A rainbow of eggs to hatch in July!

[Trinitydraco]

So it's now day 16 of my first incubated eggs and I am so excited. I got these from another chicken lady in town and out of 12, 9 were fertile...of course it was the blue ones that weren't but she is putting her roo up with the right girls to help guarantee some blue ones are fertile for my next hatch. So for this batch it's 2 pink, 2 chocolate, 2 tan and three browns that have made it to day 16! I will post an update with pictures on day 18 and then once they start to pip! I am sooooo excited I can hardly see straight! I am also scared out of my wits that I will mess this up somehow! Any advice for lockdown from seasoned chick hatchers would be great!
here is a pic of the eggs right before I set them and a candling pic from day 5!

 

[Pugsabi]

Ooh following!

 

[Orpingtons43]

Intriguing! I’m joining!!

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Beautiful eggs! Good luck with your hatch! If anything does go wrong ( that it won’t) we will all be here to help you! Just remember to be patient, even though it’s super hard.

 

[Trinitydraco]

Okay, so minor disaster here. It's 12 hours before I was gonna go into lockdown and my kitten and puppy (yes I know, chicks kitten AND a puppy! I am insane!) managed to knock my incubator. 2 eggs smacked into each other and cracked. I tried using nail polish to seal them up but there was a spot on one of my Maran eggs that the membrane was still going to be exposed a little so into early lockdown we go! I know that the tan one that cracked is alive and kicking but I can't see anything but the air cell in the Maran egg. I guess it's just wait and see for now! I can't wait to see what comes out of these 9 that have made it this far! I will post pics when the first one pips!

 

[Trinitydraco]

This is the pic from right before I got rid of the quitters. I finally gave up on the 2 blue eggs (I knew but was hoping for a miracle) and one cream colored egg that didn't develop. I have them on a piece of fleece in the incubator so I can throw it in the wash once it's done. Humidity is holding at 68% and temp is 100F even. I am going to be nuts for the next few days waiting for them!

 

[KittyCat13]

Good luck with your hatch! I love all the different colours. It will be exciting to see what the chicks are like

I've got some multi coloured eggs I got from a local farm (sold as eating eggs!) due to hatch in a couple of weeks. There were about 12 different breeds they kept so I can't wait to see what mixes they are!

 

[Trinitydraco]

Good luck with your hatch! I love all the different colours. It will be exciting to see what the chicks are like

I've got some multi coloured eggs I got from a local farm (sold as eating eggs!) due to hatch in a couple of weeks. There were about 12 different breeds they kept so I can't wait to see what mixes they are!

I know right! The whole "mystery" egg thing is so much fun! I can't wait to see what comes out and how they develop as the grow! I know some people that only want pure breeds but personally I am having way to much fun with the mix and match game! I plan on building a coop and run dedicated to silkies and cochins but that is down the road. ( I had a disaster that happened trying to introduce bantams to my rir flock) I am lucky to own land and be able to get free scrap wood to build with so my chicken math is going to be more like chicken calculus I think! LOL

 

[Trinitydraco]

Update! Sort of... So nothing has happened with the eggs yet as it is only halfway through day 18 BUT I had a big chickening day none the less! (I declare that "chickening" is now a proper verb) I got an air compressor and nail guns super cheap on sale at Home Depot. It's a good 6 gallon air compressor with 2.7 cfm so it's powerful enough to run even a framing gun and it came in a special package deal of one brad nail gun, one finishing nail gun and one pneumatic staple gun all for $199! And I broke that puppy out and have already almost finished my new brooder! My husband and I don't have a ton of land, only about an acre but we have learned about micro farming tactics and we are turning our little plot into a farmstead! Well, we are working on it! Anyway I found a great free source of wood for building farm stuff through pallets! I learned how to break them down and use the boards and today my husband and I built our first hand made piece of farm...stuff? (what do you call a brooder anyway!) I wanted to make something sturdy that would last and be versatile too! It is a nice wooden box with a lid that has chicken mesh of course so I can put a heat lamp on it but I am putting in a special little box and making a "wool hen" so that my chickees can be brooded without electricity and in almost any weather! I started thinking about how people had to hatch eggs before electricity and wondered what they did if they couldn't get a hen to go broody or it quit sitting so I researched it and found out about wool hens. It is when you have a nice little box and you line it with "wool" (you can use any kind of insulating fabric) then you make a little nest of it and hang strips of the material from the ceiling of the box and the chicks regulate their own body temperature! If they get cold they huddle together in the center and if they are too hot they push through some of the strips towards the exit! When they want a drink or some food they pop their little heads out and you make sure the food and water are right by the door until they start spending time in the main box all by themselves. No worrying if they are ready or not, they decide themselves! I built this brooder with both uses in mind. I also made it so I can place brackets on it and mount it in a barn once one is built so that it is suspended and predators can't get to it. It also means an end to brooding in the house! I still have to put the internal wall in for the wool hen, make the lid (that will take like 10 min with the new tools) and put the trim on to seal up the gaps in the corners but the box itself is done and it will be finished tomorrow. Plus it is taking my mind off the eggs. And the best part is that my husband and I built it together and we did it with recycled materials for free! it is also special to us because it is not a disposable kind of thing but sturdy and made to last us years. This was a really special thing for us and I am glad I can share it with all of you! So here are the pictures!

