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

[kvmommy]

Here's my entry for the story. Super hard to limit it to 500 words!

UNEXPECTED DESTINY
​

I stumbled across silkie chickens online and was in love. I joke about how they are asian birds and I'm Korean so I had to have them. It was destiny...or was it?

When I hatched eggs I always included silkies. And guess what...none hatched. I began to question my destiny with silkies and gave up for a while before deciding to try again. Lo and behold, I finally hatched a white silkie cockerel, and 2 partridge silkie pullets. Elton John, Lady Gaga and Madonna.

Unfortunately Madonna was born crippled. But Elton and Gaga never left her behind, they loved each other dearly. But fate would have another plan for this lovely trio.

We hadn't finished our coop so I sadly posted a sale ad. When no one responded, I decided these silkies were meant to be with me. One day in a tragic accident, Madonna broke her crippled leg, and was sadly euthanized. After that, Gaga would cry out over and over, calling for her sister who was never to return. Gaga and Elton grew closer, as it became apparent that Lady Gaga was easily confused. She needed assitance to find the coop, protection, and she was timid when eating. But Elton was there every step of the way. He'd lead her back to the coop, he'd protect and he'd even bring her food or help her eat. Elton was the consummate gentleman and lovely too. But Gaga...wow...what she lacked in brains, she made up in looks. For three months, I was so happy with my sweet girl and wonderful boy. As fate would have it, their love wasn't meant to be.

I came out to a deafening silence. The coop was splashed with blood and white fluff. I called for Elton and 20 feet away was more blood and white feathers. My heart stopped. Before I could mourn, all I could think of was Gaga. I ran around calling for my chickens and then I heard chirping from my pool shed. The chicks were in there hiding, including the large fowl that tormented my sweet Elton and Gaga. I found her, huddled in a corner by herself. For two days she cried, and wandered aimlessly. She truly felt the loss of Elton and Madonna. I tried to comfort her but failed. It was time to find her a new home with more Silkies so I got on my computer with the intent to post another ad. But in my email was an answer to my old ad. It was a guy looking specifically for 1 female partridge silkie. I couldn't believe it. When he came to get her, he told me that he had just won a partridge male silkie at a chicken show and wanted a female to keep him company. His male was named...Pavarotti. I knew then that it wasn't my destiny to have her, it was her destiny to have him. To this day, she is a very happy wife and a wonderful mother.

Here's the Trio



Here's Gaga and Pavarotti

 

[lilstar]

Me too!! My chicks already have a home, since my coop is at capacity. I have 11 ducks locked down and I really don't think it'd be smart to have more than 4. If they wander into neighbors' yards, I don't want them to tattle on me to the landlord. I have barn yard surprise.. and I'm really hoping I get some full Rouens so if they visit neighbors, they'll just assume they're wild..lol. I have a couple family members who might want some ducks.. so that'd be nice

I think I'm the only one that panics I'll have too many hatch.

Good Luck everyone!

 

[The Sheriff]

Did you guys set your eggs early again? Every time we do this I panic when everyone else is hatching except me! But they aren't due till Saturday. This is Thursday. I shall calm down. Ohm..........................

Someone in my neighborhood is shooting a gun over and over again. We live near the trap club but it isn't open at this hour. Kinda scary. There was fresh coyote scat outside our pasture gate this morning, so maybe someone is shooting at a coyote.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Did you guys set your eggs early again? Every time we do this I panic when everyone else is hatching except me! But they aren't due till Saturday. This is Thursday. I shall calm down. Ohm..........................

Someone in my neighborhood is shooting a gun over and over again. We live near the trap club but it isn't open at this hour. Kinda scary. There was fresh coyote scat outside our pasture gate this morning, so maybe someone is shooting at a coyote.

That would make me nervous too. One shot is usually all it takes to scare the coyotes away out where I am. Single shot totally normal but repeated shots?

 

[Papa Brooder]

Yep, sorry, we were leaving town for Easter so I had to set a few days early. Hope the "ohms" help. three pips, one hatched, not much else. Hope I awake to some new little chickies! Your pips will be here soon!

