Originally Posted by mjgigax 
Too cute! - I love feathered feet.
Jack incubated a dozen for me too test various pens I have set up and only 3 hatched. Carl is hatching 2 dozen for me and only 8 were fertile. Not such a good start but a couple of my roos are young and one is old. I have to remember that it is only March. I've got 8 breeding pensand if all of the eggs hatch I could be in trouble!
One of the chicks that hatched at Jack's has pure white down, sure looks strange and at the same time pretty. It already has tiny grey pin feathers. I have a Columbian-looking roowith a little Buff in his hackles and saddle feathers that had white down when he hatched. His parents were a Mille fleur roo and a Black mottled hen. I didn't plan on breeding him because his type isn't that great. This chick may be his since a couple of the test eggs were from my mixed pen.
I have another roo from the Mille Fleur x Mottled pair from last year. This one is is the opposite of his white-downed brother; mostly black with white detaile and buff hackles and saddle frethers. I am breeding this boy because he has much better type that his brother. I should put up some picks of the white down and the opposite brothers. Breeding sure gets interesting.
You're smart to be in love with a breed that's in high demand. You shouldn't have a problem in the world finding homes for the extras. I gave Carl 3 LF Faverolles eggs to try to hatch and only 1 was fertile, I got the coolest baby from it but I wonder if both our problem with fertility might be because of the poofy back ends on these breeds.
(Also I sent you a PM last night, MJ).
Carl, honestly-I don't know how you do it and how you keep track of all the hatches and all the babies.
There's not a dog I've ever met that scared me but a mad 2 lb cat is another story. I can't even imagine a 130 lb cat!
I ended up ordering the 10 egg Brinsea and am already wishing I'd gotten the 24 egg one. I'm fast becoming addicted to the idea of hatching and I adore baby chicks. I really think I can place the boys. It's to the point now that I don't *want to keep the boys if they're not going to be able to get along with each other. And it's unfair to the boys to live in bachelor yards if there's a chance they could have their own girls somewhere.
BAAcres, I'm saving blue eggs for you in case you can use them in a few wks for the kids if it works out that you can hatch eggs for them. I thought the kids would like having blue eggs since they're young kids. I can find little stickers to put on them, they'd love it. I'll meet you 1/2 way between Guthrie and Yukon if you end up being able to use them.
