Ameraucanas from Huckleberry Farm

[Fleabuskitty]

I ordered the quail eggs from Stellar gamebirds, which is supposed to be really good.
Of the 29 eggs (frizzled bantam Phoenix and Serama) I got from a friend only 4 hatched and all of the chicks died. I really think it might just be my homemade incubator. I'm planning on getting a Little Giant foam incubator soon. I've pretty much decided against getting Ameraucanas and am just going to be breeding and showing Seramas, which my friend who gave me the eggs has. I'm going to try to convince them to incubate some eggs from me since they have a (I think GQF) cabinet incubator

. When I incubated eggs for the first time I got a dozen mixed breed eggs locally and 4 hatched, but that was my first time incubating and with my not-so-good incubator.
Good luck on your EEs! I've got 6 two week old EEs from TSC in the brooder right now, they're so cute! (lol, Fleabus is the name of one of my cats

)

 

[MoriahQuilts]

I'm planning on getting a Little Giant foam incubator soon.

I have Farm Innovators incubator which seems identical to LG (friend has one). It took some time to get the temp just right, and you can't trust the thermometers in them. But once I got a reliable thermometer and the temp at 100 I haven't had to adjust it at all. Its holding humidity evenly too. I was worried about it but it seems to be fine. Fred Paul has a video on youtube using little giant. It helped.

Seramas are beautiful stately birds. What an egg-citing adventure! Good luck with them!

 

[Fleabuskitty]

Thanks

Glad to hear they hold humidity well, keeping humidity up in my incubator is nearly impossible! I would like to know if you have any luck, though, so I'll know if it's the eggs or shipping or some mistake I made incubating them.

 

[MoriahQuilts]

Thanks

Glad to hear they hold humidity well, keeping humidity up in my incubator is nearly impossible! I would like to know if you have any luck, though, so I'll know if it's the eggs or shipping or some mistake I made incubating them.

Today is day 20 of my incubation and I came home from work this morning to hear peeping!! It was one of my Huckleberry eggs!! This afternoon another one hatched!! I really had no hope after the Post Office delay. Hoping for a few more tomorrow.

None of my first batch of my own eggs hatched. This is my first batch in the Hovabator Genesis and I have the two chicks and 10 pips so far today. Hoping tomorrow it will be full of chicks. I have been impressed with this incubator. Not very impressed with the Farm Innovator after losing all those eggs. Had more issues with it since I posted to you last.

Hope you are doing well!

Ann

 

[Fleabuskitty]

Cool! Yay baby Ameraucanas! If they hatched for you, since you are much further away, I blame my incubator.
I ended up getting a black chick and a blue hen from Sawmill Chicken Farm. The hen is beautiful, and I also ended up getting two eggs she laid and four eggs from their other hens (also a couple BCM eggs, a salmon Faverolles chick, a double-tufted rumpless Araucana chick, and a Speckled Sussex chick

yay for chicken math). I also got a still-air Little Giant incubator, which is working awesomely. Eggs have been in for about a week (33 eggs in all) and I've only had to refill the water once to keep it at 60% humidity, it's amazing! Humidity was almost impossible in the other incubator, I had to fill up the four pie tins (four!) about three times a day

 

[MoriahQuilts]

I'm happy for you! That will be a good start to your Ameraucana flock!

I have one BCM hen - people LOVE her eggs and it really shows off the blue eggs when you put a dark brown one in there. Three of the chicks that hatched are hers. If they are hens they should lay an olive egg. We'll see.

And I adore Faverolles. They are the mildest mannered birds. I have only one. Her sister got squashed by the turkey we raised last year with them, and injured this one. I thought she was a goner, but she pulled through. She still limps but gets around. I didn't think her eggs were going to hatch, but they did this afternoon, so we'll have Faverolle/Amer cross. I'm sure they will be cuties.

Good luck with your hatch!! I'm egg-cited to hear how it goes.

Ann

 

[Fleabuskitty]

I want to put a BCM (if they hatch) in with the Ameraucanas soI can hatch some OEs next year.
An Ameraucana/Faverolles cross would have to be the most adorable creature on the planet! So much face-fluff! Squee! My Faverolles will be joining my free-ranging flock with a Buff Brahma rooster, so the chicks I hatch from them should be pretty cute. The oddest thing I've hatched is a bantam blue Cochin x LF RIR. She is black with a few orange flecks and has a Wyandotte-like body, lightly feathered feet, and, strangely, isn't any bigger than her bantam Cochin mother at 7 mos. Poor limpy hen! I hatched a RIR cross cockerel whose tail is at about a 90 degree angle and he limps, it's hilarious/sad/weird. Of course, he'll be culled in about a month when he's eating-sized.