INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[Blooie]

I'm sure we could find somebody to help you out with that

Enablers...the whole lot of ya.....

 

[Chaos18]

Enablers...the whole lot of ya.....

We do what we can.

 

[h2oratt]

There's just no way I can catch up, so I'll just jump in if that's okay. I think my incubator jinx has fled the building! I am so happy with this last hatch! If you remember, I tried hatching with 39 total eggs on two different hatches. Out of the first batch of eggs I got two chicks...out of the second I got one. Not real encouraging for a beginner. But I was persuaded to try one more time to get that magic Silkie for granddaughter Katie, so I ordered eggs from @RubyNala97 and let me tell you, the difference was unbelievable! When I first got them, I couldn't even SEE the air cells in most of them, they were that fresh and packaged that well! I had to wait until the first candle at 7 days to find them and only 4 were slightly detached at one side, just the smallest bit, so they were started incubation standing upright. The rest I was able to lay horizontally and hand turn. @FridayYet said to mark any loose sides with dotted lines instead of solid, which I did. Well, by the time I candled again the only way tell which ones had been loose was that old dotted line - they had firmed right up! When I first opened the box and checked the eggs, I managed to break one. Yeah, some things never change, do they? At day 14 one had a blood ring. So out of 16 eggs, 14 kept going. And 14 made to lockdown! All 14...and those little embryos were dancing their happy dance in those eggs, let me tell you! Me, I kept thinking, "What the heck am I going to do with 14 Silkies??" I honestly expected another one or two at the most. We ended up with 9 out of 14...yep!!! Ain't that amazing?? And Katie got her Silkie....she named it "Smudge". I thought one had spraddle leg, and I'm ashamed of myself but he looked for all the world like a wind-up Easter Chick! But within a day or so he had corrected his little issue and it's hard to tell him from the others. One is wearing duck shoes at the moment...her feet are curled. I had to assist her hatch - she pipped at the pointy end and never made progress in something like 14 hours. She got her beak out but couldn't do any turning to zip. Her peeping was getting fainter and fainter, so she got a little help. We lost one little girl...she had an unabsorbed yolk sac and didn't look too great to start with. I did eggtopsies on the 5 that didn't hatch and aside from really tough membranes on 3 of them it's hard to say what happened at the end. They were all alive and kicking at lockdown. One must have nicked a vein because there was blood in the shell. No idea on the 5th one. But obviously the issue was with me....they were all active up until lockdown. So here's Katie and the brood.... I think she's holding Smudge here.....not sure though. Who cares? Katie got her Silkie and look at that smile!! She got to see the last two hatch. The last two hatched within 3 minutes of each other. You can see the little dark one who hatched first, and the little yellow one still in the egg (the one we ended up losing) is pretty close here! You can see her in the hole she made in the shell. The group before the littlest one took a turn for the worse and ultimately died. All in all, I'm much happier now than I was the other times I tried hatching eggs. But I have to admit, I was pretty doggone happy to get the incubators cleaned up and put away for the year!

Thank you for sharing such a cute touching story.

 

[Phage]

Quote: Actually folks, being serious for a moment, adults should have a tetanus boosters every 10 years, especially after a potential "exposure event".

 

[gbartha]

It is excel. Message me your email addess.

 

[Akrnaf2]

@Akmaf2 Benny! It's 2:08 AM there!  What in the world are you doing up!? 

My little daughter had a nightmare, and as USUAL she comes to me and not to her mom and when my feet touch tge ground
It is a long story to get back to sleep.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Wooooohooo!! When you love someone you REALY love him!

 

[BullChick]

LOL! Yeah, I do. I really do.

 

[BullChick]

Good.... Noon, Westley!

 

[Chaos18]

LOL! Yeah, I do. I really do.

Evenin' ma'am