I had my first successful hatch of the 2018 season this week. Prior to now, I've been having trouble keeping my incubator humidity low enough for starting eggs. I decided to use that incubator as my hatcher and I bought a new Brinsea Ovation 28 EX for my starter incubator. I LOVE that Brinsea! I'm kicking myself for not spending the extra $100 to get the 56 egg model instead, but I have what I have. I barely touch it. I just make sure the water reservoir is full, add new eggs on Wednesday, and move eggs to the lockdown incubator on Sunday. So simple.
I had two different hatches this week, one due Monday and one on Wednesday.
The Monday hatch was 6 Bantam Cochin/Chocolate Orpington eggs I received as a bonus when I bought 3 Chocolate Orpington hens (Thanks @WVduckchick!). There were originally 12 eggs, but I started them in the cheap incubator and they were there a week before I moved them to the Brinsea. I lost 6 of the before lockdown. I started them at that point because some of the eggs were already more than a week old.
The Wednesday hatch was 11 more Bantam Cochin/Chocolate Orpington eggs, 10 from a newer dozen from the previous owner and 1 they laid after they arrived. I lost 2 of the dozen and 3 they laid after arriving here before lockdown. MUCH better numbers. I also had 4 eggs from my LF Dark Cornish trio in this hatch.
So a total of 21 eggs made it to lockdown.
On Monday, nothing happened. I started losing hope for 6 of the eggs.
On Tuesday, I noticed that two of the eggs that were due to hatch Monday had pipped. By bedtime Tuesday, I had 2 babies and several more pipped eggs.
By time I woke on Wednesday, another baby had hatched and a 4th was not far behind. By the end of the day, 17 of the 21 eggs had hatched! 3 of the Monday hatch eggs and all but one Cornish egg from the Wednesday hatch. Unfortunately, around 24 hours after it hatched, the first chick to hatch died in my hand. So I have 16 chicks!
Three of the chicks are Cornish. Two of them are beautiful and fluffy.
And this is poor Boot. He needed a lot of help. His toes on his left foot weren't so great so he got a boot. He lost his boot overnight and is much better now.
This is the second chick that hatched. It really loves interacting with people. The adorable little booger wouldn't hold still for pictures so I had to hold it.
This is the sort of pictures I got when I wasn't holding it.
Three of the chicks are almost completely yellow/white.
Three of the chicks are a very light grey.
One chick is a darker grey.
These two chicks are almost black, but have a lot of white in their faces.
During pictures, the second chick started pecking at the other's foot fuzz.
Then there are two almost black chicks.
And I think we ended up with one purebred Bantam Cochin in the bunch. It is the only one with a completely feathered toe AND a light beak. Plus, the head shape looks more like my LF cochins did when they were little where as the other ones have a more "orpington" looking heads.
I'm amazed at how friendly these chicks all are. All the other chicks I've hatched stopped wanting to have anything to do with humans if they had other chicks to hang out with. The BC/CO chicks all come running to the side when I walk by and like to investigate and climb on my hand when I put it in. So CUTE!
I had two different hatches this week, one due Monday and one on Wednesday.
The Monday hatch was 6 Bantam Cochin/Chocolate Orpington eggs I received as a bonus when I bought 3 Chocolate Orpington hens (Thanks @WVduckchick!). There were originally 12 eggs, but I started them in the cheap incubator and they were there a week before I moved them to the Brinsea. I lost 6 of the before lockdown. I started them at that point because some of the eggs were already more than a week old.
The Wednesday hatch was 11 more Bantam Cochin/Chocolate Orpington eggs, 10 from a newer dozen from the previous owner and 1 they laid after they arrived. I lost 2 of the dozen and 3 they laid after arriving here before lockdown. MUCH better numbers. I also had 4 eggs from my LF Dark Cornish trio in this hatch.
So a total of 21 eggs made it to lockdown.
On Monday, nothing happened. I started losing hope for 6 of the eggs.
On Tuesday, I noticed that two of the eggs that were due to hatch Monday had pipped. By bedtime Tuesday, I had 2 babies and several more pipped eggs.
By time I woke on Wednesday, another baby had hatched and a 4th was not far behind. By the end of the day, 17 of the 21 eggs had hatched! 3 of the Monday hatch eggs and all but one Cornish egg from the Wednesday hatch. Unfortunately, around 24 hours after it hatched, the first chick to hatch died in my hand. So I have 16 chicks!
Three of the chicks are Cornish. Two of them are beautiful and fluffy.
And this is poor Boot. He needed a lot of help. His toes on his left foot weren't so great so he got a boot. He lost his boot overnight and is much better now.
This is the second chick that hatched. It really loves interacting with people. The adorable little booger wouldn't hold still for pictures so I had to hold it.
This is the sort of pictures I got when I wasn't holding it.
Three of the chicks are almost completely yellow/white.
Three of the chicks are a very light grey.
One chick is a darker grey.
These two chicks are almost black, but have a lot of white in their faces.
Then there are two almost black chicks.
And I think we ended up with one purebred Bantam Cochin in the bunch. It is the only one with a completely feathered toe AND a light beak. Plus, the head shape looks more like my LF cochins did when they were little where as the other ones have a more "orpington" looking heads.
I'm amazed at how friendly these chicks all are. All the other chicks I've hatched stopped wanting to have anything to do with humans if they had other chicks to hang out with. The BC/CO chicks all come running to the side when I walk by and like to investigate and climb on my hand when I put it in. So CUTE!
They are fabulous!