Did you guys set your eggs early again? Every time we do this I panic when everyone else is hatching except me! But they aren't due till Saturday. This is Thursday. I shall calm down. Ohm..........................

Someone in my neighborhood is shooting a gun over and over again. We live near the trap club but it isn't open at this hour. Kinda scary. There was fresh coyote scat outside our pasture gate this morning, so maybe someone is shooting at a coyote.

 

[kvmommy]

seriously??? uggghhh. pulled my turner out, put hot water in the bator laid the eggs on their sides. kicked the heat up a bit since they are lower now and its a still air. Temps kept dropping. Realized my wafer thermostat thing was really really loose. I tightened it. Temps keep dropping. Increased the temp, temps are still dropping! Why now? AND I'm pretty sure my quail eggs are all duds. I'm gonna be really mad. They were incubated in 3 incubators and all look clear, but I have never candled quail eggs before so I could be wrong. But I dropped one and it was totally infertile, and by infertile I mean absolutely no development. One is my forced air hm incubator where I have the best development of my chicken eggs, ones an lg with turner, and ones a hovabator with tuner and both of those are still air. And it still looks like nothing. I hope im wrong. I want some quail because I LOVE quail eggs. yum. but i'm tired and can't sleep till my hovabator gets stable temps!

 

[Pinx]

Quote:

Sounds like what happened with the new BYC...

I was torn between "LOL that is so funny" and "OMG those cookies are beautiful!!!"

Locked down around 1pm. 3 pips. What is going on ? Eggs pipped last night and locked down last night....eggs pipped now on day 17 &18 ???
Dickey Cabinet...dry incubation...running at 99.5 - 99.8. These babies are in a rush !

Let the hatching begin !!

I think someone told the chickies about the Easter bunny and now they are all in a rush to see him!

My kids want me to take them outside to ride bikes but I just want to sit here and stare at my eggs

I didn't know Ameraucanas had a tendency to hatch early. That might explain my last hatch of early birds. Every last one of them was at least 50% Ameraucana. I think they hatched about 2 days early.

Yep they are early birds! hee hee (OK I must be tired. I'm laughing at my own jokes and they aren't even very funny).

I threw out 26 eggs today, Today is day 24 and no signs of life.. I cleaned the bator and I just put the last 4 of my eggs in lockdown, I wasn't planning on setting more then the 41 but my hens started laying and I just had to try to hatch some out. All 4 looked good when I candled.

I hope I get some babies from my own flock.

Its possible I may be in the running for worst hatch rate lol. This being my first hatch though, I'm happy that I got the 8 chicks that I did.

I would be happy with 8. I've got 3 in lockdown from 50 something eggs set. But I'll be happy if at least 2 of those hatch.




I am, There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently though. I did candle my eggs a lot because I was curious and I was doing this with my 7 year old son and wanted to show him too. I knew the risk I was taking in candling almost every day... and now that I got it over with my second set of chicks that are due after the easter hatch haven't been candled once lol. I just had to get it out of my system. Among other things.

Quote:
I worked my butt off to get my humidity over 60%. The only time it would was when a chick hatched, and before long it would drop quite a bit. I had 4 tanks in my bator full of water and 2 paper towels soaking wet in there as well. Must be getting out somewhere but I have no clue where, it is a styrofoam bator so I am blaming most of my humidity problems on it not being as reliable. Probably another reason I didn't have a good hatch.. but it was a learning experience.

