Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

We're up to 3 eggs from Sybie! I was not expecting another so soon!!

I've decided to wait until at least the weekend before I set them, just to see if she lays any more in that time. If she's laying more consistently over the next few days, then I'll just wait a bit longer until I have 5 or 6 eggs and set them all at once. I'd much rather it if all the babies hatch out around the same time and are the same age versus the staggered hatch and having to integrate the babies.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

She's on a roll! 4 eggs as of today!! So, rather than stagger the hatch, I'm going to wait until I have 5 or 6 and set them at once. Since she's laying one egg every other day (or, at least, she has been this week!), that means I should find the fifth one on Sunday and have 6 by next Tuesday. I think that would be the ideal time to set. That first one will be almost 2 weeks old by then, so I may end up only setting the fresher 5, depending on how its air cell looks when we start. I suppose if I don't end up setting that oldest egg on Tuesday with the others and she lays another egg on Thursday as predicted by her current every-other-day trend, it wouldn't be too terrible to throw that one in as well... Right?

 

[drumstick diva]

sending good egg laying vibes - hope she lays them by the time you want them.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks, DD! I'm so stoked, these are going to be the tiniest babies I've ever hatched!! They're already the tiniest eggs from any of my birds, except for when my Silkied Cochins, Abra and Rowena, first started laying and their eggs were literally a tablespoon full. Come to think of it, these may be about that size as well. They're oblong, so they don't fit into the tablespoon like the Cochin girls' little, round eggs did, but they're about as small!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's a good news / bad news day. Well, not bad news, per se, just a bit annoying.

The good news, we're up to 5 eggs!! Sybie had just laid when I checked in on them, and freaked out a bit when I took her egg, so I put it back for her to finish clucking at and throwing bedding around. I don't *think* she's going broody, just wasn't finished doing her normal egg laying nesting, but you never know...

Bad news... Well, annoying news. I realized some scheduling conflicts with the plan to set these eggs on Tuesday. First, I'm not going to be here part of Tuesday, and second I won't be here part of the Monday before they would be due to hatch if I set them on Tuesday. These being tiny eggs, they could even hatch early, and I want to be here!!

So, new new NEW plan! The eggs will go in on Thursday after she (hopefully) lays her egg that day! That way, if they hatch a bit early, it should still occur after I get home again that Monday. Of course, my schedule might change in that time, but for now, at least, I should be home for hatch time that way.

Anyway, here's Sybil after I gave her her egg back. Ain't she the cutest?! (Sorry, the edges are rough... I wasn't paying attention when I was erasing. )

Edited to fix a typo

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

ARGH!! She let me down today! No egg from Sybie! Fingers crossed she lays tomorrow. Set day will still be Thursday, either way. If she lays tomorrow and then Friday, I will just set the Friday egg after she lays it. Pretty sure I won't be setting her first egg, as the air cell is getting pretty big at this point...

In the mean time, look at the gorgeous eggs I brought in from the rest of the flock today!! The two green ones are from two of the three hens I intend to hatch from later, for the Easter Hatch-a-Long. The one toward the top, I'm fairly sure, is from Maggie, while the lower one I think is Endymion's. (There were a few more eggs than this, 12 total, but these were the prettiest together. )

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The Octagon is all shiny and clean, thermometers calibrated, and the rails and heat sinks set up inside, ready for eggies! I have it running now to make sure it's holding temp as usual.

Sybil did lay again today, so I guess she just needed an extra day's break. I'm setting them tomorrow still, assuming she'll either lay another egg on Friday or take another two-day break and lay one on Saturday. I plan to set that egg as well, as long as it's laid on one of those two days so there isn't a huge gap between hatch dates for it and the others. The oldest egg I think will go to my 'first egg' collection rather than setting it. It's not her first egg ever (she hatched in 2017, so will most likely be 2 years old in the spring), but it's her first egg since living here, and that's close enough for me.

Speaking of first eggs, it looks like Ida, Bryony, and Sylvie are all laying now, and I have no idea when they started or which eggs are theirs. Looks like I won't have their first eggs for that collection, but there are a lot of hens I missed the first eggs for so I'm not too upset about it. Just happy to be getting eggs again! Roxy doesn't look like she'll lay any time soon, and Vira, who was the first of last year's Cochin girls to go into lay, appears to be molting! I think this is the most pullets I've ever had molt within their first year of life, with the three Marans and Vira making four!


Oh, and on a side note, I missed their actual hatch date (March 3rd), but Josephine, Mavis, and Vivienne are a full year old now!

We're supposed to have temps in the 40's this weekend, so that sounds like a good time to dust off the good camera for some pictures.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The Octagon is occupied!!

I kept it simple with the labeling this time. They each have the first letter of the band color they will receive upon hatching. I stuck with the rainbow loom bands for this hatch because these are gonna be eensy teeny tiny babies, so the colors are in rainbow order from orange to purple. No red because I don't want to encourage pecking at the bands, and no indigo because, well, I just don't have that color. So, left to right these are eggs O, Y, G, B, and P. If a sixth egglet comes about in the next day or two, that one will be W and have a white band, because I'm not doing pink again--that one's always a cockerel!!

 

[Leahs Mom]

You should check out these bands.... they have some tiny enough and they don't come off. I really like them. Come in a variety of sizes.

https://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/...elastic-rings-starter-kit-size-3mm-20-of-each


Watch the video here to see how they work:

https://en.rings4wings.com/collections/e-z-ringen/products/e-z-elastic-ringen

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh, yeah, you recommended those before! I was planning to get some for my EE chicks later, but I'm expecting these little OEGB babies to be the tiniest and I guess I didn't remember them coming in such small sizes! Guess I'll order them sooner than later.

Did you try any of the red ones when you used them? Did you notice any extra attention or pecking on them if so? The rainbow loom bands come in red as well, but I've always been afraid to use them because I know red tends to catch their attention and I didn't want the other chicks to harass the red band baby or something.