Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[TeaChick]

I live in the sticks and it's probably not considered civilized to many suburban folks...we eat our animals and shoot our neighbor's pets when needed, so that may seem pretty uncivilized.

Enola has it right....I'm sort of different than most folks and I've grown to accept it, though many would consider it weird. I wanted to see if I could develop an incubation method with things on hand so that I wouldn't "need" to buy or borrow an incubator...it's sort of a self sufficiency quirk I have developed over the years and cannot shake. It's sort of fun to try and solve a problem without throwing money at it or doing it just like everyone else has.

That probably puts me under the uncivilized and sticks category too....

I like results driven conclusions and then I let everyone else do the double blind studies to prove me wrong.

Yes...even if my way is not always successful, it's still my way.

Hi, Bee!
Been a while. It looks like we have more in common than I thought.
How ya doin'?

 

[TeaChick]

Aliza Grace arrived at around 2:30 pm today, 8 lb. 3 oz. and 21 in. long, a full head of golden brown hair (like Grandma!

) and has her daddy's full lips and sweet smile and also his nose, his butt, his beautiful skin color and tone, etc. Her mama is very, very pale with pale blond hair and pale blue eyes, so the baby doesn't resemble her much yet but no telling what will pop up later...she does have her mom's toes.

She slept and smiled all during the visit~when we would all laugh, she would smile!~ and appears to be just like her dad was when he was a baby...calm, quiet, sweet and laid back. She latched on real well to the breast and nursed for 45 minutes for her first tucker!!!

Yep...that's from our side of the family.....



Oh...and no chicks yet...I think they may be a day or two behind. No pips, no zips...just eggs. Thank God for that because I really needed to leave them today and so I just left and trust them to God, which is always a good idea.

Prayed a first blessing on this baby girl and dedicated her to God's service in her life and thanked God for her health, her life and her sweet, sweet beauty. Granny Bee is in LURVVVVVVVV!!!!!!!!

Congrats (belated) on your grandbaby!!! She's beautiful!!! Glad she started out so well!!!

 

[spaceylocust]

Benefit of silkie meat: nobody can tell if you burned dinner.

 

[TeaChick]

Teasing the chick....

This is a fantastic video!!!
Thanks for sharing!!! =)

 

[TeaChick]

....or a "special needs" bird.

I'd buy a ticket to see the Cornish Silkies.

Aoxa could have had a few if she would have left things alone.

So this little Cochalorp and her Cocharock and Delachin nest mates will be a hot ticket to someone....somewhere....out there.

This sounds like my flock.

 

[TeaChick]

I get a real kick out of me too. lol

 

[TeaChick]

Well, it comes time to evaluate if I determine this experiment has been a success. I would say, "No, not really." In one regard it has potential for producing a chick and that can be said of many incubation methods. But simulating a broody hatch? That's another goal altogether.

A broody would have assisted chicks that had internally pipped but had not broken through the shell, of that I have no doubt. I've never found a fully formed, but dead, chick at the end of a broody hatch. But I did in my own.....I'm not a broody and cannot determine exactly where to open a hole so that my chick might breathe unless I were to use a stethoscope. Broodies are wonderfully designed by God to do this job and I am woefully not.

Yesterday these were living and breathing chicks that just needed a hand out but I read an article that said to wait and not rush the hatch and so I waited...but I think a broody would have known better, purely by God-given instinct. Two large and healthy chicks that couldn't get through these hard shells that I have trouble cracking for breakfast in the morning, so no wonder. Experiment over.

Oh, Bee, I'm in tears. I'm so sorry, Hon!!!

 

[TeaChick]

Update and it's gonna make you all sad....Hootie met with an unfortunate accident and died. My ol' Ma went up to gather eggs and didn't understand my water nipple setup underneath the bucket and thought I was using a side cup nipple, so she lowered the bucket onto the surface of the brooder floor so they could reach the side cup nipple. Said she could hear Hootie peeping but could not see him amongst the other chicks running around and so thought he was under the brooder....he wasn't. He was directly under the water bucket and she hadn't seen him....she set the water bucket right on top of him. It wasn't real heavy and he wasn't smashed too much but I think the combination of the weight and the cold bucket on his little body was too much.

When she came back from the coop and said she couldn't see the little guy, I immediately got my shoes on and went to check but it was too late...he was still warm but dead all the same.

And so life goes...it's a funny ol' life, isn't it?

I don't know why she would bother with the water bucket without asking me but she was just trying to make sure those chicks had water...like a fussy old Mama will do..so I don't blame her for it. It's just one of those "wrong place at the wrong time" things for poor Hootie.

For the rest of the chicks, they love the brooder and are eating and drinking, running around and also making use of the warm up place. I'll go up before dark and make sure they are all under the brooder before night falls...it's supposed to get down into the twenties again tonight and this will be a true test of this heating pad brooder.

I'll set that new nest on 3/26 to have a hatch date by Good Friday 4/18, I'm thinking.

Oh, Bee!!! I'm so sorry!!!

 

[TeaChick]

Can you tell me the difference? Where is that dividing line between pullet and hen egg? Just the calendar date? Other than that, what physical characteristics would one be able to see that differs between the two...say an egg laid at 10 mo. as opposed to 12 mo.?

I must confess, all these years of looking at eggs the only distinguishing characteristic I've been able to see between a pullet egg and what I consider a mature hen's egg is size, consistency of shape and size, and consistency of lay. Is there something I'm missing that I should be looking for?

My bantam cochin frizzle just started laying a couple of months ago. I collected her first 15-ish eggs. I opened the first one she laid, and it had a bullseye on the yolk (fertile and fertilized). So, I set the next six she had laid. The first four she laid after the one I ate (no sense in wasting a good egg, no matter how small), they had not developed when I candled at day 7 of incubation. The next two laid had started developing. I candled Wed for day 14, they were fuller and the shadow in them moved like the white was still liquid, but there was no independent movement as if the chick moved or was alive. If you want, I'll update you when I candle on day 18 (Sun), and then they're supposed to hatch next Wed. Just LMK.
Anyway, these are her pullet eggs and I have had almost nothing but failure in hatching, so IDK what will happen with these two; and I won't be setting anymore eggs until May or June, when a friend of mine is going to show me how to do it. She has great success and I'm trying to do what she's been telling me to do, but I'm missing something. I'm so blessed to have a friend like her.
I hope your experiment is working out; I'm working on finding where you've set the next nest here.

 

[foxvalleyfarm]

my dog killed all but one duck that had just hatched so it wasn't in the brooder