Day 4 candling - signs of life (and not)

[0wen]

2 in the carpenter's level air cells stopped developing. The good egg hatched a day late. Saddle air cell egg was a mess - chick was positioned terribly and I wound up having to take most of the egg shell off myself as well as a good portion of the membrane to get the chick out. Looks like a cockerel and pullet but a little early to be certain.

 

[packjen]

2 in the carpenter's level air cells stopped developing. The good egg hatched a day late. Saddle air cell egg was a mess - chick was positioned terribly and I wound up having to take most of the egg shell off myself as well as a good portion of the membrane to get the chick out. Looks like a cockerel and pullet but a little early to be certain.

What are "carpenter's level air cells"?

Glad you got a couple of babies and good job saving the wrong-way chick.

 

[0wen]

Loose air cells that move when you tilt the egg - like the air bubble in a carpenter's level...


What I believe to be a cockerel


Pullet?

 

[packjen]

Carpenter's level -- got it!

Those are pretty birds. I love their chocolate feet and faces. What breed are they?

Are you using a playpen for a brooder or just standing next to one?

I just put my chicks (2 @ 11 days old; 1 @ 9 days old) into the outside brooder I made. They are separated from the 3 hens at night but run around the coop with them during the day. The hens have absolutely no interest in them

 

[0wen]

Svart Hona from Cedar Crest Farm & Feed. Using the playpen for a brooder - those 2 were actually in a guinea pig cage until today and my 'barnyard mix' of chicks (legbar [2], olive egger [2] bantam leghorn, silver hamburgh, orpington) were in the playpin - seems to last 4 weeks, give or take a day or three, before they manage to jump out of it. Moved the barnyard chicks out, the svart hona in, and should be adding some barred rock bantams to them tomorrow. Eventually they'll all join the older chicks in the coop. I'll likely throw together a chicken 'stagecoach' tractor coop for the svart hona once they sexually mature...

 

[packjen]