END OF FEB. HATCH-ALONG, ANYONE?

[OldChurchEggery1]

I set 18 eggs back on the 8th: 9 Jersey Giants and 9 Wheaten Marans. They're due the 29th but likely won't make an appearance 'til the 1st. Would be neat to get some Leap Day chicks, though.

 

[Illia]

Where do you live that you've seen you first robin already?!?! We usually don't see ours till sometime in March here in NE Iowa. Although it's been a VERY warm winter so I'm hoping that by the beginning of March I'll be able to let my two buff orp's sit!!

We've been having Robins for several weeks here.



Then again, this is about the most mild weather one can get out here except for CA and FL and other related states.

 

[LilyD]

Candled my eggs and the 27 that were growing during my first candling are still doing strong. Lock down is on Wednesday keep your fingers crossed that we get tons of fuzzies.

 

[tinychicky]

Candled and the five fertile eggs were still doing fine! Chicks by next weekend!

I also ordered some stuff from ideal, so they'll arrive the 24th! Rocks, LF cochins, GS hamburg, NN, and, just for fun a saipan game that'll probably turn out to be a leghorn cross or something

i'll probably slip most of them under a broody or two

 

[chevynova]

Congrats on your soon-to-arrive babies, tinychicky! I got my first set of chicks from Ideal. I ordered the leftover pullet special and ended up with an assortment of 7 different breeds. All but one chick were actually female. Dunno how they confused the gender of a sex-link rooster though...

Had to throw away my two iffy EE eggs this morning -- they were sweating! I'm going to lockdown a day early because my last hatch started pipping on day 18. I'm pretty sure that caused an issue with shrink wrapping for some of them and I'd reaaaaaaaaally like to avoid that this time!

 

[tinychicky]

Congrats on your soon-to-arrive babies, tinychicky! I got my first set of chicks from Ideal. I ordered the leftover pullet special and ended up with an assortment of 7 different breeds. All but one chick were actually female. Dunno how they confused the gender of a sex-link rooster though...

Had to throw away my two iffy EE eggs this morning -- they were sweating! I'm going to lockdown a day early because my last hatch started pipping on day 18. I'm pretty sure that caused an issue with shrink wrapping for some of them and I'd reaaaaaaaaally like to avoid that this time!

ahh hatcheries

LOL

 

[coldupnorth]

Did a quick check in the incubator of the spitzhauben eggs I have and had to pull 3 more. I'm down to 11 of 17 and there are 2-3 that I'm not really sure of but kept them in just to see. It would be nice to hatch at least 50% - may be close. I'm running out of room for eggs in the incubator. Who else has this problem

 

[1hotmoma]

I set 15 eggs on the 9th or 10th. I hope to have at least one baby on leap day. I accidentally broke an one egg last night. I still feel bad this morning about it but things happen. If I get any to hatch from the incubator, I will be so excited. Last time I didn't get any babies.

 

[coops gone crazy]

Candled our eggs tonight. I've been pretty concerned after our last attempt to hatch was a flop.....then the bulb burned out on this hatch about day 8. Only for about an hour and a half at most but the temp had dropped to 80. We are hoping for a leap day hatch.....but would be happy with a decent hatch any day! We have 5 each Black/Blue/Splash Ameraucana, Delaware, Welsummer. For the Ameraucana- saw movement in 1 tonight, one egg is small and dark and I can't see much of anything (appeared to have a good air cell and some veins?), 3 look like they quit early (a ring of vessels around the middle of the egg then nothing). Movement in 4 Delaware, 1 looks like an early quiter. Movement in 3 Welsummer, 2 too dark to tell. So 8/15 are at least moving so far. Fingers crossed for the next 8-9 days. Here is a picture of my new brooder my man built for me yesterday. It is almost complete. There will be a door on bottom too so that we can run a couple different batches of chicks if needed:

 

[chevynova]

Well, I had to send my rooster to crock pot camp on Saturday. He was a good boy and beautiful, but he'd attack every time a hen squawked -- which usually happens when I am rescuing them from the wrong side of the fence, when I accidentally step on one as they are constantly underfoot asking for treats, or someone is trying to pet them because they are cute. I was worried mostly for my elderly neighbors, because the chickens often visit them for treats.

My sister said she wouldn't miss his constant crowing. Well, she got one day of peace. One of my three month old silkies started crowing Sunday night.

Edit: Here's a photo of my silkies meeting the big girls, taken yesterday.


And a couple more pics for fun.