Mahonri's 3rd Annual, BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[gryeyes]

Got my spot marked.

 

[java girl 2]

and here is the pics for the incubater contest http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums...digree baskets for hatching eggs/105_0326.jpg http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums...digree baskets for hatching eggs/105_0328.jpg http://i1259.photobucket.com/albums/ii547/javachickgirl2/104_2498.jpg

 

[ronott1]

For those still eating carbs sometimes, here is a link to three King Arthur Flour Recipes:

http://links.e.kingarthurflour.net/...=MTEwMDMyNjMwODYS1&j=MjY3Mzc4MzIyS0&mt=1&rt=0

Happy Friday

 

[kvmommy]

I don't want to eat my roo...I just can't have a roo. If he continues to only crow at 630 am and continues to do so quietly...I may just try to keep him. I thought he was a pullet until the other day and boy has he blossomed. He's soooo different now. I like him better as a roo than a pullet. LOL

Here's some fun for the day. The wet slap that followed was sooo loud. DD was not happy. I had a good laugh though.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

For those still eating carbs sometimes, here is a link to three King Arthur Flour Recipes:

http://links.e.kingarthurflour.net/...=MTEwMDMyNjMwODYS1&j=MjY3Mzc4MzIyS0&mt=1&rt=0

Happy Friday

Mmmmm. the polish babka with rum sauce sounds yummy. Going to try it Thanks!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I don't want to eat my roo...I just can't have a roo. If he continues to only crow at 630 am and continues to do so quietly...I may just try to keep him. I thought he was a pullet until the other day and boy has he blossomed. He's soooo different now. I like him better as a roo than a pullet. LOL

Here's some fun for the day. The wet slap that followed was sooo loud. DD was not happy. I had a good laugh though.

What a great photo!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Today is last call for incubator/hatcher design and cutest baby picture contests.

 

[gryeyes]

Kvmommy, that is a FANTASTIC photo!

(I don't even like kids - that's such a fun shot at the perfect moment. The glee on that baby's face is precious!)

 

[Spangled]

Of the dozen eggs gathered and set two weeks before the Easter hatch, I only had two go to lock down, and only one hatch............................... an Easter Egger instead of an Ameraucana..................................... which meant a trip to TSC to buy the minimum 6 chicks to keep it company.

Over 60 chickens to feed, over 160 eggs cooking or about to be set, and I bought chicks.

What was wrong with my head?

As others have mentioned, you had to buy more chicks. It was the right thing to do and I bet 100% of us would have done the same thing to provide a flock for your little green egg layer. Well ... except if there was another farm store that would let me buy fewer chicks, I'd buy fewer chicks. But I know TSC has "requirements."

Okay, I candled, sort of. I looked at all of them and made my best, uneducated guess. If there was little to no shadow, I marked it clear. If it had a smallish dark thing but was mostly clear, I marked it Quitter. If there was a dark stripe going all or nearly all the way around, I marked it blood ring. If there was a lot of shadow or the middle third was dark, I marked it good. Some were not clearly in one or the other category so I put it in the closest group and included a question mark. I didn't toss any of the eggs because I just don't know enough to do that.

So that's 35 (possibly) out of 46 that might hatch! I never saw any of them move, though, and that bothers me.....

You're doing great! All those notes on the eggs. Then it's fun to see how your candling was after the hatch. I used to make a grid/map of my incubator with a box for each egg and then take notes on the eggs all the way through hatch day, including pip time and hatch time and chick color. I haven't gotten around to it this hatch because I'd rather be reading this thread.

Oh! My main point: I didn't see any of mine move either. Usually I do. But I usually candle on day 11/12. So let's hope it's just a matter of timing or luck or barometric pressure, the tides, (or something) as to whether or not we see movement. I'm not worried a bit. Yet.

Spent a good part of both yeaterday and today dealing with the USPS. I mailed two carton of eggs on Sataurday. One went MIA and the other arrived earlier than expected but totally destroyed. SO much for paying for tracking!!

First package left the post office and disappeared into thin air. Contacted the phone number on the tracking paper and had to call back during open hours. Only to have the person tell me what I could already see on the website . Did get a number to cal for Customer Affairs. Called CA today, very nice woman, will work on this tomorrow. TOMORROW!!!

Earlier today I received an email : the eggs had arrived at the second destination, the eggs were literally scrambled and the box looked destroyed from the photo (waiting verbal confirmation ). I resent another box of eggs. I'm on the look out of a better quality box than the USPS priority box. Seems like this box cannot withstand what the USPS throws at it. OR rather, it cannot withstand the abuse when USPS throws it!

The MN package has not arrived, and still MIA. I told her I would replace the eggs, what else can I do. I've lost a bit of money and time on this and I hope the USPS will reimburse at least the postage. But I'm not holding my breathe.

Rant over.

Ugh. What a mess. Sorry you're dealing with it. But thank you for mentioning the info on the box strength because I may be sending some eggs to my brother/sister (one incubates and then they share chicks) in the next week or two. I've never sent eggs, so I'm sort of hyperventilating and sweating a lot.

(Where the "I'm all frazzled" emoticon when I need it?)

My candling report. 5 out of 5 doing fine. Still in the incubator but will be transferred to my broody.

You are saying that you're going to put the eggs themselves under the broody to hatch under her, right? Do you have time to tell me more? Have you posted more on this in another thread? Which day do you do this? Day 18? So the broody will hear the chicks when they break through the inner membrane and start cheeping inside the shell? That way mom and babies don't miss any of the bonding process? Or do you wait until one of the eggs pips? Any tips or warnings to share?

