stage is to move them into the trailer as the weather will be too cold to put them outside and we will need the space.