Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

[CALI CHICK]

Yes, the top picture of Silhoette's toes. His right foot (left side of photo) has the claw toes. His left foot is probably OK!

The bottom picture is Hazy Daze. Both of his 4th and 5th toes are connected like claws....Poor thing!

You mentioned whether or not I had to help them out of the shell as determining the toe deformity...No, I didn't help any of my chicks to hatch out of their eggs. I believe it has to do with the way they began developing their toes on Day 6 or 7-IMHO

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Tomorrow I will take a pic of one of my new chics I bought. One of them has toes that are fused together. The person I got them from even pointed it out to me. I took it to be a genetic flaw because all of them have toe problems and she wasn't hiding that fact. I had worried before I bought the hen from her that the hen was throwing these babies and asked the seller about that. She denied it was this hen's offspring, but I'm not really convinced. I do think, though, that it is the male with the female....just like people or anything else. So if she has that DNA makeup, with my roo she might do fine. Just like your babies can make great babies with the right hen. It would be the same thing if you were trying to get a bigger crest or cushion, or color or type, or darker comb. You just have to breed it out and see what you think. Then if it is throwing babies with fused toes, sell the boy and keep your girl and get a new roo and start again.
And I think you said the person had one hen with toes like this. If she bred that hen and then used the babies to do line breeding, I would think they would have this trait. It is definitely something you want to breed out of your program so you would want a hen with GREAT toe spacing to mate with.
I was going to post a thread for myself as I sat eggs in the bator tonight at 6:00 EST and wanted to find someone to hatch along with....but I got totally sidetracked by someone posting about a four legged chick........check it out!!!!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

I wanted to let you know that today is week one with my broody hen so I went out and candled the eggs and marked the air cell and took a test silkie egg that I drew on for comparison to keep as I hatch in the incubator. I am going to try to drill it out for preservation. I will post a pic later as I left my test egg in the barn so I wouldn't lose it. I am planning to mark week 1, 2 and three and then leave them alone after day 18.
I was a little dissapointed, though, because my girl had three developing eggs and when I got them from under her two were warm and one was cold. I marked it so I can keep an eye on it, but I hope it didn't die. This is her first time to be momma so I'm hoping it goes okay.

 

[CALI CHICK]

You're fortunate to have roosters and broody hens! I think my Buff Orpington is becoming broody. Several days she keeps sitting on her egg, but we always move her and take it. So, lately she has been walking around puffed up as big as a beach ball....and strutting like a turkey! She made a make-believe "nest" in the tractor out of a dirt hole today and when we went out to lock the coop, Buffy had made a nest in the dirt again and was sitting outside instead of on the roost. I guess she figures her nestbox isn't safe since we always take her eggs so she is imagining new nests wherever she is.

Maybe I should get her some fertile eggs. I wish I knew someone local that I could get cheap eggs from. If she doesn't stick with the hatch I could put them in the incubator and try to hatch them.....

 

[wholewheatchicken]

You can get her eggs or just let her sit or break her. I have only broke one of mine and it was last summer when the weather was nice. Since it is cold here, I just let them sit and when they're finished they get up and run around like it was no big deal. Or if you want to hatch eggs, maybe you could like for 1. someone selling fresh eggs that you could ask for that hadn't been kept cold, like that day's collection. People around here sell some like that. 2. Look on Craigslist, if you are not too picky about what kind of chicken you get. You can always sell it later.
It's funny because my hens are all good friends and when they get to see each other it's like one huge party. Someone is always broody so they don't see each other often.
I made my egg weight chart tonight. I can tell by this I dried mine out wwwwaaaayyyy too much. They don't really need to lose too much mass.
My banty eggs are 1.35, 1.40 and 1.10 ounces. By week three they should weigh respectively:
1.20, 1.22, .98. I used the lowest rate of 12% since the last day I would be able to weigh them would be day 18 and I think from the last hatch I did they will continue to lose some mass after day 18.
I also put them in a stryofoam egg carton and am tipping the front/back of the incubator to turn them so I don't have to open the lid very often. I have three air vents open, but maybe I should open more? I have two more I can take out.
I have taxed my brain so I am off to bed.
BTW, I was reading a post on showing birds and that is the fourth/fifth toes like where you were wanting me to look. So that would be like your thumb if you were looking at your hand compared to the bird's feet.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Well, well........sorry I haven't been on here -like, forever! I guess I didn't have anything new to report and didn't here from anyone else.

Remember my broody Buff Orpington? Well, she's young and wasn't ready to stay with the 5 eggs I gave her. But, that meant that I get to incubate them myself! I put them into the bator last Friday night around midnight. I candled them today (day 4) and all 5 eggs are developing!

These are Easter Egger eggs. That is my first bit of good news! Here is a Day 4 embryo picture:


My 2nd important news item is that I located fertile silkie eggs from a local breeder. She lives about an hour and a half away, but she has show quality silkies (with ribbons and awards to prove it). She said she has 3 pens full of BBS silkies with great fertility and some of the best quality birds....

I'm picking up a dozen (maybe a few extras) BBS silkie eggs this Friday. Then I'm putting them in the bator at midnight for the Easter Hatch. We won't be home all day on Saturday, so forgive me for starting early. Here is one of her juvenile splash silkies:

My 3rd screaming good news item is...........I just ordered my own incubator!

Actually I decided to have my husband return the Cricut machine that he got me for Christmas. I haven't used it and it's collecting dust. I felt that an incubator could be put to use now and would be a better long-term investment. I ordered a Circulated Air Hova Bator (with egg turners). It won't get here until next week, so I'll have to start the Silkie eggs in with the EEers and then move the Silkie eggs into the new one when it arrives.

