bad kitty!
Coloring Easter chix
You got it!!! She has been getting in trouble since the day she came to live with us. In fact, I had stated we weren't going to have another cat until we moved to where we are now. But I guess God decided to make me eat my words. (hehehe) We had just lost our old cat (20+ yrs) and I wasn't ready for another. But, my neighbor showed her to me and all I saw was a tail. And since she is a Maine Coon Cat, I have heard that they are a cat attached to a tail, and I believe it.
I have had a terrible time with the eggs I injected. There is a "half" purple chick. I didn't inject deep enough, so the dye stayed inside the membrane on one side of the egg, and it has one purple leg, a yellow neck, purple head and violet rest of feathers. WOW, if I were that chick, i'd be ticked off at me (it is very healthy tho)...There was a blue goo in one egg - I smelled that one out - and a red one that didn't hatch, so I cracked it open, and I hate to say it was alive but severely deformed, with no eyes, an exposed brain, and an upside down beak. There is a green one pipping now, and one more purple that isn't doing anything yet (I don't dare to crack that one open). I am a bad father, someone should punish me. I will not ever try that again - I promise.
Just curious, Scott, what kind of dye did you use? And no--don't do it again;-)
I used the food coloring grade stuff that most grocery stores sell. I hope that was the right kind? I feel terrible...
I don't think that should cause problems. Maybe some sort of physical disruption occured when you chipped into the shell or injected the dye. Where did the eggs come from? Maybe they were just "bad eggs" and the deformation had nothing to do with your tinkering with them. Did you have "control eggs" from the same source that you didn't inject? I wish I had the nerve to try new things.....
The purple chick will be fine--they always outgrow the dye as their adult feathers come in anyway, so his friends won't make fun of him. How is the green one doing?
oh, you are just deferring your fatherly guilt, now STOP THAT! before i smack you!
the purple one sounds cute, and will begin getting his usual color in 1-2 weeks.
the dye didn't cause this. i am soory you are not getting a good hatch.
my hygrometer mus have broken. no more hatches since the first self blue OEG. so i need to go dunk som eeggs in warm water, no vinegar or dye LOL
here are the ones from the feed store. i feel sorry for them. they are very crammed, and supposedly over a week old... if you look closely you can see a few mistakes.
I don't find those colored chicks as appealing as normally colored ones. I wish the stores wouldn't do that since it makes them look like stuff toys and leads to impulse buys.
MollyD
MollyD, that is the exact reason they do it. So people will buy them because they are so cute. I don't find them appealing at all. I'm like you, give me natural colored ones.
Silkiechicks' ones are pretty, but then they are adult chickens and the color is painted on, not injected into the egg.
Sad to think how many of those chicks will end up dead because they were bought when people weren't thinking about what they were doing :-(
Sort of like puppies at Christmas.
MollyD
Yes, it is sad. I had never heard of coloring chicks when in the egg until I started lurking on this forum. I have never seen colored chicks before.
I grew up in NYC and I use to see them at Easter when I was a young woman. This was back around the 1970's. I don't know how they did it though.
MollyD
some guy bought 2 chicks & 2 ducks [also died], while he was spending the rest of the day in his work truck. talk about impulse!
i like my new chick, he is blue because God made him that way LOL
Yep, and he is very pretty..
I had 5 control eggs and 5 dyed eggs. The only colored one that hatched was the purple, the green one pipped and was peeping for about 30 hours, when I was ready to shut down, I opened the egg and it was weak, lived about an hour and then passed. Three of the control eggs hatched, two didn't. One of those two had drawn in the yolk, and was perfectly formed. Just one of those mysteries, how can they get that close and not hatch? So I have four really nice healthy chicks out of 10 that went into the hatcher. I won't try that again.
four is nice. i have one out of 21, and i didn't color them!
I hadn't realized how low were the number that hatched out of the ones you guys put into the hatchers! Do you get the same results when the hens sit them or are these low hatch rates just when they're done mechanically?
MollyD
They say that the commercial hatch rate is 80%. If we get a 60% hatch rate, it is considered very good. I have already taken 8 out of 40 out of the incubator because of various reasons like infertility and blood rings. So, right now I am at 80% if all of the others hatch.
60% ! Wow so to get 6 chicks you should put at least 10 eggs in and so on.
How does the hen do compared to humans?
MollyD
You guys are making me feel so much better! I've never been able to get good hatch rates out of my incubator and was really starting to feel inferior to a chicken!
So far about 70% of what went into the incubator has made it to the hatcher. I feel lucky if 50% of what goes into the hatcher actually hatch. I think my hatch % for eggs purchased is like 40% or something. Some were around 70% and some were 0% also.
Well, I just candled on the 14th day, and had to take 3 more out of the incubator. That lowers my hatch rate again. If these all hatch, I will have 29 out of 40. I will be happy with any I get. I do know a friend of a friend who hatched some of my eggs got a hatch of 18 out of 23. So, we can hope for a few at least. ;o))
I believe that hatch rates really drop on eggs that are shipped. I know that the USPS has been really hard on eggs I have rec'd. No matter the packing job, air sacs get ruptured and that is very bad. I had 9 WW bantam eggs, only one developed and that turned into a blood ring. Last batch was 15 Buff Columbian Rock bantams, 0 chicks, they died at all stages. 4 made it into the hatcher and none hatched. I got two out of 16 Seramas to hatch in one batch. But they are notoriously difficult to hatch anyhow.
Just curious, maineiac. On "The Poultry Forum" one of their big rules is "no Serama talk". Not now, not ever. You just aren't allowed to discuss Serama. Do you know why? It seems very odd.
I had sent an e-mail to the administrator (maybe Chris?) asking the same thing, he said it is because there is basically a war going on between two sides that both are claiming to have the original strain, lots of fights, threats, bashing, etc. So that is their way of "dealing" with it.
Oooooo, Naughty Poultry People! Wouldn't the original strain have come Malaysia? I hate it when people get snarky about things.
Yes, it did come from Malaysia. There are two people, I believe one is Jerry someone, and another that both claim to be the original importer. And there is friction between the USSC and another Serama group. It's kinda childish. Everyone should be focusing on getting recognized by the APA, and working toward standardized colors.
Oh my God, isn't there enough to worry about in this world today, without arguing about CHICKEN pedigrees? How sad.
Hi Scott. I looked at Jerry's site. Interesting. I don't understand why, since Seramas are widely kept in Malaysia, there couldn't be multiple importations. But then perhaps I don't have the right temperament to breed Seramas:-) Pity, because they are so pretty. How is your Serama project going now?
They are having their 1st birthday (1 month) today. All look great, very feathered, some getting red combs (roos?), and flying around like the Wright Bros. I will get some pics of all the mixed colors, its really interesting the variety of sizes and colors. I have two that look like they may be AA size if they don't start to grow soon. That would be great to get some eggs going from them, the eggs would probably be the size of Hershey Kisses. They are a bit wilder than what everyone had said they would be.