Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[Cerise1924]

I want some really black birds -- svart honas or australops. I will I had more coop space!

Yes! I've heard that Australorps are just very nice birds. I was in the name "need more space" situation last summer, and I saw a farmer was selling his homemade - very sturdy! - coop and run from his place out in the country. Amazingly, he agreed to put it on a trailer and haul it out to me. Maybe you can check Craigslist? Sometimes people get rid of their coops for cheap.

Oh, yes. Lavender Ameraucana bantams... Sumatra bantams (those are HARD to find!)... more Silkies... maybe some White Sultans....

I was just looking at white Sultan hatching eggs on eBay. I didn't realize there are Ameraucana bantams. Hmmm... Purely Poultry has Sumatra bantam chicks, but they are not selling the hatching eggs. Don't know what quality their birds are.

I really wanted some Svart Honas... but after considering how hot it is here during the summer, I decided that all-black birds may not be a good idea. I worry about my black Silkie - she stringently avoids being out in the sun on hot days for more than a few minutes at a time, so I know it's got to be pretty hot for her. Any more Silkies I get I want to be colored or white, rather than black.

Smart little Silkie.

 

[Colly1470]

Egg 4 baby is very weak. I have it in a separate mini brooder so it doesn't get stepped on or grabbed at. I don't know if it will make it or not.

Both of the others are doing really well, though.

 

[Zinjifrah]

I was just looking at white Sultan hatching eggs on eBay. I didn't realize there are Ameraucana bantams. Hmmm... Purely Poultry has Sumatra bantam chicks, but they are not selling the hatching eggs. Don't know what quality their birds are.


Smart little Silkie.

I'm cautious of hatchery chicks after my first experience with them. I found a breeder who I can get bantam Sumatra eggs from, but he keeps a mixed color pen - so there's no knowing what color I'd get. Black, dun, blue, khaki... I didn't even know they came in so many colors! I plan on getting some eggs from him, but I want to wait a bit.

There are bantam Ameraucana! There's a seller on eBay that sells white, black, and BBS eggs. What I like best is the Lavender - though Chocolates are lovely! They're even harder to find, though. I've found two sources for Lavender eggs, and plan on getting some, maybe in the next month or so.

Pouf is a surprisingly smart Silkie. When they were first out in the run getting used to the outdoors, a hawk took a low fly-by to have a look. Pouf stuck her scraggly Silkie-chick neck straight up to look, screeched a warning cry and dove under a clump of brush to hide. The Sebrights all ran out from under the shelter I'd put over their run water bucket, craning their necks to look around and see what the fuss was... and never even noticed the hawk.

 

[Morrigan]

Egg 4 baby is very weak. I have it in a separate mini brooder so it doesn't get stepped on or grabbed at. I don't know if it will make it or not.

Both of the others are doing really well, though.

Have you tried giving it a drop of Nutri-Drench? I hear that can really help a weak chick.

 

[TotallyShellyTurtle]

Day 21 on my two remaining silkie eggs!

I candled them just before lockdown. Both were active.


I see no activity just yet. Gah. I am anxious!

 

[Kiki]

Absurdity: yesterday, the city sends us 'civic emergency' text alerts to let us know the tap water is contaminated, and should not be ingested - especially by children or pets. This information hit the news a few hours before the alert reached us, and now all the local grocery stores are out of water.

With chicks due to hatch anytime, I ended up ordering a case of Icelandic bottled water from Amazon with one-day shipping, so I don't flood the babies with neurotoxins. I guess the chicks will be honorary Icelandics, now! I can't believe I actually found a way to make these shipped-egg chicks even more expensive...

 

[Kiki]

I'm cautious of hatchery chicks after my first experience with them. I found a breeder who I can get bantam Sumatra eggs from, but he keeps a mixed color pen - so there's no knowing what color I'd get. Black, dun, blue, khaki... I didn't even know they came in so many colors! I plan on getting some eggs from him, but I want to wait a bit.

There are bantam Ameraucana! There's a seller on eBay that sells white, black, and BBS eggs. What I like best is the Lavender - though Chocolates are lovely! They're even harder to find, though. I've found two sources for Lavender eggs, and plan on getting some, maybe in the next month or so.

Pouf is a surprisingly smart Silkie. When they were first out in the run getting used to the outdoors, a hawk took a low fly-by to have a look. Pouf stuck her scraggly Silkie-chick neck straight up to look, screeched a warning cry and dove under a clump of brush to hide. The Sebrights all ran out from under the shelter I'd put over their run water bucket, craning their necks to look around and see what the fuss was... and never even noticed the hawk.

I am a fan of hatcheries that are tested MG and MS clean!

 

[Lidiapac730]

what is the earliest you can hear baby chick inside the egg?

 

[Kiki]

Have you tried giving it a drop of Nutri-Drench? I hear that can really help a weak chick.

x2.
Nutri-Drench can be a life saver for chicks like this.
Assuming it doesn't have something serious going in on the inside.

 

[Kiki]

what is the earliest you can hear baby chick inside the egg?

I heard peeping on day 19 I think it was.