Recent content by purewellspring

  1. purewellspring

    When is it too cold to risk buying fertile eggs to hatch?

    We're hatching a new round of chicks this year, after our banties from last year keeled over in the first bitter cold snap we had this fall. :'/ Last year I was so new at it, I didn't think anything about time of year or temperatures outside, so I got eggs New Years' Day and actually hatched 18...
  2. purewellspring

    Broody Hen Thread!

    One of my banties has gone broody...We arrived home after 10 days out of town and she was hanging out on the nest. I got suspicious, and over the last few days my suspicions have been confirmed. She hasn't moved off that nest at all. :) I'm seriously considering using her instincts for my own...
  3. purewellspring

    Splayed leg in three week old? - new questions

    Thank you! What sort of vitamin-electrolyte would you recommend? My chicks have been on a homemade feed mix recipe from this website, with ACV and garlic in their water since hatching...They've all grown well and thrived, except this one, and I'd hate for them to be suffering from something that...
  4. purewellspring

    Splayed leg in three week old? - new questions

    I have three week old banties in the brooder right now. I noticed this morning that my smallest chick was really wobbling around, moving slowly, struggling to walk, etc. So I took her out and checked her, seemed fine, put her back in and kept watching, and thought maybe she had splayed legs (she...
  5. purewellspring

    Feather-pecking baby chicks?

    I've got 8 chicks in the brooder together, all just over 2 weeks old, all seemingly thriving. But I've got one super odd looking chick, biggest by far, with strange feathers (to me, anyway, but this is my first hatch and my first chicks, so I know very little). Anyway, this chick has been...
  6. purewellspring

    Guess the baby bantams! Breed ideas on this mixed hatch?

    I hatched out 18 bantam chicks 2 weeks ago, just a barnyard mix. I know the two bantie cocks were bb red bantam and silver spangled, the five hens were all different, although there was also a bb red hen and a silver spangled hen. So I might have some pure breeds, and also a bunch of...
  7. purewellspring

    Help! Brooder bedding options for 1 week old bantams

    Thank you for the input! After I posted I went outside and dug up a bucket of wood chips and mixed them in (home with a sick kiddo today, so no runs to atwoods until tomorrow). I added a large amount of the new chips, and they went crazy. They love them. Scratching, digging, pecking all over the...
  8. purewellspring

    Help! Brooder bedding options for 1 week old bantams

    Help! So, I just bought what another friend uses in her brooder...the mixed cedar shavings from atwoods. My chicks are doing awesome, no worries, nothing stinks, healthy as larks, etc. But then, I'm reading on here today that cedar is bad for them? Help, what now? I have been planning to use the...
  9. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    just thought I'd share a few pics of our sweet chickies from this weekend...and for future reference, how do I calculate "hatch rate"? Is that simply the percentage of live hatchers out of the viable chicks going into lockdown? or percentage of live hatchers out of viable chicks from the...
  10. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    Well, we are 18 for 18 over here! After eight hours of silence, the last egg pipped and zipped this afternoon. Poor little guy is still moving a little slow and looks like he just wants a nap! But everyone else is moving with lightning speed! Once 18 fluffed up most of the way, we moved the last...
  11. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    Yay for all the babies! We've got 9 chicks so far, with 6 out of 9 unhatched pipped. We're mid day 20...and these banties are all over the place!! I thought they rested after hatch. HA! They are so active, and too cute! They've been zipping SUPER fast! We've gotten to see probably 6 completely...
  12. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    AHHHHHH!!!! We have a chick!!! :) We arrived home tonight (end of day 19) to a bit of peeping, but didn't see anything interesting to speak of. I put my sleeping 3 yo in bed, got the baby and the big girl ready for bed, and while reading stories we heard more and more peeping. My 4.5 yo DD kept...
  13. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    We're in lockdown!!! I went to prepare the incubator last night (trying to get humidity up, since I wasn't sure if I could get it high...this hovabator is all over the map, in my humble opinion). As I got my little egg carton tray ready (cut waaaay down for these banties)...I HEARD PEEPING...
  14. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    Have any of you hatched bantams? What's the protocol for lockdown? This whole time I've been planning to lockdown on Thursday (which would be day 18)...but with these bantams, whose air cells seem right on track, should I be planning for an earlier lockdown? If so, when?!? Or should I just go...
  15. purewellspring

    Hatch-Along - Setting eggs this weekend (Jan5/6) WHOS WITH ME!

    Thank you all for your help! With all those votes in favor of those babies I left them in! :) They're all marked with question marks, but still in. So glad to have all these experienced voices helping me out! I can't wait to meet some babies!
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