Hatching Plot continues

[d_rooster]

My diabolical plot to hatch more chickens is afoot.

In today's mail I received the Welsummer eggs that I had gotten through an auction. The auction was for six eggs, and I received ten. After the auction had ended, I had e-mailed the seller and asked for the PayPal payment information. The seller did an incredible random act of kindness by gifting me the eggs, including the shipping, and wished me a Merry Christmas. That was a totally nice and unexpected act on the part of the seller. So, I know that these Welsummer eggs already have the advantage of good karma.

The Welsummer eggs arrived today while wife and I were shopping. Teenage daughter intercepted several mail packages and presented them to us as surprises when we got home from shopping. Wife received some knitting yarn and asked what I had gotten. My response was, "Oh, just a little something I had ordered". Then I dashed off to the sunroom to unpack and hide them while letting them rest properly before I set them in the incubator.

I'm getting more secretive by the moment with these egg shipments. Why, I don't know. Although I now suffer from a hatching egg addiction, it's not as if I'm buying illegal drugs or alcohol and trying to hide it.

I'm a fairly well-behaved husband: no alcohol, no bars, no other women, no gambling, not into sports on television, no hunting or fishing addiction, share cat litterbox duty, cook occasionally, will wash laundry, will kill roaches, scorpions, and trap rodents when necessary, do the monthly finances, and sometimes give foot rubs or back rubs when asked. So, having a few little chickens is certainly the least of the vices from which I could choose.

I did set the Welsummer eggs in the incubator tonight. One egg looked like it might have had a small crack and perhaps a smidgen of white had oozed from the egg. I used a damp paper towel to wipe off what looked like a drop of stickiness on the egg and used scotch tape to cover over the crack. I know I read somewhere on the forums where people have sealed cracks with wax and still are able to get such an egg to hatch. Well, I couldn't find a candle tonight, so I improvised with the scotch tape. Perhaps I can find a birthday candle somewhere tomorrow and do the patch job over again.

Most of the Welsummer eggs were a fairly dark brown and almost all of them had really dark spots on them. At least these are the darkest, reddish cocoa colored eggs I have ever seen. I am so hoping that at least some of these make it to hatching and that most are pullets rather than roos. However, daughter saw a photo on the Internet of a Welsummer roo and she is pulling for a roo to hatch.

 

[Poison Ivy]

Good Luck on your hatch. I have 5 welsummer chicks out in the hutch and they are so cute. I believe one or two of mine are roos.

 

[skeeter9]

Welsummer roos are absolutely gorgeous!!!! The beautiful eggs that the hens lay aren't half-bad either!!! Good luck with your hatch!!

I know what you mean about feeling like you have to sneak around with your eggs. I've been doing the same thing, but it's not like my husband doesn't see them in the spare room, or doesn't notice me going in and out and adding new chicks to the brooder!!! You're right, it's kinda like if we had some sort of "bad" addiction like drugs or something. Kinda silly, huh???!!!!! Shame on us all!!!!!!

 

[d_rooster]

I candled my Salmon Favorelles at the end of Day 12 last night and it looks like 11 out of 14 are developing as expected with lots of movement and fluttering inside. If this success holds, then I will be so pleased with such a hatch rate from shipped eggs. These SFs will be Day 21 on New Year's Eve. I've always heard it said that whatever you are doing on New Year's Day you will be doing all year long. I'll be waiting on other eggs to hatch, but I'll also probably be cleaning up chickie poo from the new SF hatchlings.

Out of six eggs from my OEGB, six are developing! I was just wanting to see if she was laying fertile eggs. Apparently one of the roos is doing his job.

It will be interesting to see "who's your Daddy" on these eggs. The possibilties are a black frizzled cochin bantam, a buff cochin bantam (dominant roo), and Charlie the red pyle OEGB. My OEGB hen was alone in a pen with Charlie for about two weeks before I collected the eggs, but that is certainly no guarantee that he's the Daddy. I can't wait to see how cute those babies will be as the eggs are so small compared to all of my others.

 

[tracey2771]

HEHE....I just ordered my chicks via the post office! Very small rural town and got a call at 6:30am last spring to get the HE** here....the chicks are sooooooo loud and want out of their box! LOL. I know how the addiction goes...I am obsessed with my "babies."

 

[arlee453]

You are sooooo funny....

And, of course you are right - there are much worse vices than wanting to fire up the incubator!

Now, I'm not advocating keeping secrets from your spouse, but sometimes its just more fun to think you are getting away with something - especially something that is not really anything truly 'bad'.

 

[speckledhen]

What a nice thing for your seller to do with those Welsummer eggs! Good luck with all your diabolical plans!

 

[d_rooster]

arlee, isn't it so sad that the worst naughty thing I can think to do is hatch baby chicks behind my wife's back.

Cynthia, yes that seller did an exceptionally nice thing. It's nice people like that egg seller and people on these forums that keep me hopeful with regard to the future of humanity. This little unconditional kindness really helped me feel better yesterday. As yesterday, I was mentally anguished when thinking about how our society operates these days and about the rape of land and wildlife habitat through development that I see all around my community at present. I was especially sparked off by the half destroyed wetland on I-20 at the Georgia/Carolina line. The land developers started to build a large mall, then the plans were delayed or abandoned for some reason. I guess too bad for all of the wildlife that sacrificed their homes in the name of "progress". Sorry, for that soapbox.

Back to pleasant thoughts...
After cuddling all of my grown up chickens, this morning finds me in the sunroom again, keeping my incubator eggs company with a cup of coffee and Christmas cookies. The molasses/ginger cookies are my favorite and this batch was made especially for me by my wife. Wife and daughter are working on almond flavored sugar cookies today. I am really enjoying my holidays and time away from work.

Yesterday afternoon was spent setting up a terrarium for the green anole lizard that managed to find its way into our cat's mouth a few weeks ago. Wife saved the lizard from the jaws of death and put it outside, but it came back in the other night on a tender plant that I brought in from the cold. I know it's the same lizard because of the partially missing tale. Now Lizzie is at Club Med Terrarium Winter Resort according to my wife.

Although it's cloudy outside it's warmish and humid today where I am in South Carolina. I continue to find ways to be bad. I'm scouting the Internet for more dwarf citrus trees. I have a Meyer Lemon with fruit and blooms in the sunroom at the moment and it is heavenly scented, too.

This afternoon, I'll take a break from watching the 'bator and Lizzie to join family and friends for spinning and knitting yarn. I trust that everyone else is finding ways to be naughty or nice during the holidays.

 

[jimnjay]

Donald, it must be contagious, not the hatching addiction but the worry about the planet we live on and the way we are caring for it and the creatures that share it with us. I find myself putting down the newspaper and turning off the news more frequently. I have to go outside to visit my chickens, they keep me grounded.

I understand your need to hatch especially at this time when things around the property are not as demanding. I have been collecting and marking eggs. NOT to hatch mind you but I need to check fertility. I can check for the bullseye or possibly I should set them just to see if there is good development. What do you think.

 

[peeps7]

If I hang around you guys long enough I'm going to be a BAD girl, LOL!!!