Pipd's Peeps!

[ronott1]

Sybil kept laying as I'd hoped and I set 7 eggs today That includes the first one, which is 2 weeks old, and a couple of the older ones (9 days old at the oldest) that are a little bit off, shape-wise, so I'm not sure what to expect from them. But here's hoping for some Valentine's babies!! I think I might hold onto any further eggs from her since her newer ones seem to be the appropriate shape, and if things don't seem to be developing in this batch as they should be by day 7, I'll toss those in, too. I have a second incubator I can use as a hatcher, so I'm not too concerned about staggering them.

I hope you have a good hatch!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks, Ron!



Wish I could say I was posting just to update on the hatch, but...

Our old girl, Fancy, has passed on. She'd not been herself for a few weeks now, and the past few days she'd been especially poorly, so it was definitely not a surprise to find that she had gone in the night. At nearly 9 years old, her presence was a staple of the flock. Simple tasks in the coop are radically different without her, like cleaning the dropping trays as I needed to do this morning. Fance was always eager to see what was in the dropping bucket and would follow me out to the back of the chicken yard where I dump it, excited to dig through the pile for any goodies. Not a soul followed me out there today.

What was more upsetting to me was the flock's reaction. Fancy had tucked herself in the back corner of the coop, and I had noticed her there but hadn't moved her just yet. Then Rooska noticed her, and Rowena, and Ida, and the rest of the girls. And they were so upset. Fancy was a well respected part of the flock; even as weak as she had gotten, everyone treated her with the same respect as usual and no one tried to challenge her for rank or anything. When they had seen that she had gone, they cried out, and the coop was filled with cackling. Only on one other occasion do I remember the entire flock reacting so strongly to the loss of a flockmate. It's an amazing and emotional thing to witness.

Fly high, Fancy. What exceptional girl you were.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks, Ron!



Wish I could say I was posting just to update on the hatch, but...

Our old girl, Fancy, has passed on. She'd not been herself for a few weeks now, and the past few days she'd been especially poorly, so it was definitely not a surprise to find that she had gone in the night. At nearly 9 years old, her presence was a staple of the flock. Simple tasks in the coop are radically different without her, like cleaning the dropping trays as I needed to do this morning. Fance was always eager to see what was in the dropping bucket and would follow me out to the back of the chicken yard where I dump it, excited to dig through the pile for any goodies. Not a soul followed me out there today.

What was more upsetting to me was the flock's reaction. Fancy had tucked herself in the back corner of the coop, and I had noticed her there but hadn't moved her just yet. Then Rooska noticed her, and Rowena, and Ida, and the rest of the girls. And they were so upset. Fancy was a well respected part of the flock; even as weak as she had gotten, everyone treated her with the same respect as usual and no one tried to challenge her for rank or anything. When they had seen that she had gone, they cried out, and the coop was filled with cackling. Only on one other occasion do I remember the entire flock reacting so strongly to the loss of a flockmate. It's an amazing and emotional thing to witness.

Fly high, Fancy. What exceptional girl you were.

View attachment 2504780

She was a very pretty hen too!

 

[Fatimetta]

So sorry to hear about Fancy. She lived a long happy life with you and was clearly cherished by her flock

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks, both of you. ❤ Been a tough few days here, but I'm trying to stay optimistic for the coming babies and all the joy they'll bring. Not sure if it's because of those tough few days, but I think I've decided that I'm going to collect and set a second batch of eggs regardless of whether this batch develops well or not. I think, based on how odd some of Sybie's eggs have been, that this might be my last year to hatch from her and Winston, so why not? She laid another kind of funky egg today with what looked like healed cracking on one side, so none collected yet for the second batch, but I have faith she'll keep going.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Y'all know by now that I can't help myself, so of course I took a peek at the eggs last night. It's only day 3 of incubation and my flashlight was on the fritz so I just held my phone up to them in the incubator, which was less than ideal for candling, but it looks like at least 4 of the 7 are developing, maybe a fifth!! I'll definitely hold judgement until day 7 to be sure on the last two, but surprisingly, the freshest one in there seems to be one of the duds. No surprise at all, though, that the other possible dud is the oldest egg, the one that was already 2 weeks old when set.

 

[ronott1]

Y'all know by now that I can't help myself, so of course I took a peek at the eggs last night. It's only day 3 of incubation and my flashlight was on the fritz so I just held my phone up to them in the incubator, which was less than ideal for candling, but it looks like at least 4 of the 7 are developing, maybe a fifth!! I'll definitely hold judgement until day 7 to be sure on the last two, but surprisingly, the freshest one in there seems to be one of the duds. No surprise at all, though, that the other possible dud is the oldest egg, the one that was already 2 weeks old when set.

That is good news!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, I took a peek again last night and I'm kind of glad I did because the timing works out pretty well.

2 duds; at day 6, I'm reasonably sure. They don't even have that reddish-orangeish cast that early developing eggs sometimes have.

4 early embryonic deaths. I didn't see the blood ring in them, but my flashlight wasn't the brightest and I had just turned, so I probably missed it. They'll stay in regardless until I can be 100% sure they are dead.

One single egg veining like crazy and going strong. Ugh!

So, here's the plan. I'd already been gearing up for a staggered hatch, so I'm just going to stagger it a little further. Sybil should lay an egg today; that will put me at 3 held back. I will set those today, one week behind the single developing egg so that it won't be lonely for too long if it does make it to hatch. Then I'll set another 3 or 4 in another week (she lays about that many per week). Hopefully we'll get to a decent hatch size with that.

 

[ronott1]

Well, I took a peek again last night and I'm kind of glad I did because the timing works out pretty well.

2 duds; at day 6, I'm reasonably sure. They don't even have that reddish-orangeish cast that early developing eggs sometimes have.

4 early embryonic deaths. I didn't see the blood ring in them, but my flashlight wasn't the brightest and I had just turned, so I probably missed it. They'll stay in regardless until I can be 100% sure they are dead.

One single egg veining like crazy and going strong. Ugh!

So, here's the plan. I'd already been gearing up for a staggered hatch, so I'm just going to stagger it a little further. Sybil should lay an egg today; that will put me at 3 held back. I will set those today, one week behind the single developing egg so that it won't be lonely for too long if it does make it to hatch. Then I'll set another 3 or 4 in another week (she lays about that many per week). Hopefully we'll get to a decent hatch size with that.

I hope that the next set of eggs will do better for you!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I see there's been a software upgrade! Let's see if I can figure it out for an update post.

I don't think I'd mentioned this, but Sylvie, one of my Mottled Cochins, went into one of the hardest molts I've ever seen... at the end of January.

Well, now we're experiencing single-digit (in Fahrenheit) temps and she seemed like she was doing okay earlier today, but tonight she seems to be having some issues. Specifically, her crop seems slowed, hopefully only from the cold and not a deeper issue. So, inside she came to join Kate and the OEGBs.

She's... quite the hot mess at the moment.

For reference, a fully feathered Sylvie, perfectly equipped for wintertime: