Recent content by bobcart

That might be okay, but it depends on your goals and setup. Are you going to breed them? With all those breeds, if you are breeding them, you'll end up with a lot of mutts unless you take care to keep them separated at the right time. That requires separate pens or cops and is more costly and...

Quote: Thank you! They do really look like little fuss balls in person, so hard to focus when farther away.

Interesting to note in the close up shot there is one chick with a yellow and white head. All the others have black heads. For the geneticists out there, we had a random assortment of eggs from three potential breeds of hens and three breeds of rooster. The single comb black Minorca rooster is...

Our first chick hatched on day 21 and the remaining 9 hatched on day 22. On day 23 mama left the two remaining eggs so I put them under another broody. I'm doubtful, but what the heck. Wow! This has been an amazing couple of days. We lost two chicks. One only got half way out the egg and the...

BarnGoddess01 & Stonykill, Thanks for the feedback. I'm much relieved as I had heard it's only about 14 hours. I do have another broody that I have been unable to break, so if I need her, I'm sure she would be thrilled to help. More pics coming.

This is amazing! We now have at least three hatched and one has made a hole in the shell. Amazing all the activity broody can hide in those feathers! Any idea on a normal time frame from first to last to hatch or perhaps from first to the hen walking off?

Quote: I've been chicken (ahem) to do that. I may wait until my 1st grader gets home in a few hours if I can stand it. If you can it is amazing to hear the little chick peeping inside the egg and I know your first grader would be tickled to hear it. if they are due to hatch tomorrow then you...

Quote: Mutts are good, we have some mixed game/ cochin bantam and they are pretty birds. Very sweet pic. are you able to pick up and egg to listen for peeping? I've been chicken (ahem) to do that. I may wait until my 1st grader gets home in a few hours if I can stand it.

First photo of chick #1. Interesting that this is certainly not a Dominique chick like mama as they have white spots. We have Dominiques, Minorcas and red caps (hens and rooster for each) and one Polish rooster. This hatch will thus be mostly mutts. Maybe next time we'll take more care, but...

Quote: If she is a calm breed and she feels comfortable with you being there then by all means go peak maybe every hour or so.. but if she is flighty and possibly a game hen then I'd leave her alone till you see chicks running around. She is a very sweet Dominique. I think I can just handle...

Quote: I've seen my broodys do that too and nothing came of it. but I would keep an eye on things especially if shes a first time mom. Now Congrats on the 1st. chick.. don't interfere unless you feel it's really needed though because that could upset mom too. Thank you! Staying away is...

I've got a problem. First, I'm very excite to report our first chick! I just checked Ms. Pancake and there was one fluff ball under her wing. I cleaned out her pen and changed water and food and with all that commotion, she decided to take a walk. This let me to see the chick and the remaining...

Given my concern about having 18 eggs under a medium sized hen and with six of those eggs from a larger breed, I decided to go ahead and candle. I was going to wait for 14 days, but did it at 13. The good news is that 13 of the eggs looked great and 2 were basically clear and 3 were maybes. The...

Quote: OK. What if I bought her six eggs, and then even if those hatch, bought some day-olds of another breed from a local breeder for her? every hen is different. I know my Sumatra's can handle 12 babies. I'm sure someone with Silkies will chime in soon. 12-18 eggs of same size laid by the...

Quote: Yep, I had heard 12-18 eggs of that breed's egg size was about max. I started with 16 thinking figuring I'd get rid of the bad ones early. Well, then two more were laid in there within 12 hours and before I had marked them, so I had to let them be. No way to tell. She is very very flat...