Eggs for Xena

[Smuvers Farm]

For those who don't know, I recently had a very young pullet go broody. As she is an Asian BLACK, I call her my Emo Chick. (Quit rolling your eyes. That's funny!)

I'm putting under her tonight, after midnight, 12 eggs of mixed heritage so her set will start officially on 01 October.

Egg #1 is already cracked....... cause, in my haste to scold my DH and kiddo to NOT TOUCH THE EGGS so they don't drop them......... I dropped it.... We sealed the small fractures with candle wax... yet, the only wax we had that was unscented was my kiddos #8 birthday candle... which is coloured blue.

Currently, the eggs are *resting* from their trip here. I am not sure what breeds they are, but there is a mix of leghorn (hope only #1&2 are leghorns), Wyandotte, Olive Eggers, Marans and others possibly. If you can tell by the eggs colour, feel free to put your thought next to the egg number listed (listed 1-12 from right to left).

My Xena

The Eggs

 

[Smuvers Farm]

NIGHT RAID!!!

Hit Xena's nest between 2100-2115 tonight. Pics are crap cause drunk DH took them.

Never, never, never, never. NEVER let noisy arse people *help* do a job that requires them to be QUIET!!! Dang!! Even my mom is cooing at Xena, after I tell everybody to STHU!!! Only other quiet person? The 8 y/o kiddo. He will now, and forever be, my P.I.C. (Partner In Chickens)

She pecked at me a little. Not while taking the ceramic eggs out from under her, but putting the fertile eggs in under her. Now, I just wait. I plan on candling around day 3-4.

 

[Embalmergirl]

Good luck to Xena!! My P.I.C. is usually my daughter for the same reason as you, she's quiet & follows direction. My husband screams like a little girl sometimes, scares the girls.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Good luck to Xena!! My P.I.C. is usually my daughter for the same reason as you, she's quiet & follows direction. My husband screams like a little girl sometimes, scares the girls.

Ridiculous, aren't hubbys?!? Yeesh! And I keep telling my mom..... my 71 YEAR OLD mom..... to leave her alone..... be she just HAS to go over to her and cluck and kiss at her.... poor thing....

The chicken... not my mom.....

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Today is day 3. I plan to candle the eggs today or tomorrow. My *Plan of Attack* is as follows:

Take 6 eggs, candle and pics, go back out to her nest, take the other 6 eggs, replace the first 6, candle and pics, and then return the final 6 eggs. Sounds about right yeah?

I'm nervous. I've poured over pics and studied up on candling eggs, yet I still feel super UNDER qualified for the task at hand. I still don't understand if I am supposed to trash an egg NOW if I don't see the spider veins, or tuck them back in and discard at the next candle session, around day 8-10?

 

[Smuvers Farm]

My Hatching Whiteboard. Those are my lousy attempts at drawing candles.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

So, we candled. It went pretty darn smoothly as far as a first time candling goes. I'm going to up load a set of 2 photos for each egg, 1 with the number, and 1 with a pic of it on the candler... except for 2 or 3 eggs. Those were too dark to tell (I believe, #3 was too dark, and #6&9 we couldn't see the bullseye or spider veins).

EDIT to add: Posting in order of how we candled, not numerical.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

#1 is the one I dropped while scolding the others to not touch the eggs, lest THEY drop and break them. It has blue candle wax sealing the hairline fractures, and it seems to be making progress!!!

 

[Junochick]

I want to see pic of the babies after they hatch, good luck

 

[Smuvers Farm]

#8. Some pics are hard to see because apparently, even sober, DH can't take pictures worth ISH!