My New Silkies...
I was supposed to pick up my Silkies about a month ago, but for some reason the feed stores were having a hard time getting them in... so I decided to get fertile eggs that I saw posted online! I brought them over to my father-in-laws to hatch our eggs together in his incubator. It was so much fun... I am hooked on hatching out my own eggs. You get so excited every week to candle the eggs and see how much they have grown every week. We started with 14 of my cute little Silkie eggs and 38 of my father-in-laws Partridge Rock eggs. We had a little learning experience (mistake) the second day, the incubator jumped the track and crushed two of my eggs I was so bummed... I was down to 12 eggs but those 12 were going strong. We checked the eggs week one and all 12 were fertile and 6 of my father-in-laws were not. Week 2 second candling one of mine died and my father-in-law also lost 2. They were due to hatch the Tuesday after Easter but my father-in-law knew they would hatch early and he was right. The day before Easter my father-in-laws starting pipping and hatched by Easter, mine began pipping on Easter and hatched on Monday. There was one lonely Silkie egg left on Tuesday and by the end of the day started pipping and hatched late on Tuesday night. The last chick I hurried home and learned my next lesson-- you have to adapt the new chick you can't throw them in with the group. I would like to pass this on to everyone because they will try to eliminate the one lonely chick. I was frantic and called my father-in-law he said to turn all the lights off and as the chicks start to huddle for warmth you put the new chick in the middle and they will huddle next to the new one. We waited a half hour and turned the lights back on and they didn't even notice it was the new chick and stopped picking on it. We named the new chick Sunshine, it is super cute and really small next to all the others, it is beginning to be my favorite. One more piece of advise is I had one chick with pasty butt.. Only one out of the 11 and we are on day three. I was told from one of the feed store to start on Save- A- Chick probiotics and electrolytes, the probiotics are making the chicks regular and electrolytes have really boosted the chicks energy and I feel they are growing well. The one with pasty butt... well the last piece of advise I got from the feed store that also worked was using olive oil slather on the area let set and use a soft cloth to GENTLY I mean GENTLY work the poo off the hind end. OK now that I have bent everyone ears I will show you some cute pics.
I missed all of them hatching except this one... went to check at lunch and it just started to hatch
This one is my husbands favorite he named it Casper
I will say this is one more lesson I learned we decided that putting paper towels down so the chicks can't kick the eggs around as they hatch.. almost turned out to be a disaster, but all worked out well.
The baby goats were born in the middle of all the hatching, had to post it!
Chicks Baby Pics to follow! We are taking the pics tonight so hope to post tomorrow!
4-11-2015 We went for a nice walk today in the backyard and the chicks loved it. Found some yummy bugs a grass to nibble on. They really enjoyed the sunshine!
I was supposed to pick up my Silkies about a month ago, but for some reason the feed stores were having a hard time getting them in... so I decided to get fertile eggs that I saw posted online! I brought them over to my father-in-laws to hatch our eggs together in his incubator. It was so much fun... I am hooked on hatching out my own eggs. You get so excited every week to candle the eggs and see how much they have grown every week. We started with 14 of my cute little Silkie eggs and 38 of my father-in-laws Partridge Rock eggs. We had a little learning experience (mistake) the second day, the incubator jumped the track and crushed two of my eggs I was so bummed... I was down to 12 eggs but those 12 were going strong. We checked the eggs week one and all 12 were fertile and 6 of my father-in-laws were not. Week 2 second candling one of mine died and my father-in-law also lost 2. They were due to hatch the Tuesday after Easter but my father-in-law knew they would hatch early and he was right. The day before Easter my father-in-laws starting pipping and hatched by Easter, mine began pipping on Easter and hatched on Monday. There was one lonely Silkie egg left on Tuesday and by the end of the day started pipping and hatched late on Tuesday night. The last chick I hurried home and learned my next lesson-- you have to adapt the new chick you can't throw them in with the group. I would like to pass this on to everyone because they will try to eliminate the one lonely chick. I was frantic and called my father-in-law he said to turn all the lights off and as the chicks start to huddle for warmth you put the new chick in the middle and they will huddle next to the new one. We waited a half hour and turned the lights back on and they didn't even notice it was the new chick and stopped picking on it. We named the new chick Sunshine, it is super cute and really small next to all the others, it is beginning to be my favorite. One more piece of advise is I had one chick with pasty butt.. Only one out of the 11 and we are on day three. I was told from one of the feed store to start on Save- A- Chick probiotics and electrolytes, the probiotics are making the chicks regular and electrolytes have really boosted the chicks energy and I feel they are growing well. The one with pasty butt... well the last piece of advise I got from the feed store that also worked was using olive oil slather on the area let set and use a soft cloth to GENTLY I mean GENTLY work the poo off the hind end. OK now that I have bent everyone ears I will show you some cute pics.
I missed all of them hatching except this one... went to check at lunch and it just started to hatch
This one is my husbands favorite he named it Casper
I will say this is one more lesson I learned we decided that putting paper towels down so the chicks can't kick the eggs around as they hatch.. almost turned out to be a disaster, but all worked out well.
The baby goats were born in the middle of all the hatching, had to post it!
Chicks Baby Pics to follow! We are taking the pics tonight so hope to post tomorrow!
4-11-2015 We went for a nice walk today in the backyard and the chicks loved it. Found some yummy bugs a grass to nibble on. They really enjoyed the sunshine!
