6th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2015 Hatch-A-Long

[LemonMeringue]

Last night DH was on a tangent about bantam dark Cornish and how we should raise them for meat and breed as well. His brain is always several years ahead of what can actually be done. . But it got me thinking. Anyone ever raise bantam Cornish? I don't want to raise crosses, I want something I could reproduce. Also I have an affinity for bantam birds. Partially because we have limited space being more urban than rural, but I also think they are adorable.

Second thing, anyone ever orde from Welp Hatchery in Iowa? They are one of the few places I can seem to find to get bantam Cornish (DH specifically wants the dark.)

There are a couple of very dedicated groups in fb that raise Cornish. I follow them because they have such gorgeous birds! And I'm dreaming of someday. I will find the links.

@jbenson

Here are a couple of the pages that I follow. I really enjoy the pictures they post and their dedication to the breed. I do see birds and even eggs for sale sometimes. Now might be a good time to get on someones list before spring.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cornishchickens/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/475131105923450/

 

[silly4buttons]

Here is my broody hen Miss Tilley I really don't get a lot of eggs from her. She started laying in January and March she went broody for the first time and she is sitting on her 4 sets of eggs. She so funny when she comes out for her food and water and poo she walks around and growls especially when she is eating. Lol mabe she was a dog in her pass life. And I would like to asked how do you decorate your avatars?

 

[Kaylish]

For those of you who couldn't pry yourselves away from the incubator, here's a picture of tonight's sunset you missed. (Sandia Mountains from Corrales, 12-16-14) They say artists flock to New Mexico because the light is so inspirationally good. This view caught my eye, just wish the camera caught the shadows better. Okay. Y'all can go back to trying not to candle......

Beautiful! Thank you for the distraction

That is an awesome offer but I must decline. I was only joking when I said you could pay for the "insult" with eggs. You don't owe me anything. Thank you for the gesture though! On a personal and somewhat sappy and pretty serious note: I've been a member of BYC for a very long time but until this HAL, I rarely posted in here. I usually just used the site for research and opinions. Now, I am sorry that I didn't become a more active participant sooner. The camaraderie is great! If I could only join one club in my life, (besides a Christian club), it would definitely be this one! Thank you all for making this enjoyable and for creating an environment that is positive, fun and educational! Oh and @bamadude , you can keep the used tobacco since at this point I'm sure I'll have the worst hatch rate.

I have to agree. Our chicken people are the Best!

Simply posting to say that I really should post a comment whenever I hop on to catch up, so that when I click "go to my last post", I can end up somewhat much farther than I have already read..... Because THIS THREAD IS MOVING SO FAST!!! LOL I'll catch up and post again not-so-soon hahahaha. Tempted to candle tonight, but am feeling a little "DON'T- YOU-DARE-TOUCH-YOUR-EGGS!!!" After a few alcoholic ginger beers this arvo. Must. Refrain. Tomorrow......so I can candle, to see how my temperature arguments with my incubator have been going. Reminding myself that a little on the lower side is much better than a little on the higher side. Would love to find a single accurate thermometer, that reads correct every time!!

Good for you! I run 3 thermometers because none of them agree.

Wow, I can't believe there was a 3 hour gap in the thread early this morning. Seems like there has been a post every hour up to that point.

Shocker!

SO MAD BC I WAS JUST TYPING 4 RESPONSES AND I CLOSED OUT OF BYC....oh well....haha

So, I had a dream last night. Well, two dreams but the second one I won't get into too much detail about because it dealt with X-Men style mutants being raised in an orpanage by a staff that had no idea that these kids were special. I woke up after they had gotten the call that there was a major mission that they had to undertake. Of course, their first task was to escape from the orphanage without being caught or found out. Just when the security and one of the head staffers was trying to catch them all after they'd gotten out of the building and were on the lawn, I woke up so I don't know if they escaped or not. The dream that I really wanted to post about was a simple one. I dreamt that on day 6 (which is today) of my HAL clutch, I went to the incubator to turn the eggs but they had all hatched!!! I was so surprised, confused and panicked. Here I was scrambling around, not to get things ready to transport them to the brooder but instead to get a camera, get them all together and still long enough to take a group photo. I had my brother helping me and all I could think was "it has to be a clear photo so Ron can count them." I never did really question how they could have hatched that early. My only other real concern was that they were almost fully feathered so Ron might not believe that these were my HAL clutch. LOL

Awesome dream!