Someone else in this thread (I think I remember, but fear mentioning her name in case my memory is more faulty than usual) put some eggs under a hen on about day 20 when one or two had pipped.

I've put newly-hatched chicks under a broody and pulled out the dud eggs quite a few times. But I've never tried putting artificially-incubated eggs under her and am all ears wondering about the benefits and drawbacks that you have seen/encountered. (For those reading along that haven't tried putting newly-hatched chicks under a broody hen (sometimes called grafting) yet, put on your headband light, then put the chicks under two by two (if you can) head first. Some of the chicks will literally dive under their new mommy like they know exactly what is going on. It's so precious.)

Candled my eggs tonight and this is what I found

11 of 16 OE, NN/EE, EE, Frizzle, Sizzle - shipped eggs (lost mostly sizzle eggs here)
4 of 9 Barred Rock Mix - shipped eggs (lost ones were scrambled - darn PO)
10 of 10 Welsummer, Langshan, EE/BO, BCM - not shipped and not 100% on the dark eggs since very difficult to see. Includes a double yolk EE that I'm just trying and hoping. So far two little chickies moving around in there. I know that odds aren't good but the kids wanted to attempt it

So I'm at 25 of 35 that I set and hoping for twins!

Twins! Yay! It's sure worth a try! Really, really cool.

I guess I could enter the incubator into the contest, though:

/\ A huge ice chest that had seen better days, with broken latches and such. Test-fitting eggs, here.
I am planning a better egg-holder/turner design for later. Zip ties and duct tape aren't doing such a great job

/\ That used to be a small lid to reach in for goodies without opening the whole thing. Conveniently enough, I had a piece of plexiglass that fit perfectly

Those are old metal tent poles running through it for turners. Waste not, want not.

Two pc fans, a bowl for water/sponge, a tube running through the wall of the cooler with a funnel on the end for adding water without disturbing the temps.

Yes, that is, indeed, pink/yellow/orange tie-die colored duct tape

. Hey, it's for chicks, right?

Spill ... where did you get the best duct tape E-V-E-R? And it's weird to see our cooler made up into an incubator. (Yes, we have a cooler just like that with brokey hinges and mystery stain.)

To everyone making their own incubators ... I am in awe of your ingenuity and all your other emulation-worthy traits that you are using to make your own incubators! I am so impressed.

I'm gonna try to hit the hay early tonight. Night all!
Dreaming of emu babies now....

Oh! Those eggs look like Christmas ornaments, don't they? Wow. So beautiful. I know the emus are great, too, but I'm trying not to get attached.

My Feeble attempt at taking a picture of a candled egg! My candler at poop so I used the hubbies Meg light that has been run over a couple time by the 1 ton pickup,That thing works a lot better then these cheepy plastic things. Baby was moving in this pic can you see the dark spot?

Yes, I sure can see the dark spot! Exciting!

Quote:
I am so impatient to hear if these eggs are okay! Or at least enough of them are okay. But I'm miles behind in the thread and need to take a Evenlyn Wood speed reading course. But I won't because I like reading slowly because life is not a race. But hopefully you've already posted about these Java eggs.

As King of My Castle, I was setting on my throne and felt like we had an earthquake.
Checked the earthquake webpage and...nothing...

Must have been a HUGE truck driving by on the road to the south of us.

... and the excitement ends.

Initially, I thought you were going to tell us a fairy tale story.

I was chased by a skunk out front about two weeks ago just after day light. My gosh they are pretty up close. um and a bit scary. Turns out, they're not afraid of you (or at least me).

A skunk chased you? Um. Well, um. They aren't supposed to do that, are they? I think they are supposed to be afraid and only come out at night. Is that a sick skunk? Maybe with rabies or something? I don't know. I can't imagine being chased by a skunk. I am sorry about that. I hope it doesn't come back any time soon to chase you some more.

Finally caught up. Boy I am exhausted. I had called a lady about getting some hay delivered last Friday. She said she would call me back to let me know when they could deliver. I kept meaning to call her back since I hadn't heard from her. Yesterday afteroon I get a call from her, hey they are going to deliver today at 6pm is that OK? Ummm OK. Now I am thinking, get home around five, rush to get barn chores done and the spot for the hay tidied up (stack older hay to one side and rake cleared spot). Get all that done and it is a quarter past 6. OK they will probably get here soon. Rush in the house, hurry and eat dinner, clean up and still no one. It is now a quarter after seven. I call the lady, they are running behind but should be there soon. An hour goes by, she calls me back, they are just leaving a town north of me and will be there very soon. The guy gets lost trying to find the house (I don't think my road has made it to google maps yet) and finally pulls in to the drive at 9pm. Very nice gentleman, we unload and stack 50 bales and then he spends another 15 minutes trying to tie down the rest of his load. He gets done and off he goes. I get the barn closed up and it is now 10pm. I am sorely missing my two extra hours of sleep this morning. Thank goodness I don't have to do any major tasks at work today.

I am sorry you're hay guy was so late and that you lost some sleep. But at least you are caught up!! I'm still prolly 20 pages behind. I guess if I didn't comment so much I could get caught up more quickly, huh?

I love it when you throw flowers! Joy!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

For those still eating carbs sometimes, here is a link to three King Arthur Flour Recipes:

http://links.e.kingarthurflour.net/...=MTEwMDMyNjMwODYS1&j=MjY3Mzc4MzIyS0&mt=1&rt=0

Happy Friday

And I've tested this recipe many times, found it by accident, and it's worth it! http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-white-bread/Detail.aspx In fact I'm making two loaves right now. I think I got some sticky flour and water under my enter key because it's not longer working!