BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[ManueB]

You could let her sit for 3 weeks on a couple of her own eggs .
She looks so wonderful I wouldn’t mind to have her offspring. Great for Chipie to have a few daughters of about the same size.

Hope you dont mind my silly response. I know you dont want more chickens and certainly not more roosters.

We could have been tempted, but most of her eggs were not fertilised.
She doesn't let Théo near her and Gaston almost never mates with her , for obvious size reason.
And she is completely mad- she jumps on my back and pecks me and growls to make me open the coop so she can go on her nest !

There are many bantams who look just like her in the village from the same lineage, so it would be easy to get babies from her distant cousins in the future.

I'm curious to see the amrock chicks. They will certainly be very different from the chickens you currently have !

 

[BDutch]

We could have been tempted, but most of her eggs were not fertilised.
She doesn't let Théo near her and Gaston almost never mates with her , for obvious size reason.
And she is completely mad- she jumps on my back and pecks me and growls to make me open the coop so she can go on her nest !

There are many bantams who look just like her in the village from the same lineage, so it would be easy to get babies from her distant cousins in the future.

I'm curious to see the amrock chicks. They will certainly be very different from the chickens you currently have !

I think the Amrocks will resemble the size and build of Katrientje.

Today I picked up the 4eggs-mini brooder. Because one egg was not under the 2 broodies yesterday evening, I thought it might be a good idea to start the machine anyway. The 3 hatchery eggs I hadn’t put in the nest started 1.5 days later.

Checked a few times if there were any eggs uncovered during the day. It all seemed fine and didn’t find extra eggs under the 2 broodies.
This evening I found an egg outside the nest again (#1). I put it in the incubator too. Now the tiny incubator is full.

Plan is to candle the eggs in 5 -6 days, and discard all eggs that havent developed properly. I want to keep 6 eggs under the broodies and switch of the machine next week. Hope the 36 hours isn’t leading to too much difference in hatch date. I really don’t want a staggered hatch with eggs that are alive but left behind.

 

[fuzzi]

I think the Amrocks will resemble the size and build of Katrientje.

Today I picked up the 4eggs-mini brooder. Because one egg was not under the 2 broodies yesterday evening, I thought it might be a good idea to start the machine anyway. The 3 hatchery eggs I hadn’t put in the nest started 1.5 days later.

Checked a few times if there were any eggs uncovered during the day. It all seemed fine and didn’t find extra eggs under the 2 broodies.
This evening I found an egg outside the nest again (#1). I put it in the incubator too. Now the tiny incubator is full.

View attachment 3849775
Plan is to candle the eggs in 5 -6 days, and discard all eggs that havent developed properly. I want to keep 6 eggs under the broodies and switch of the machine next week. Hope the 36 hours isn’t leading to too much difference in hatch date. I really don’t want a staggered hatch with eggs that are alive but left behind.

My broody sat for an additional 3 days and hatched out the extra two in my staggered hatch.

 

[MaryJanet]

she jumps on my back and pecks me and growls to make me open the coop so she can go on her nest !

 

[Molpet]

I think the Amrocks will resemble the size and build of Katrientje.

Today I picked up the 4eggs-mini brooder. Because one egg was not under the 2 broodies yesterday evening, I thought it might be a good idea to start the machine anyway. The 3 hatchery eggs I hadn’t put in the nest started 1.5 days later.

Checked a few times if there were any eggs uncovered during the day. It all seemed fine and didn’t find extra eggs under the 2 broodies.
This evening I found an egg outside the nest again (#1). I put it in the incubator too. Now the tiny incubator is full.

View attachment 3849775
Plan is to candle the eggs in 5 -6 days, and discard all eggs that havent developed properly. I want to keep 6 eggs under the broodies and switch of the machine next week. Hope the 36 hours isn’t leading to too much difference in hatch date. I really don’t want a staggered hatch with eggs that are alive but left behind.

I usually wait 7-10 days to candle....10 -14 for turkeys

 

[BDutch]

I usually wait 7-10 days to candle....10 -14 for turkeys

So far so good!

I did candle 4 of the eggs from underneath the broodies. They are underneath the broody from Wednesday evening. The torch I have to candle is broke. Therefore I used my mobile with the ring of the candle torch. It worked but didn’t get a clear image of the veins.

After 5 whole days brooding none of the eggs are bleak and fully transparent. These 4 eggs all seem to have developing life inside. One of the developing eggs seemed a little bit behind/smaller darkened spot. I havent seen two eggs. I have numbered them and try to get hold of them to candle tomorrow.

The 3 eggs I put in the incubator on Friday 1pm, showed a darker spot moving in the light. They are all three about 50% transparant. The egg I took inside after it rolled out the nest is developing too. The darker spot is bigger as in the three eggs. About the same as the egg that seems behind compared to the 3 who have developed most.

 

[BDutch]

Review 4 egg HHD incubator :
View attachment 3853069
In this tiny incubator I can only turn the 55g eggs up and down. Strange I have to turn the eggs up and down, especially when they develop later in the process. I believe it is more natural to lay the eggs sideways and roll them over to the other side. But in this 4 egg incubator, this is only possible with small bantam chicken eggs.

The manual says the eggs should be kept warm at 38.0 but the advice I have seen on the internet is 37.8 C.

There is no way I can regulate the humidity inside. If I want to breed to hatch I suppose I need to add a wet cloth.

If I seriously wanted to keep the eggs until hatch I would feel very uncomfortable with it. First thing to add would be a small hygro- /thermometer.

Another problem will occur if the chick hatched. The surface is not okay to lay down properly and impossible to stand on it. I would need to put a permeable cloth on top of the egg holders and be very careful not to drop the eggs/chicks if I open the lid (transparant blue house)

To my surprise the eggs develop good in this incubator (until now). So I do want to keep it for future hatches when I have broodies or outside temperatures I don't trust.

I know it works great to start the eggs. Giving 4 fake eggs to the broody when she start to sit, and put 4 eggs in the incubator to be able to reduce the time she needs to sit is a nice feature imo.

 

[BDutch]

I posted the HDD 4 egg incubator in the reviews section for people who search for info on incubators. Nice if you give a few stars for my review.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/hdd-4-egg-incubator.12126/

 

[BDutch]

This morning I heard Tintin trying to crow.

 

[fluffycrow]

I posted the HDD 4 egg incubator in the reviews section for people who search for info on incubators. Nice if you give a few stars for my review.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/hdd-4-egg-incubator.12126/

I did leave a rating, but fear I didn't do it right. It seems I posted my comments on your review under the wrong section