@Roan Instead of the "visions of sugar plumps danced in their heads" its more like "visions of chicks danced in our heads" HAHA

Hahhaha! Thats great! My chicks are going in a huge tote with my heat plate...of course in my room....now how to keep the three cats out....

Cut "windows" out of the lid of the tub and replace with hardware cloth. I'll try and get a pic of mine this afternoon.

 

[chicken pickin]

Here is my broody hen Miss Tilley I really don't get a lot of eggs from her. She started laying in January and March she went broody for the first time and she is sitting on her 4 sets of eggs. She so funny when she comes out for her food and water and poo she walks around and growls especially when she is eating. Lol mabe she was a dog in her pass life. And I would like to asked how do you decorate your avatars?

She is adorable! I will have to get a picture of my broody Silkie Stormy, she growls too lol. I posted a pic of her a little while back with one of her babies from a brood a few months back, Ill take a current one.

edited to add- Im not sure personally how to decorate the avatars but @Cynthia12 was doing them for others, maybe she will come along and help you out

 

[LPeaslee]

Me too! I just smell em. But never EVER in front of non chicken people.

Smell them? Please explain, I have BCM eggs incubating and haven't heard of this.

 

[StarMeKritten]

Smell them? Please explain, I have BCM eggs incubating and haven't heard of this.

If you are having a hard time candling dark eggs, give them a sniff once in awhile and pull the ones that smell rotten.

 

[valleychicks]

Here is my broody hen Miss Tilley I really don't get a lot of eggs from her. She started laying in January and March she went broody for the first time and she is sitting on her 4 sets of eggs. She so funny when she comes out for her food and water and poo she walks around and growls especially when she is eating. Lol mabe she was a dog in her pass life. And I would like to asked how do you decorate your avatars?

I have 3 Silkie hens, one is broody (her and one of our Buff Orps are sitting on the HAL eggs now) and the other two Silkies are trying to go broody. They all including the Orp puff up like blow fish and growl when any other chicken gets near them while they are eating/drinking and stretching their legs. If another chicken gets near their nest with the hatching eggs they puff up, growl and screech until the other chicken leaves. They are so funny. Look like enormous powder puffs.

 

[valleychicks]

She is adorable! I will have to get a picture of my broody Silkie Stormy, she growls too lol. I posted a pic of her a little while back with one of her babies from a brood a few months back, Ill take a current one.

edited to add- Im not sure personally how to decorate the avatars but @Cynthia12 was doing them for others, maybe she will come along and help you out

LOL! We have a Silkie Rooster named Stormy, well he is actually our daughters but he is staying with us until she can get a bigger coop.
He was the only Silkie chick she had to look like a gray storm cloud when he was tiny. All the others were either white, light gray or yellow.

Here he is about a month or two ago when we still had grass.

 

[michaelf]

These eggs are amazing!! Do you show your birds as well? I would love to see your birds.

No I have never shown yet. We are planning on showing some this coming year. All out birds are now exhibition lines.

This is some not so good pictures . But remember there is no such a thing as a perfect bird. All have faults . You just strive to improve on the quality of them and keep a standard.

 

[bantambury]

My chicks are also going in a huge tote, but not in the bedroom. They get set up in the basement near our work table with a heat lamp. I want to get a brooder heat plate like the brinsea some time but it is not the budget this year. We also have a cat but he hasn't been very interested in the chicks. He's old. I usually use a series of smaller totes (still like 20 gallon) and I have connected the bottom of one to the lid of another and then cut the center out so it snaps on top another tote to create a taller tote. This was good for when the babies start to feather and start trying to escape by getting on top of the feeder. The taller sides also keep curious pets from getting in.

Ok awesome! Thanks!

I jurt got my premire one brooder in on monday and i really like it so far! Im going to start running it ince i get my brooder box set up

And its a small! Im impressed with the size! I can easily fit 20-30 chicks depending on the size of them!

The legs are hard to pop in at first but changing the level is easy and excellent!