Five Tough Chicks and TWO Amazing Embryos!

[Wickedchicken6]

shoot....I meant the right.

Those are two little keets. Two of the cutest keets I've had. I "think" they should end up being royal purples. All the chicks jumped back in with the ducks, the ducks made it wet so the chicks jumped in with the keets.

I need more guineas...sure, sure I do. 26 wasn't enough. I need these two to make 28.

 

[eulogos]

Why don't you just let them hatch under the broodies and let thr broodies raise them?

 

[Kiki]

Why don't you just let them hatch under the broodies and let thr broodies raise them?

Oh no....then we wouldn't be able to have the fun experiments to follow.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

It was the first 60 thing that came to mind. Awesome movie and awesome car!



so sweet. Funny how they bond.

i forgot, what breed are they?

The big chick is an EE. I know that...
The first five chicks are OEGB full or mostly. The rest are OEGB with crosses.

Of the last four...the small red chick is possibly an OEGB x Mr. Ten Gallon.

Mr. 10 gallon's likely an OEGB x (prob an OEGB x bantam)

The two white chicks are likely Mr Peek Freans' offspring. I don't know what he is. I have one rooster that's bigger. Mr Peek Frean is a small version. Same coloration.
He has the white skin and 5 toes.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Why don't you just let them hatch under the broodies and let thr broodies raise them?

Good morning! That's a valid question. I have a few reasons: Initially I wasn't going to set any of the eggs except the ones that were hatching the day we took the eggs away.

1) There were 13+ broody hens trying to set on eggs when we cleaned the coop a month ago. I took this pic a couple of days ago. I was away paying bills one afternoon and couldn't gather the eggs. This is what happens in a day. There's 4-5 broody hens which cause major commotion with doubling up and such. As of last night, all the nests are filled with broody hens...again. There's also a couple setting on the floor.
It's impossible to have that amount of broody hens in my current setup.

2) I already had a broody hen with a keet setting on a new nest of eggs at that time in the back. She's fierce. She's the reason I had the 60 hour chick and others. She had hatched guinea eggs and she had went back to being broody 4 days afterwards and was setting on eggs with her keet. She was also fighting with an OEGB for that nest. I needed her to stop brooding. It also would have caused major upset and fighting to introduce a new hen/hens into the back area when she was already established with her keet. That would've been asking for trouble.

3) I sell eggs. I won't keep/eat eggs that have been set on for an afternoon/day. If I'm not here to pick the eggs every couple of hours...I toss the eggs back to the hens.

I plan on being away today to pick up two new coops. If I am away...I'll be tossing all my eggs because of the broody hens.

4) I currently have 75 chickens, 22 guinea fowl and 4 ducks in my coop.
My coop is 12x20. I simply have no room to accommodate broody hens.

5) The reason we cleaned the coop in the first place was to get space for the 10 EE chicks and 14 guineas keets I had hatched out of the house.

6) I'm not looking to expand my number of birds.

7) Is the reason Kiki mentioned below, although not in the initial plans.

Oh no....then we wouldn't be able to have the fun experiments to follow.

We plan on moving into a much larger building. It's 20x30 or 30x40, I've forgotten. It has pens and "could" accommodate broody hens. As I mentioned above, I don't need any more birds at the moment...lol. Broody raised chicks stay here.

If I raise chicks to sell...those chicks would get incubated in the incubator and will never be in contact with my adult birds. That's a few of the reasons it can't work for me at this time.

 

[WVduckchick]

The 2 lav orps that i had left incubating have both internally pipped!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

That's fantastic and exciting!

that everything goes well!

 

[WVduckchick]

Thanks!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Are they out this morning??????????

 

[WVduckchick]

Nope, but both external pips.

Woke up at 1:00am and decided to check in on them. When i shined my light in, one pipped right then and there! The other pipped sometime between 1 and 5am. They usually hatch at around 12 hours after pip, so hopefully this afternoon!

Besides being sat on by broodies for the first week, and being uncovered for who knows how long, then transported an hour, i think the thing that amazes me the most is that I scrubbed these eggs clean. The broodies had gotten them all pretty dirty. Air cell growth was not all that great! I really didn't expect they had a chance. Getting even this far has been pretty cool! Now i hope they hatch healthy!