Late Blooming Stafford Chicks

This chick is being partially feed by its parent. First thing in the morning it accepts my hand feeding but then it tries to hide in the nest the rest of the day. The parents will feed it peas and corn and sunflower sprout but little egg food. I especially like its two black eyes, like a bandit!




The momma bird has built a nest on the floor and laid two infertile eggs. On occasion she will feed this special chick but mostly I am feeding it! Unlike cry baby, it never cries but accepts feedings like a well bred bird!

No Peace On The Prairie

While I was at work last evening, the German import momma struck again! The first time she threw a stuff baby out of the nest when I banded it right before leaving for work. This time she decided she was fed up with not having adequate nesting material and resourcefully started gathering it herself off her chicks!





Every chick had damage an a couple were bleeding. Growing feathers are full of blood until they mature. When broken, they bleed profusely. To fix the problem, I wash the area and identify where the bleeding is coming from and then pull the feather completely out being careful to not leave the feather tip to bleed.

Born On The Fourth Of July

These German rollers chicks are Yankee Doodle Dandies for sure as they were born on the Fourth of July!!

This ties the latest date I have ever hatched chicks! I still have a few more that might hatch but problems abound for late hatches!

The hen had three fertile eggs but by noon on the 14th day, July 3rd, none had hatched. I tried floating them in warm tap water and only one wiggled.. I tried the other two eggs in hotter water but still no moment. I opened first one and then the other fertile egg and the chicks had not developed adequately likely because of the hen's poor incubation temperature. The eggs were barely warm in the nest.

Another German roller hen was due on the 4th so I moved the live egg from the hen with poor incubation temperature over to the other roller as her eggs felt pretty warm. Typically, chicks in underdeveloped eggs who are still alive by noon on the 14th day when moved to better incubation will hatch on the 15th day. If not moved this live chick will die in the shell like its two siblings. By moving that live egg, two chicks hatched on the 4th of July! Boy did that get me singing the jingle!!!

Hatching was only the first hurdle. Often hens wait a few hours to start feeding new hatches but the incubating hen failed to feed the two chicks them at all by late afternoon on the 4th I took a chance and moved them under the hen who couldn't hatch her fertile eggs and she is feeding them! Looks like this late hatch project takes a village to get it done!!

Identify This Very Promising Chick

This might turn out to be one of the best chicks I hatched this year! What is it????

One Last Border Chick Leaves Its Nest

Family Portrait

Coloring like papa but the head shape of momma! The yellow coloring is very intense for this phase. Hope he will wean easily!!

This Weeks Breeder Reports, Questions and Comments

Please post breeder reports, tips and unrelated items to this post.

Tips

It is important to keep a watchful eye out for dirty vents, especially in weaning chicks. Weaning makes the problem more prevalent as many chick lose weight for a period before eating well! Wash the area with water to clean and make sure the vent is not plugged. Failure to act can result in chick death.


Question

Monday July 5

1. Do you have experience with artificial incubation of eggs, even hatchlings in the incubator?

Making More Room - Switching Nests

These German Rollers from my imports are so crowded that they stand on each others backs.


To give them more room, I put an additional nest in the cage and a perch between them.

From about 14 days, even though you think they have not left the nest yet, they freely switch back and forth to the new nest. This morning they were divided three and one. Since that looks crowded, I put one back in the other nest.

Momma roller feeds one nest and then the other back and forth to which ever nest is begging loudest! The noisy ones get fed first!!