Chicks are pipping here
Kind of excited as this is my first trial batch with my Barnevelder roo....yup, he's fertile.
This will also be my first attempt at backyard sex linking....if I did the "math" right, I should have black females and males with a head dot for barring as I used California Grey hens with my Barnevelder rooster.
From what I can see, I've got one girl hatched (appeared all black with the quick check) and another pipping...which will be 100% as I only set 2 Cal Grey eggs for this trial under my broody Silkie. (I don't think the brown egg from my Rhodebar or Welsummer/Wyandotte was developing well, but we will see in another day).
Encouraging as well as I did not do anything special...I just plunked eggs under her, let her sit on pine shavings over wood, tried to keep the shavings deeper due to the wet and cold (some wet seepage at the edges due to very heavy rains...we had 13 inches of rain in December!).
I ddin't even remove the other 2 bantam Cochins who snuggled tight with momma during the cold (and once kicked out some eggs, and twice have laid more eggs which the Silkie had under her...there's 1 dud now, but I didn't worry about it as they are small eggs).
So actually, I made a point to just let nature take its course with little intervention from me. This will be both a test and a relief after those failed hatches with the Isbars...seeing happy healthy little black chicks running around that had no special care other than mommy....hopefully the other one will pip easily today...it is cold and dry.
LofMc
Kind of excited as this is my first trial batch with my Barnevelder roo....yup, he's fertile.
This will also be my first attempt at backyard sex linking....if I did the "math" right, I should have black females and males with a head dot for barring as I used California Grey hens with my Barnevelder rooster.
From what I can see, I've got one girl hatched (appeared all black with the quick check) and another pipping...which will be 100% as I only set 2 Cal Grey eggs for this trial under my broody Silkie. (I don't think the brown egg from my Rhodebar or Welsummer/Wyandotte was developing well, but we will see in another day).
Encouraging as well as I did not do anything special...I just plunked eggs under her, let her sit on pine shavings over wood, tried to keep the shavings deeper due to the wet and cold (some wet seepage at the edges due to very heavy rains...we had 13 inches of rain in December!).
I ddin't even remove the other 2 bantam Cochins who snuggled tight with momma during the cold (and once kicked out some eggs, and twice have laid more eggs which the Silkie had under her...there's 1 dud now, but I didn't worry about it as they are small eggs).
So actually, I made a point to just let nature take its course with little intervention from me. This will be both a test and a relief after those failed hatches with the Isbars...seeing happy healthy little black chicks running around that had no special care other than mommy....hopefully the other one will pip easily today...it is cold and dry.
LofMc
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and it looked like it needed another 1 1/2 weeks to finish growing. So I figured the others need about that long, or maybe that baby just stopped growing, but now we had moved her and the remaining 5 eggs inside the house, with safety of the cage, to finish out the week. And there it is, already 1 hatched, now I just hope the other 4 are viable, as I said, I didn't candle, and I don't want to disturb anymore! Momma hasn't got off the eggs since Wednesday! So maybe that is a good sign?
