Blooie's Blankie Fort

[Jessimom]

Everyone, grab a hot chocolate. I've got babies in my coop! I'm so excited, and it's all because of Blooie's thread.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

 

[Blooie]

And I'm still waiting for something besides chocolate to celebrate with and still waiting for a reasonable explanation about why I'm responsible........

 

[User395221]

Yay, Chipper!!! What have you got? How old? Using Mama Heating Pad or do you have a Mama Broody? Where are the pictures? And why the heck is it MY fault???

Sorry for the delay in the "blaming blooie" explanation, I've been asleep (timezones and all that, it's 6.30 in the morning now). I have TWO mamas broody.

After reading about your eggs and seeing the photos, I thought, "oh, I wish I could have baby chickens" but as I'm in the city and we aren't allowed to "go mad" with lots of chickens, I wasn't about to start buying expensive incubators or other equipment. I found it very interesting though, and read up about how the chicks develop... and then I read that you could just use a CHICKEN as an incubator (who'd have thought?? LOL).

Josephine started going clucky. Previously Flossie had gone a bit clucky, but she "got over it" after a few days of pushing her outdoors to play. Josephine wasn't so easy to convince. She'd sit there every single day. THEN I am browsing Gumtree (our local advertisements, like craigslist) and see some fertile eggs for sale locally, and they include some breeds that I have been coveting. So I ring up and buy them, thinking, Josephine can sit on these and we'll see what happens and maybe I'll get chickens, maybe they'll be girls and I'll be able to keep them, blah blah blah, maybe maybe maybe. By this time, Josephine has managed to resurrect Flossie's cluckiness and they form a team of cluckies, then a team of egg sitters, sitting in there together on the eggs.

So, yesterday was 3 weeks since I put them under. I found 3 broken eggs, and could see 2 babies (hopefully the other one was just hiding underneath, I can't really tell what's going on under there). Others had pipped. I haven't been out there to look, it's still early, and it's a little chilly this morning, so I'll wait a while before opening the coop in case the girls get in a draught (LOL). I hope they're ok and haven't turned into homicidal maniacs (I read that online....)

Anyway, the eggs are a mixture of different ones, polish, silkie, a maran, a mutt (isa brown/silkie). I can't find the list of what they are just at the moment. One wasn't fertilised, or stopped very early on, I couldn't find any "action" at all so took it out (it was a small white one, either a silkie or polish). Another disappeared, I think it got broken, there were some "remnants" there at one stage. I'm not sure what the chicks are because I don't know which eggs they came out of (or which was which, once I took them out of the carton). I think the little black one might be the polish, and the little pale one a silkie.

As for photos, I don't know how to turn the flash off on my camera, or make it take photos in low light without flash and I don't want to use the flash on them in case it hurts their little baby eyes.... I need to read up now on how to take photos LOL

I hope the others come out ok. I was all blase when I got them, oh if only some hatch, that'll be ok and I know sometimes they don't make it, but now it's real, I want them ALL alive and clucking.

 

[Blooie]

Ha, I read between the lines......you were really thinking, "If goofy Blooie can do it a chicken probably can!" Congrats! I'll be perfectly content to wait until the moms take them outside for their first outing so you don't have to worry about their beady little chicken eyes....but I have been known not to give a rat's hiney and take a shot or two anyway - they get over it.

I so related to what you're saying...I had so many eggs I kept thinking, "It's a good thing they aren't all gonna hatch" and before you know it I was staring into the incubators willing every single one to keep going, keep going.

 

[User395221]

ok so I figured out how to make the camera not flash and went out to see what's happening.

This little guy came out for a photo. I think he was the first hatched. He had his hair all done and looking good, when the little white one was looking a bit bedraggled. I'm pretty sure he's a polish, the polish dad was black, and you see his little hairdo. (I'm saying "he" but I hope it's a girl so I can keep it.)

I found some more broken eggs, but the babies are all hiding underneath, so I don't know if everyone's there and alive.

The brown eggs haven't hatched. One has been pecked all around, one has no sign of any action and the other I'm not sure. I don't want to disturb them too much, I'm trying to keep my curiosity down and to be patient.... (huh, that's sure working LOL) Do brown eggs usually take longer? I couldn't really see what was happening in those to be sure there were embryos there. The shells certainly are a lot thicker than on the silkie and polish eggs. The maran egg seems built like a tank.

That's Flossie at the back, and Josephine's back in the front. Interestingly, Flossie's had most of the eggs and babies under her, when Josephine was the clucky that led to me getting the eggs. I'm lucky that Josephine inspired Flossie, there were probably too many for just Josephine to sit on.

One question - I moved a food and waterer in front of the girls, so they didn't need to go out into the run BUT there's a lip across the front of the nest box, probably about 7.5 centimetres (about 3 inches) high. Can the babies hop over something that big? I was going to put a saucer in the actual nest box, but there really isn't room. Should I move everyone into another box without a lip, next to the feed and water, or will they be able to get to it? Can I wait until all the hatching is over before moving them, if I need to? I don't want anyone to die from no water.

 

[scottcaddy]

Congrats!!
The little ones can hop alot more then you would think they could, it'll be OK.
Scott

 

[Blooie]

I think so, too, but you can always keep an eye out until you are certain. Usually once mom (or moms) leave the nest with the chicks they find a corner and kinda set up a new apartment there.

Sure is cute!

Have you seen anymore popping out? Color of eggs has nothing to do with hatching rates, but in the sense that different breeds lay different colors, that is where any difference might come in. For instance, Silkies lay cream to white eggs, but they usually hatch a day or so earlier than bigger white egg layers - I think it's because the egg mass is smaller but I'm not sure about that.

Welcome to the wacky world of bragging up chicks! Give us the final count when you find out! And more pictures!!

 

[jwlpoultry]

I think so, too, but you can always keep an eye out until you are certain.  Usually once mom (or moms) leave the nest with the chicks they find a corner and kinda set up a new apartment there.  

Sure is cute!     Have you seen anymore popping out?  Color of eggs has nothing to do with hatching rates, but in the sense that different breeds lay different colors, that is where any difference might come in.  For instance, Silkies lay cream to white eggs, but they usually hatch a day or so earlier than bigger white egg layers - I think it's because the egg mass is smaller but I'm not sure about that.

Welcome to the wacky world of bragging up chicks!  Give us the final count when you find out!  And more pictures!!

Hi Blooie how are you?

 

[Blooie]

Jay-dubbya! So great to see you! I'm doing very well! Busy, as usual, and spending way to much time on the computer when I can spare it! How are ya???

 

[jwlpoultry]

Jay-dubbya!  So great to see you!  I'm doing very well!  Busy, as usual, and spending way to much time on the computer when I can spare it!  How are ya???  

Doing good. Busy as well with work and all my birds.