LOL Love it Wendi C!
Wendell, hens are just weirdos sometimes, aren't they?
Today is day 21 for the eggs I picked up from Paul 3 weeks ago. Aside from the two SLW that hatched a week earlier than expected, my expectations are plummeting rapidly. One RIR pipped last night and hasn't made much progress since, and none of the others are pipped. Will wait a few more days, but hope declines. He said he's had a low hatch rate at his place too, but I sure was hoping for at least a few.
If not, I will be happy with the 3 pullets that did hatch from the eggs we got from him earlier this year. They are all coming along very nicely, and the eggs I got from Ron Fogle provided me with 1 cockerel their age, and then the 4 that hatched the following month, of which I am sure 1 is a pullet and 1 is a cockerel, and the other two are still in question, but at this time I am guessing cockerels. That would give me 4 pairs of very nice heritage RIR if I keep all 4 cockerels, which is not what I had planned, but we shall see how they grow out I guess. Both breeders have done a stellar job with their breeding programs, I see such consistency in all their birds. That is what will make it difficult to select. I see no clear faults in any of them right now, but they are young, and Ron has counseled often to wait a year before culling anything that doesn't have obvious DQs.
The two SLW are in with the Silkies who are raising 5 of their own chicks, and doing great. The dark partridge hen seems to spend the most time with those two chicks in particular, and she and one of the black hens feed all the chicks by picking out mouthfuls of the FF and breaking it into tiny pieces for the chicks. This morning I spent the better part of a quarter hour just watching them feed the chicks. It consumes me. When the rest of the eggs I gave them hatch (or don't, but I sure hope they do) in two weeks and a couple of days, if any of the eggs in the incubator hatch I'll slip them in with them as well, and let them raise chicks for a few weeks without any eggs to brood. Unless they start laying their own again I don't plan to give them any more for several weeks, they need a break. The Mister is being a good boy but I suspect he's had about enough of all their brooding as well LOL.