Welcome back! Sorry it’s been so hectic!!!!! Are the two remaining meets with Viceroy?Hi All, it’s been a crazy few weeks and I fell off of this thread. I wanted to share a quick update of how our hatches went:
1) Broody chicken: I think that Naruto hatched 4 OEs that were BCMx Ameraucana but only one of blue. I’d love for it to be a pullet but it acts pretty bold... Also hatched 5 BCM and 2 back cross OEs, the line that my DD is trying to create. Only one of those made it, but I think it may be a pullet! Chicks are almost three weeks old now and we are giving them part of the day in the run, still separates from most of the flock. Naruto is head hen and could protect them, but it’s so nice to see her relaxed and not constantly stressed like she was last year. We need to open it all up soon though.
2) Incubator guineas: we set 42 eggs and had... 6 clears and early quitters? These were accidentally hatched (first few hatched at 25 days!) upright in the turner and that didn’t go well. Keets got caught between turner and incubator wall, then we had multiple with spraddle leg. Never hatching in the turner again, even if an egg did pip! We got pearl, purple, lavender, and lavender pied keets but no slate or violet, the colors I was hoping for.
3) Broody guineas: I could write a book about this whole thing... One guinea hen got sick just as keets were hatching! I was sure it was bird flu or mycoplasma and was freaking out. A week later necropsy results showed some reproductive tract infection then sepsis. Viceroy hatches 4 of the 6 eggs I’d left her, all pearl. One other egg I opened and the keet was malpositioned (Head between legs) and the last egg I never found...Viceroy did so well, so I felt terrible that two hens stole her babies. On a major stormy day, a huge black rat snake entered the coop door and caused major chaos, resulting in two dead keets (one eaten and one flew into a bad spot in the coop), broodies to abandon nests etc. Two keets remain and are 2 weeks old and doing well. I only have one broody hen left after the snake, and I bought 12 expensive eggs (slate, Violet, white that I wanted to add) when I had three still broody, before the snake business.
There was a weak one this morning if it’s still weak I’m going to cull. This is rough... don’t buy other people’s chicks and put them with yours... it’s a BAD idea!!!!
