Blooie's Blankie Fort

Blooie

Team Spina Bifida
9 Years
Feb 25, 2014
18,563
41,691
927
Northwestern Wyoming
My Coop
My Coop
Guess I should explain. Not long ago My Pet Chickens held a contest, with the winner to be drawn at random, to win a dozen hatching eggs. They also offered a 10% discount to folks who ordered at that time. So I entered, even knowing I wouldn't win (on accounta the last thing I won was hubby's heart and that was 48 years ago) then I took advantage of the discount and I ordered 9 eggs. Oh, I was sooo excited! I was getting 9 eggs and I was going to hatch for the first time.

Well, as I predicted, I didn't win but that was okay, I had my eggs ordered. Then in a wonderful surprise, the winner @LocalYokel very kindly gifted me with the eggs he won. Whoa! Suddenly I had the 9 eggs I'd ordered coming in and another dozen on top of that. I figured I'd better get that new incubator figured out!

Then there was another contest, and the prize was 3 Svart Hona eggs. That was the Edible Easter contest, where the participants made confections with some kind of Easter Candy in them. I wasn't feeling well at that time, but after I started feeling a little better I jumped in just to say I'd done one. Um, I won. But I was thrilled to be able to pay it forward and do what @LocalYokel had so generously done for me....I gifted the eggs to another participant. After all, no point in being greedy here.

Um, and now it seems my eggs have arrived. The dozen I was gifted became 13, and the 9 I had ordered became 15. Oops. I only have so much room in that incubator! So hubby and I ran to Cody and he bought me another incubator! (Is this how it starts?) I think I broke one egg trying to sneak a peak at air cells, so I'm down to 27 now. Good grief - I hope the rest make it into the incubator.

Folks who won or bought MPC eggs are starting threads to share their hatching journey, which is what this thread is all about. While on the MPC Easter Giveaway thread today, I made the statement that I was so giddy with excitement that if anyone needed me, I'd be in my blankie fort, coloring. Amazing how many folks wanted to come along, bringing brownies, oreos, even popcorn. So the blankie fort was the natural title of this thread.

I'll be splitting these eggs up between two incubators, and welcome your company as I undertake my first foray into hatching. And now, meet the family -


As soon as I'm secure in the performance of the new incubator and the air cells have settled into their right orientation, I'll be setting - probably Wednesday morning. In the meantime, the little chicky there with them is just a reminder.......he needs playmates!
 
I thought you'd never ask....

<<< Ahem>>>>

A Poem
By Blooie

I went into the feed store
Just to buy a bag of starter,
I knew there'd be new chicks inside
So today it would be harder.

I walked right past the brooder boxes
Looked neither left nor right,
I heard the little chickies peep
And vowed I'd avoid the sight.

After paying for my order,
And heading for the door,
I opted just to take a peek,
A quick look - nothing more.

So here I sit in my orange suit,
Waiting my case on the docket-
How the heck do you suppose
Those chicks got in my pocket?
 
Kendra got home this afternoon! We are all so happy it's unreal! Her pigtails came undone during the drive but I've still never seen anything look so good!!!

1000
 
Hey, who brought the Legos in here???? NO Legos allowed!!

So updates....ended up with 8 chicks from the 14 that went into lockdown. I'm pretty happy with that. If anyone wants Silkie hatching eggs, I can't recommend @RubyNala97 highly enough! Nine hatched, but we did lose one little yellow one. She was hatched with an unabsorbed yolk sac, so it didn't surprise me too much. I also had to assist one who pipped at the pointy end of the egg and couldn't make any progress because of how his head was positioned, and she had badly curled feet. But they are flattening out now...only one foot has some slight curl to it so I'm just in watch and see mode. Another little one had really splayed legs - my own personal Easter Windup chick -

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But he's recovered just fine and can't tell him from the other dark ones now. All in all it was pretty rewarding after the dismal results from my first 2 attempts, and Katie got her Silkies! She got to watch the last two of them hatch - called her when they were zipping and she came right over.


Eyeball to eyeball with the little silver one that just hatched.


And the little yellow one (the one we eventually lost) is pretty close to getting out, as you can see.


The Silkies.....
 
Names for my upcoming hatch:

Lucky
Luckier
Luckiest
Should be
Could be
Might be
Maybe
We'll See
Queenie

Don't look much better than that out of the 27 in there. But we'll wait and see again in a week.
 


A Cream Legbar has just joined the family! She/he looks kinda goopy and the inside of the shell looked really nasty, but the little stinker is active and already making friends with Little Yokel. I truly did not have any hope for any other eggs but the Green Magnolia and the Olive Egger, so this one was a total surprise!!!
 
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I still have 14 eggs going strong, although 4 have loose air cells. Just in one little place on each, not the whole thing like in the first ones, and the embryos inside them look just as strong as the ones in the rest of the eggs.
 
Oh my! I don't want to be an hatching addict. I just want to have the ability to put a few in the incubator if I don't have broody, which is why I loved getting that Brinsea Eco 20. I don't have room for a lot of chickens, there is no market for chicks or started birds here, and I have no specific breeding program in mind. This bounty of eggs was totally unexpected. I'm sure the kids and I will enjoy watching them, then I'll clean up the incubators and put them away, only getting one out again on occasion.

My chickens don't read self-help manuals I guess. Out of 20 chickens out there, ranging in age from just over a year to just over 2 years, only ONE has ever gone broody. That's our Easter Egger Agatha. She was broody for the first time at 8 months old, then again a few months later, and late this winter we busted her. She turned 2 the last week of February. Stoopid chickens. Not even the Buff Orpington has ever been broody, and now that I have eggs scattered all over the house there's not a broody to be had!

Thanks for the tip about the spot temps, @MyPetChicken Add that to the list here. That list is getting longer and longer....how do people DO this over and over and stay sane? Oh wait...one answered the other, didn't it?
lau.gif
 
End of day 2. End of report.

I think I have some of the vocabuary figured out, You set the eggs in a bator. Then you hold a candle to them sometimes. After that you have to lock them up. Pretty soon they pip inside, then they peep, then they pip outside then they make a zipper, then they hatch, they peep and they poop. Nuthin' to this hatching stuff!
 
It has been brought to my attention that I neglected to let folks know what eggs from @MyPetChicken I have in the incubators. Details, details!

Okay, in the Brinsea Octagon 20 (beginning to love that incubator!) I have:

1 Cream Legbar
1 Swedish Flower Hen
3 Green Magnolias
1 Olive Egger
1 Black Copper Marans
1 Blue Copper Marans
3 Ameri-flowers

In the Farm Innovators 4200 (jury is still out on that incubator - big, bulky, hard to work with)

2 Cream Legbars
1 Swedish Flower Hen
3 Green Magnolias
2 Olive Eggers
2 Blue Copper Marans
4 Ameri-flowers
2 Bielefelders
 

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