{"id":3010,"date":"2018-04-11T16:04:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T15:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merrybower.co.uk\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2018-04-24T16:45:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T15:45:37","slug":"marsh-daisy-hatching-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrybower.co.uk\/?p=3010","title":{"rendered":"Marsh Daisy – Hatching Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"marsh<\/a>

There’s always one!<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s Always One<\/h3>\n

Finally the day has arrived and the Marsh Daisy eggs have begun to hatch! Most of the newly hatched chicks moved themselves to the back of the incubator, but this one did its utmost to make its way to the front – a potential trouble-maker if ever there was one!<\/p>\n

Three Tired Chicks<\/h3>\n

\"marsh<\/a>The first three out of the incubator and into our prepared broody-box. When I say broody-box, I actually mean a spare black plastic field trough, which has proved perfect for brooding in. We give it a good sterilisation, then line the floor with newspaper and terry towelling towels. This gives the chicks a good surface to walk on, the friction of the towel prevents splayed leg, and they’re easy to fold up, shake off outside and pop in the washing machine. Once they’re three days old we move to shavings, by which time they’ve figured out (mostly) that the chick crumbs are better to eat than shavings!<\/p>\n

The More The Merrier<\/h3>\n

\"marsh<\/a>The first thing we noticed is that the usual ‘cheep cheep’ noise made by new chicks is more trilling with these chicks, much more warbling. They are also more active compared to the larger Light Sussex we’ve hatched in the past.<\/p>\n

Whilst they’re not that interested in chick crumbs straight away, we scatter a small amount on the towel, so they can learn what food looks like, and we wet the end of our finger with water, offering it to their beaks. This way they learn what water is from our finger (their surrogate mum’s beak).<\/p>\n

\"marsh<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes Sleep Hits you Unexpectedly<\/h3>\n

I love it when a chick forgets what it’s up to, and just stops mid-track. This one was waddling across the towel when sleep took it, and it dozed off!
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

The only thing we would like to improve is the hatch rate. Of the twenty eight eggs incubated, twenty seven proved fertile at one week, and all continued to grow up to lock down. For some reason, only seventeen of the twenty seven actually pipped (63%), and one of those needed help. We left at least twelve hours between opening the incubator to remove hatched eggs, six more than the minimum recommended. We rely on the bulb thermometer which came with the incubator, and have had good hatch rates in the past, but the previous year we also suffered with the Light Sussex in a similar way. Eggs hatched by another incubator at our other site, also of Marsh Daisies, had a higher hatch rate, so my first thought is humidity issues in the first two weeks of incubation is too high, meaning that the chicks are possibly drowning when breaking the internal air sac. To help, we’ve invested in a digital thermometer\/hydrometer and will use this with our next incubation of Light Sussex eggs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s Always One Finally the day has arrived and the Marsh Daisy eggs have begun to hatch! Most of the newly hatched chicks moved themselves to the back of the incubator, but this one did its utmost to make its way to the front – a potential trouble-maker if ever there was one! Three Tired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[227,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chickens","category-poultry"],"yoast_head":"\nMarsh Daisy - Hatching Day! - Merrybower Homestead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hatching day is always one of excitement and trepidation. 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