So here is what we started with...

Here are the boards being laid out and our new air compressor...

Here is what the panels we made look like...

And here is the box itself put together! Like I said we still have to put the trim on which will close all the gaps in the corners and the wool hen compartment will be all lined with fleece but you get the idea...

And a quick peak at the inside in it's "rough" state...(oops I got my thumb it the shot!)

I am so proud and happy hatching to all!

 

[KittyCat13]

Update! Sort of... So nothing has happened with the eggs yet as it is only halfway through day 18 BUT I had a big chickening day none the less! (I declare that "chickening" is now a proper verb) I got an air compressor and nail guns super cheap on sale at Home Depot. It's a good 6 gallon air compressor with 2.7 cfm so it's powerful enough to run even a framing gun and it came in a special package deal of one brad nail gun, one finishing nail gun and one pneumatic staple gun all for $199! And I broke that puppy out and have already almost finished my new brooder! My husband and I don't have a ton of land, only about an acre but we have learned about micro farming tactics and we are turning our little plot into a farmstead! Well, we are working on it! Anyway I found a great free source of wood for building farm stuff through pallets! I learned how to break them down and use the boards and today my husband and I built our first hand made piece of farm...stuff? (what do you call a brooder anyway!) I wanted to make something sturdy that would last and be versatile too! It is a nice wooden box with a lid that has chicken mesh of course so I can put a heat lamp on it but I am putting in a special little box and making a "wool hen" so that my chickees can be brooded without electricity and in almost any weather! I started thinking about how people had to hatch eggs before electricity and wondered what they did if they couldn't get a hen to go broody or it quit sitting so I researched it and found out about wool hens. It is when you have a nice little box and you line it with "wool" (you can use any kind of insulating fabric) then you make a little nest of it and hang strips of the material from the ceiling of the box and the chicks regulate their own body temperature! If they get cold they huddle together in the center and if they are too hot they push through some of the strips towards the exit! When they want a drink or some food they pop their little heads out and you make sure the food and water are right by the door until they start spending time in the main box all by themselves. No worrying if they are ready or not, they decide themselves! I built this brooder with both uses in mind. I also made it so I can place brackets on it and mount it in a barn once one is built so that it is suspended and predators can't get to it. It also means an end to brooding in the house! I still have to put the internal wall in for the wool hen, make the lid (that will take like 10 min with the new tools) and put the trim on to seal up the gaps in the corners but the box itself is done and it will be finished tomorrow. Plus it is taking my mind off the eggs. And the best part is that my husband and I built it together and we did it with recycled materials for free! it is also special to us because it is not a disposable kind of thing but sturdy and made to last us years. This was a really special thing for us and I am glad I can share it with all of you! So here are the pictures!

So here is what we started with...
View attachment 1461503
Here are the boards being laid out and our new air compressor...
View attachment 1461504
Here is what the panels we made look like...
View attachment 1461505
And here is the box itself put together! Like I said we still have to put the trim on which will close all the gaps in the corners and the wool hen compartment will be all lined with fleece but you get the idea...
View attachment 1461507
And a quick peak at the inside in it's "rough" state...(oops I got my thumb it the shot!)
View attachment 1461524
I am so proud and happy hatching to all!

I had never heard of a wool hen before, that's so interesting! You totally learn something new every day on here!

Love the pallet brooder, my husband is supposed to be helping me build a new hen house from pallets, but it hasn't happened yet!