WWC-Was it you who is in love with BLRW's? If so, I just located someone local that has fertile eggs. She has a hen and roo & has them seperated into a breeding pen. They were very pretty in person. She got them as shipped eggs from NY and they are awesome looking birds.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Wanted to share a picture of my 3 week old Misty-Blue "wearing" her first chicken diaper.........LOL.........She has a lot of growing to do before it fits just right! But she is too cute:

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Wanted to share a picture of my 3 week old Misty-Blue "wearing" her first chicken diaper.........LOL.........She has a lot of growing to do before it fits just right! But she is too cute:

TOO FUNNY!!!! Are you planning on keeping chickens in the house as pets? I would like to let my Serama pullet stay in the house with me, but the cat would be too tempted.
Love all your good news. I saw you posting in another thread on your incubator, but I didn't want to seem like I was stalking you, LOL. Congragulations.
Love the picture of the splash. I need a boy that looks like this for my girl. I'm so happy for you that you found eggs close and such great quality. Keep me posted.
Eggs are looking great. What are you keeping your humidity at this time? I'm going for around 50% where I'm at and I do have the styro bator. Monday was the end of week 1 for me and I weighed and everyone was on target. I am so excited that I might have an awesome hatch.

I have 12 Rhode Island Reds, 5 silkie, 5 bantam Ameraucanas and 5 bantam Brahma. It's a staggered hatch with the first 17 due on the 26th. I bought my first hatching eggs on here this evening. It is for bantam lavendar Ameraucanas. I have four chicks that I already bought and they are lavendar split to black, so I have one lavendar chick and three black right now. I hope I get a great hatch on the five in the incubator.
I have been adding silkies like crazy around here. I am hoping to find one or two most awesome pullets to go with a few grown boys I have acquired and one great splash boy.
Where are pics of the rest of your chicks?
I'll find a good one to add here of Miss Pretty or the little EE's we got to go with her. Those four little things are turning out to be incredibly cute and they are super sweet!

 

[wholewheatchicken]

 

[CALI CHICK]

TOO FUNNY!!!! Are you planning on keeping chickens in the house as pets? I would like to let my Serama pullet stay in the house with me, but the cat would be too tempted.
Love all your good news. I saw you posting in another thread on your incubator, but I didn't want to seem like I was stalking you, LOL. Congragulations.
Love the picture of the splash. I need a boy that looks like this for my girl. I'm so happy for you that you found eggs close and such great quality. Keep me posted.
Eggs are looking great. What are you keeping your humidity at this time? I'm going for around 50% where I'm at and I do have the styro bator. Monday was the end of week 1 for me and I weighed and everyone was on target. I am so excited that I might have an awesome hatch.

I have 12 Rhode Island Reds, 5 silkie, 5 bantam Ameraucanas and 5 bantam Brahma. It's a staggered hatch with the first 17 due on the 26th. I bought my first hatching eggs on here this evening. It is for bantam lavendar Ameraucanas. I have four chicks that I already bought and they are lavendar split to black, so I have one lavendar chick and three black right now. I hope I get a great hatch on the five in the incubator.
I have been adding silkies like crazy around here. I am hoping to find one or two most awesome pullets to go with a few grown boys I have acquired and one great splash boy.
Where are pics of the rest of your chicks?
I'll find a good one to add here of Miss Pretty or the little EE's we got to go with her. Those four little things are turning out to be incredibly cute and they are super sweet!

The diapers are for when we are holding the silkies during movie time or while we just want to play with them. We try to handle them several times a day to gentle and train them. That'll help my son win 1st place in showmanship, I have no doubt! I thought the diapers were going to be smaller since I gave a measurement...but the chicks still need to grow about 2 more inches for them to fit! (I plan to come up with my own design since these won't fit the chicks for a couple of months.) I might end up keeping silkie roosters in the house until we move to a property that allows roosters. But, I'll probably build some type of hutch in the garage. I've seen alot of smaller birds that don't get any outside time, so I might have to do that until we move. Hopefully we'll be able to buy a house with some land within the next 3 months.

Some people keep Seramas in the house in a bird cage -and just grab "breakfast" with those daily eggs she lays them!

Glad your egg weighing is going as planned. You've been busy incubating a bunch of birdies too. I will also have a staggered hatch.

My first group (5 EEs) is due March 30th, a few days after yours. My humidity is between 35-40%. On Friday (Day 7) I plan to candle and mark the aircells. If they seem too small, I'll lower the humidity a tad...If just right, I'll continue in the 35-40% range...If they seem too big, I'll bump it up to about 45-50%. These are local eggs and I have a good feeling about this hatch. Are you using egg turners or hand turning? With these 5 eggs, I'm just rolling them 3X a day, but when I add the silkie eggs I might put in the turner??? I'm just nervous about the tops getting overcooked in the still air HB.

I think I need to lower the temperature a degree also, but I'm just uncomfortable with change. As soon as I get the new bator -which is circulated air- I'm warming it up and putting the silkie eggs into it. I will get to leave the EE's to hatch in the still air HB,
which is a relief!

I don't have any new pictures of my chicks this week, but I better get some. They grow and change so fast. Mine are starting to go through their funny-looking stage. They've got these feathers coming in and their fuzz growing out in various places. They almost look like they are molting. Wow-the chicks that I hatched (from GA) have so much foot feathering. You can't even see any of their toes and the feathers are almost 2 inches long.

Keep in touch -Cali