ella2025
Songster
Hi!!!
I'm so excited to be writing this. This is my first ever Hatch-A-Long, and also my FIRST EVER HATCH too!
My BR Bippy has always acted broody in the hours leading up to her laying her egg. She does the same thing every day: plop down on the nest and push eggs under her and do all things broody hen at like 8 am, and her egg will be in the box 2 hours later. However 3 days ago it changed. she slept in her nesting box that day and refused to get off the nest the next morning, and the morning after that... Here is Bippy today, all puffed up and pancakes on her eggs.
This hatch will kind of be an experiment. I will be
1. Using pullet eggs which usually people don't recommend incubating due to potential low hatch rates. These are the only eggs I have and I want to try hatching from them.
2. Using a TWENTY THREE WEEK OLD broody hen. I've never heard of anyone having a hen go broody so early, before most hens even start laying. She seems to be doing very well so far, not breaking eggs, very gentle and barely gets off the nest.
3. Setting the eggs over 2 days instead of all at once. My chickens don't lay that many eggs yet, and I get anywhere from 2-4 healthy non double yolk eggs a day. Since Bippy has already been broody and sitting on fake eggs for a few days, I wanted to set the eggs under her as soon as possible, without having to store the eggs and turn them everyday.
I already know many people are going to tell me that my (pullet) eggs are too small, my broody hen too young and inexperienced, and I know that. This hatch is going to either pleasantly surprise me or be terribly disappointing. For all I know, Bippy could abandon her eggs tomorrow
.
Now onto the parents.
Dad is my almost 24 week old EE or splash Ameraucana. No way to know for sure if he's an EE or ameraucana right now, but I might know soon when (if?) his chicks hatch and lay eggs.
Moms could be my 4 20-21 week old EE hens, one of which (brown one on the left, skedoosh) layed her egg on my hand, so I'm sure who's the mother of that egg. Also the brown egg below is from my light Brahma hen whose from the same April 2 batch as Bippy the Broody. Here are all the parents together.
Now, onto the eggs. I marked them with weight, breed of hen, date and a number. As you can see they are all very small peewee eggs that I'm going to attempt to hatch. I set the skedoosh egg (#2) and the other 40g blue egg (#1) yesterday evening and the rest of the eggs this afternoon. They were all fresh and never refrigerated, should all be fertile.
The theme of this hatch-a-long, as we are heading into fall, will be spices (and herbs)!!! I'm thinking Cinnamon, Basil, pepper, etc. help me name my eggs!
Candling will be on:
Saturday, October 13 at 6 days (5 for the later eggs)
Sunday, October 21, on Day 14,
And Thursday, October 25, day 18, right before lockdown.
Hatch days should be on the 28th and 29th.
Here is my current egg list:
#number - mother - name
#1 - mystery ee - ?
#2 - skedoosh the ee - ?
#3 -mystery ee -?
#4 - mystery ee - ?
#5 -brahma - Basil
#6 - mystery ee - Peppermint (Pepper)
Wish me luck everyone! I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time!
I will be posting updates as much as I can.
I'm so excited to be writing this. This is my first ever Hatch-A-Long, and also my FIRST EVER HATCH too!
My BR Bippy has always acted broody in the hours leading up to her laying her egg. She does the same thing every day: plop down on the nest and push eggs under her and do all things broody hen at like 8 am, and her egg will be in the box 2 hours later. However 3 days ago it changed. she slept in her nesting box that day and refused to get off the nest the next morning, and the morning after that... Here is Bippy today, all puffed up and pancakes on her eggs.
This hatch will kind of be an experiment. I will be
1. Using pullet eggs which usually people don't recommend incubating due to potential low hatch rates. These are the only eggs I have and I want to try hatching from them.
2. Using a TWENTY THREE WEEK OLD broody hen. I've never heard of anyone having a hen go broody so early, before most hens even start laying. She seems to be doing very well so far, not breaking eggs, very gentle and barely gets off the nest.
3. Setting the eggs over 2 days instead of all at once. My chickens don't lay that many eggs yet, and I get anywhere from 2-4 healthy non double yolk eggs a day. Since Bippy has already been broody and sitting on fake eggs for a few days, I wanted to set the eggs under her as soon as possible, without having to store the eggs and turn them everyday.
I already know many people are going to tell me that my (pullet) eggs are too small, my broody hen too young and inexperienced, and I know that. This hatch is going to either pleasantly surprise me or be terribly disappointing. For all I know, Bippy could abandon her eggs tomorrow
.Now onto the parents.
Dad is my almost 24 week old EE or splash Ameraucana. No way to know for sure if he's an EE or ameraucana right now, but I might know soon when (if?) his chicks hatch and lay eggs.
Moms could be my 4 20-21 week old EE hens, one of which (brown one on the left, skedoosh) layed her egg on my hand, so I'm sure who's the mother of that egg. Also the brown egg below is from my light Brahma hen whose from the same April 2 batch as Bippy the Broody. Here are all the parents together.
Now, onto the eggs. I marked them with weight, breed of hen, date and a number. As you can see they are all very small peewee eggs that I'm going to attempt to hatch. I set the skedoosh egg (#2) and the other 40g blue egg (#1) yesterday evening and the rest of the eggs this afternoon. They were all fresh and never refrigerated, should all be fertile.
The theme of this hatch-a-long, as we are heading into fall, will be spices (and herbs)!!! I'm thinking Cinnamon, Basil, pepper, etc. help me name my eggs!
Candling will be on:
Saturday, October 13 at 6 days (5 for the later eggs)
Sunday, October 21, on Day 14,
And Thursday, October 25, day 18, right before lockdown.
Hatch days should be on the 28th and 29th.
Here is my current egg list:
#number - mother - name
#1 - mystery ee - ?
#2 - skedoosh the ee - ?
#3 -mystery ee -?
#4 - mystery ee - ?
#5 -brahma - Basil
#6 - mystery ee - Peppermint (Pepper)
Wish me luck everyone! I'm so excited and so nervous at the same time!
I will be posting updates as much as I can.
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