I am just so excited, I HAVE to share! :D

[goatkeepers]

Well, DOH and I just candled the 12 mystery eggs we got from our neighbor and after our inspection, we have 5 eggs left in the 'bator. 3 for sure ones and two maybes. We should be at day 6. Out of the ones we discarded, 5 weren't fertilized (they were clear) and two had a blood ring. Since this is my very first time, I didn't get my hope up at all to find anything. My temps had been fluctuating a lot (more so in the first few days than now) and I didn't even know if any of them were fertilized...
I tried to get pics, but my camera wouldn't focus on the embryo.

Our air cells are about the size of a nickel and like I said, we're at day 6. The embryo is about the size of two peas. Is all that normal? Or should the embryo be bigger by now?

Thanks for bearing with me, I am still not getting my hopes up that any of them will hatch, but it sure is nice to see that we have something to work with now! I really need this. (I just tried to raise 7 orphaned bunnies that someone found and after about 10 days, they died- I was and still am, devastated about that!) So yeah, if I can get the three (that I am sure about them being alive) to hatch, I will be THRILLED!

 

[coffeemama]

Good luck-don't get to discouraged if it doesn't work out. Just try again if you don't have as good of a hatch as you'd like.

 

[rebbetzin]

I do hope your eggs will hatch !! It is so hard to have little creatures die when you are trying to keep them alive. I still feel horrible about the baby bird, and even worse over the hummingbird chicks!! Bunnies are so cute, that must have been really hard for you to have them die.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

YAYYYYYYYYY!!!! I have been wondering how it was going for you!!! Keep us posted!!! I have 27 in now but 19 of those were handled kinda rough in shipping so who knows.

 

[ginbart]

goatkeepers, my mom had orphaned bunnies that someone found and she was told you can't raise them no matter what you do and she had them for 4 weeks. They were doing good then they all died in a couple of days. Sorry to hear about your bunnies. My mom was upset for months. We were starting to get worried. So I understand how you feel.

BUT Good luck the the hatch.

rebbetzin, you tried to raise hummingbird chicks? How big were they? Or I should say, how little were they?

goatkeepers, sorry I didn't mean to change the topic.

 

[tiffanyh]

do not beat yourself up about the bunnies. i am a certified rehabber and ever rehabber I have enevr spoken too has a difficult time with bunnies. To muvch handling, to much noise, to much stress and they die. They are nervous little creature. even the most experienced rehabbers struggle with them.

 

[rebbetzin]

Quote:
I had a hummingbird make a nest in a windchime on our front porch!! The eggs hatched and the babies had just a bit of fluff, they were about a week old.... then they were gone!!

here is the history of the ordeal from TheEasyGarden site...


http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23077

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23097

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23105

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23325

I only got one blurry picture of the babies when they first hatched....
I didn't want to risk upsetting the momma bird...

 

[goatkeepers]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

Yeah, losing the bunnies was hard. I did SO MUCH reading online cause I wanted to make sure I'd get them through. They did great and after the first two all of a sudden passed away, I came across a website (no idea how I didn't find it before!) and found out that they need a special kind of poop that their mom makes that has good bacteria that gets their bellies going when they are ready to switch from milk to solids. But there was no way I could get a momma rabbitt and soon after my last few died. It was very hard.

Aaanyways.

The hummingbird chicks are precious. So tiny!!

Luvmychicknkids, are they all the RLBW (did I get that right??

)? I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get a GREAT hatch!!

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Nope, I have 8 BLRW (you were close

) 12 EE, 7 Black tailed white Japanese Bantam, and one little Silkie. My BLRW didn't have to stay in shipping very long and I candled tonight and could see development in several.

I am excited about your hatch!!! I can't wait to compare baby pics with you!!!

 

[goatkeepers]

Aww, well, I was close.

I'm still so new to the whole chicken thing. I bet all your chicks will be so adorable!! So are you on day 2 today? I'm kinda worried that mine are behind. I came accross a video of a chick in a candled egg and it was big and you could see it moving and kicking. Mine looked like a little pea in there. Couldn't even make out anything... I think it might have been b/c the temp was so up and down the first few days. Oh well, we'll just see what happens.

It's so hard not to candle them every day!!