Greetings from England :)

[Polkadots]

Hi all, I'm 'Polkadots' and am an accidental, first time owner to my three girls (Polkadot, a large black hybrid with a beautiful green sheen, maybe someone would have an idea of her breed? Spotty, a black and gold bantam X something and Dotty, my ex batt) up until the girls were given to me I had no idea just how loveable chickens are! I decided after 6 months that I'd really like to increase my flock and read up, bought the incubator etc. A lady on the local farm very kindly gave me half a dozen eggs, three light sussex and three polish, however none were fertile. I then bought half a dozen Pekin Bantam eggs and was overjoyed candle all 6 as fertile. Unfortunately my incubator went crazy over night and killed 4 of them around day 11/12, leaving me with 2. A few days later it did it again and with no broody hen nor way of getting another incubator until next month my husband had a read and adapted an old aquarium we had. We ran it for 24 hours and it kept a steady temp within 0.3°Cso we transferred them over the day before yesterday, they locked down today and I'm praying they hatch. A quick shine of my iphone light before lockdown showed two wrigglers, so I just have to wait and see. The homemade incy isn't my first choice but it's holding temps and humidity, and I figured they're safer in there than the other one. I'm so worried it's unreal, and I'm sure these eggs have kept ne up at nights far more than my children ever have, even as newborns!!

Sooo, that's me, I also have two dogs, three cats, a couple of ponies and a hamster, as you do lol

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[Fluffers]

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

Good luck with your hatch, I have eggs in the incubator now also.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with your hatch! Keeping fingers crossed you will have two little Pekin babies Sounds like you've had to really use some ingenuity to keep the eggs going! You might want to check out the Incubating And Hatching eggs forum for if you have any questions during the hatch. www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-amp-hatching-eggs and here is a really nice article from the Learning Center www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101
If you want to figure out what your one girl is, you could post her picture on the What Breed Or Gender Is This forum for help https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this

 

[gander007]

Alright

great to have you joining the BYC flock

BYC has a very useful learning center

 

[Polkadots]

Thankyou all for your warm welcomes I've already found the forum to be a fountain of knowledge and have been lurking for some time!

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

Good luck with the hatch! We will all be keeping our fingers crossed for you. Welcome to our flock!

 

[Polkadots]

Thanks I don't know what I'll doif they don't, I'll be absolutely devestated, I admit I shed a tear when I realised the others were definite gonners *blush*
On the upside, considering it was knocked together quickly my home made bator is really holding temps and humidity well. Ideally I'd have liked a fan in there but there was no time. It might not be pretty with cardboard taped to the outside for insulation and towels draped over the top but its doing the job!

 

[Polkadots]

Here's my girls, when I first got them, their legs have cleared up now