Breeding silkied Cochin bantams to the Standard

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Strike that, I now have one egg from the corner coop. I had hoped to only set them in full batches from the same coop so that I don't have to babysit the incubator at lock down again to catch chicks as they hatch, but I think in the interest of getting more chicks from that coop that I'll hold this egg back to set this weekend along with whichever other eggs I decide on. Hopefully there will be more corner coop eggs before Sunday.

 

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Pete's first batch of babies for the year is officially in lock down! And they're all eggs from the same coop so no babysitting the incubator this time!


I also took a closer look at the Blue group eggs since I was candling the corner coop eggs anyway, and we have development in 12/12 eggs!! One does look like a blood ring, but still, 100% fertility from one of my coops at last!

 

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Marka has 3 eggs developing! The fourth egg may be the one I added to her clutch later, I didn't think to look at the date on it. It's still early, so I'm not ready to call it clear just yet either way.

 

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I was seeing draw down in some of the batch 1 eggs last night when I peeked before bed, and we have an air breather as of this morning!

...I guess that means I should finish setting up the brooder again for little ones and get the heat plate warming up, huh?

 

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Not much progress yet on the eggs. There might be another eensy weensy tiny little pip on one, I can't tell for sure without opening the incubator. The first one has opened its pip a tiny bit more. Nothing else that I can determine from outside the incubator. Interestingly, all of the babies from Gus's group and the Blue hens that I hatched before were out, actively hatching, or at least all pipped by this point. I made no adjustments to the incubators at all and both have remained at the same temperature as previous batches. Genetics, I guess? The next batch to hatch, more Gus babies, will tell if they hatch day 20 like before.

 

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Looks like Washburne is the one laying eggs in the corner coop. One little Blue baby hatched overnight.

Two more have finally pipped, nothing yet from the last two. Hopefully that means this little one won't be alone for too much longer, though!

 

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Up to three! One was recently hatched when I went up to check just now, the other hatched while I was up there.

That first to hatch baby can't be much more than ~7 hours old at this point, but she's already up on her feet, walking around, exploring, pecking at things, etc. Seems like it took a full day or more before the others were like this! What a precocious little squirt! I'm just waiting on the second-to-hatch baby to dry a bit more before I move the both of them out to the brooder so this little squirt isn't all alone in there.

I took a quick peek at the last two eggs and both have drawn down. I definitely see a beak in one close to the shell, so it'll probably be next to pip!

 

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Baby 4 is out as of first thing this morning, along with some major bed head--or egg head, I guess?

Last egg is pipped, so should hatch out at some point today! This is day 22 for these eggs, so we're just a little behind, I suppose. I'll have to re-calibrate a thermometer and double check my incubator to make sure it's still running at the right temp.

 

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The last egg is zipping

I also forgot to mention in all the hatching excitement, but I ended up setting 3 corner coop eggs and 4 Blue coop eggs yesterday. The three corner coop eggs were all I got from them the past week. So I just filled out the row with the freshest from the Blue coop since I already have a bunch of Gus babies.

Also, I pulled the blood ring from the Blue coop eggs set last week, but the remaining 11 are going strong, and so are the rest of the eggs in the incubator. Marka has three eggs developing under her and the fourth I believe is an early embryo death.

 

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All out! I didn't take too many pictures yet because the youngest two are still pretty squishy and sleepy, and I didn't want to keep them from the heater for too long. The oldest three have figured out eating and drinking all on their own already, so they should teach the youngest without me having to worry about that Precious little peeps!

Oh, and the youngest came out of the egg with a mohawk.