As I said earlier I had 8 chicks hatch. My brooder is in our shop just outside of the part we partitioned off as the chicken coop. (The shop used to be a BBQ grill before I was born and the "coop" is the old kitchen) Anyway All of my chicks were doing great, eating drinking, walking around pecking things etc. I went next door to my mom's and about 10 minutes later my husband called and said one of the chicks was looking real bad. So I went back and he wouldn't stand up, his head was limp, and was just slowly dieing. I asked who had been watching our almost 3 year old nephew, my husband and my brother in law were in the shop the whole time so I though one of them could handle watching him. Husband claimed he was and that he was playing with checkers... The checkers weren't even a foot away from the brooder, and the light in the brooder was moved over.... just like if someone had bumped it while reaching in the brooder. Husband wouldn't tell me even if he knew he had hurt the chick because it would have been the last straw and brother in law or not he would have been told to get control of his kid and/or leave. Now I wouldn't be upset if it was an accident... but this child is a terror and finds joy in hurting animals and needs a good whoopin' for it. I've gotten to the point now that I keep all my animals away from him, I wouldn't blame them a bit if they got him though. not that I want them to but really how much can something take before they fight back? I have a dog that would bite his head of in a second if he hurt him and knowing them they would blame it all on the dog because their angel never does anything. Anyway my nephew will pick a cat up and throw it, stomp on animals, throw things at them, hit them, belly flop on to them, pick them up by their tails, picked my chihuahua up off the ground by her ears. I am about 95% sure he had a hand in my chicks demise, and is now barred from being anywhere near the chicks. I will be making a top for the brooder tomorrow that I didn't need before because I taught my kid how to treat animals (he was with me by the way). It is aggravating that my dogs (that are always by my side, a Doberman and a Boxer) go into lock down every day when his dad brings him over and doesn't watch him. My poor cats disappear when they see him coming, and my chickens aren't even safe at MY house because he won't watch his kid. Did I mention that I walked out of the shop and he was peeing on my truck?!?! Not the tires... the paint on the door and his dad thought it was the funniest thing. My mother in law said the other day "When your cat has kittens I want one for him to play with" HA! Sure thing, February 30th you can pick it up.

Sorry I guess I just needed to vent. I guess I am the only one around here besides my mom that thinks that a 3 year old being cruel on perpose is NOT an ok thing, and not something that they will "grow out of" if not dealt with. My husband says "He doesn't mean to" "It was an accident" "He was just trying to play with it". Ok I have to stop before I write a novel.

 

[Pinx]

Oh one more thing. I took my little sister to the store and we got back at about 1:30 am, I always do a check on the chickens and ducks before I go in the house for the night. Or I make a point of going out before I go to bed. I'm walking to the shop and I hear ducks... in the run?? It is pitch black outside what are my ducklings doing outside??? They were in their nest box when I checked them before I left for the store. So I go and look and all 5 of the goobers are taking a late night swim. They are in sort of an inbetween stage. Too big for my grow out pen and need more water to play in then I can safely have my bantam chicks around... but really to small to go with my adult bantam chickens. I was letting them out in the run with my grown chickens during the day and putting them with the chicks at night but they got super attached to my grown duck and she was fine with them following her around all day. They follow her in the coop for her to lay an egg, get in the nest box next to her, and go out when she does. The only thing I can think of is when I turned the light on when I went in the shop they thought it was morning time (the light puts off enough light in their coop that you can just make out which boxes everyone is in) and they wanted to get an early start on the day lol. Either way my ducklings brighten my day again, they crack me up.

Edited to add:
The deciding factor on them staying with the older chickens was that they are almost as big as the chickens and my roo is possibly the sweetest thing ever and I haven't seen him pick at them once.

 

[kvmommy]

WOW. Why do you let that brat come over? I feel bad saying it because its the parents fault but he really sounds awful. At 3 he should definitely know better. I'm kinda childish and mean sometimes, but if he peed on my truck, I'd pee on him! Ok...I don't know if I'd go that far, but I'd think about it really hard. It makes me angry just reading that. Its not normal to be so cruel to animals and his parents allowing it desensitizes him to cruelty.

 

[Mahonri]

Did you guys set your eggs early again? Every time we do this I panic when everyone else is hatching except me! But they aren't due till Saturday. This is Thursday. I shall calm down. Ohm..........................

NO! Mine were set about 3 hours early on SATURDAY, and I had FOUR hatch on WEDNESDAY... my temps were/are wack in my hovabator.


In other news.

Chick #5 is out! A gorgeous sulmtaler!

I still have 2 pips that have not moved. A sulmtaler and an Icelandic. None of the others even look like they are moving.

I'm praying something will start to pip in my Brinsea, but I don't expect anything until Friday evening.