Crazy Hatching Lady???

LSheldon

In the Brooder
7 Years
Nov 12, 2012
13
0
22
Wilton, CT
Hi all!
Newbie here, but I figured if anyone could get me, it'd be you guys! :) After growing up in Manhattan my whole life, my family and I moved to CT a short 5 years ago. We've been keeping chickens for 3.5 years, but we've wanted Silkies since before we had chicks - probably since before we even moved out of the city. Well, we bought a *very* small farm (4 acres) and started keeping chickens along with our 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 guinea pigs, 5 ducks, large veggie garden which produces enough to sell at farmers markets 3 seasons out of the year, and 2 human kids, ages 7.5 and 2.5. I work from home and am basically the mom, farm hand, dog trainer, chef, cleaning lady, etc... My husband is lucky enough to work in an office with human adults. He gets 'free time', whatever that is! :) Anyway, while we've always wanted Silkies, we've never had any....

I've been selling veggies and eggs for a little over a year, and have made a small profit, but nothing too impressive... I finally saved up enough to buy a brinsea octagon advance with humidity pump (the works) after using an awesome coupon code for 10% off! I had a pretty bad hatch the first time around. Had started 46 shipped (mix of breeds) eggs in a forced air styrofoam bator while waiting for the brinsea to arrive. The fan on the cheapo broke 4 days in.... I transferred all viable eggs into the brinsea once it arrived and was set up. Wound up with 4 barred rocks and 1 black copper marans out of 46 eggs! :(

That day, I ordered 24 silkie hatching eggs. I was ready to start again, and it has always seemed like by the time we think to order chicks all the silkies are gone. SO, It's late September, and I ordered 24 eggs in hopes that a bunch would hatch in my new amazingly cool incubator and by spring I could be raising egg laying silkies and selling some of their fertile eggs/offspring to balance out the cost of buying them the new eglu cube we have on order... The eggs arrived. All good. Candled at day 7, mostly fertile, but didn't throw any out until day10 cause nothing smelled and I wanted to be sure. Day 10, I had 20 embryos out of 26 (they sent 2 extras). I was excited! We knew about "Superstorm" Sandy, but I was pretty casual about it, thinking it would be fine. We are on a main road and rarely lose power - we have no large trees close enough to the house to cause major damage. I was simply worried that if we did lose power, my precious silkie eggs would be lost... Tried the generator. It wouldn't start despite having 2 friends and a contractor come over to try. I started calling hotels. All booked. Was I thinking about my kids? OF COURSE!!! We're on well water, so when we lose power we also lose water. With 2 little kids, that can be a real problem. The hotel was more for them than for the eggs, but since we were staying anyway, I figured I might as well bring the bator with me! :) Finally found a hotel about an hour away with one room.

Cut to 3 adults (yup, we had a houseguest and all planes were grounded) and 2 little kids staying in one tiny room in a Marriott for a week! When we checked in, the girl at the desk saw the incubator and asked me if I was "baking". I said, "Yeah, I'm making chicken!" Was afraid they wouldn't let me hatch chicks in their hotel and I didn't know how long we'd be there... We lost power for a full 7 days! Luckily we had no damage or any major problems, and my heart goes out to those who did! Also luckily, we got power back at 11pm on day 17 of the hatch!

The kids were already asleep by the time we got power, and we were paying for the hotel anyway, so we opted to pack up the room that night and drive back early the following morning. I allowed the bator to stabilize at home, then bumped the humidity to 76, took it off the cradle, etc... Over the weekend we've had 10 silkies hatch! Yeah, I had to help one out of the shell, and one was born with spraddle leg, but WE HAVE 10 SILKIES - the breed I've wanted for years and years!! The chick I helped is doing well, and the spraddle leg is being treated with hopes that she'll recover, although she does look pretty weak...

My family and friends are calling me nuts for carrying around this incubator, helping a chick with a dried out membrane to hatch, and running to my vet this morning for vet wrap for the spraddle leg all to help these babies! I think of it as a win-win! I've wanted this type of chick for years, the chicks get to survive and have a great home, perhaps I can help educate my friends and family in at least empathy, if not the care of chickens, and no one in my family will lose sleep because no one made an effort to save these babies. We've named them all with storm theme names, and we are thrilled with them - pics to follow!

Is anyone as chicken crazy as me? Please tell me yes!!!
 
It sure sounds like you and those eggs have been through a lot. And no, you aren't that crazy. You did what you had to to save the eggs you have been dreaming of having (I'm sure we have all been there in some way or another). That is so great that so many eggs developed after being shipped. Is your hatch done with the 10 or are there still more to come?
 
First, Welcome to BYC
welcome-byc.gif



I think you need to name them Sandy or ContraSandy. Since they survived it. :p

They're so adorable and cute.

Congratulation for the little chicken babies. :)
 
Thanks for the welcome!

And haha, cause the first born was named Sandy! Then Marri (for the Marriot where we stayed during the storm), Storm, Wind, Rain, Thunder, Lightening, Athena (the snow storm we had right after sandy), Cloud, and Tomorrow for the chick that was born a full day after the others and needed help out of her shell. Big thanks to my kids for coming up with those names!
 

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