haha! I need to do tons on the garden...Still running behind tho!I will try to remind you in the morning, if I remember! Didn't make it out to the garden again today, so tomorrow I will be hoe, hoe, HOEING!! All the plants are looking good; maters and peppers have blooms now!! Squash and cukes are starting to really spread too. I can hear the Florida and Calif. people laughing in the background...yeh, I know, you guys are probably eating tomatoes by now!I am sooooo ready for that first, big juicy tomato!!!
I'll have to get some, my BCM are the only ones well besides my white leghorns are camera shy
Not like swollen or anything, just hair kinda sticking out, lolSome of mine have like a 5 o'clock shadow look to them. I just wondered about the term puffing, and to what extent it puffed?
Today is day 6, so I'm turning the turner on later today. They had a good 24 hour rest before I turned on the bator too. Fingers crossed for these babies to hatch!!!
Slick, congrats on your babies! Usually, if you are quick in getting the chicks out, and the eggs don't have much time to cool, you'll be ok. That said, I don't open the bator if there is anyone in there with a large pip or zipping. I wait till there is a lull in the pips and then grab the babies out of there quickly. The loss of humidity is worse than the temp loss on those little guys.
Cute, cute, cuteness!! Congrats on your new little flock! I know in the Silkies the Lavendars seem to be harder to hatch, maybe with this breed too? Any way, you got a good start with them!Some of you may have already seen this over on the Ameraucana thread ....
These are the 7 lavender Ameraucanas I hatched on the weekend including 2 that were stuck and I do mean STUCK tight. Hard as rocks when I started to remove the shell. It was a very stressful hatch, to say the least. I can't believe the sticky ones actually made it. I literally had to soak them to get the shell off. Eyes sealed shut. Heads glued down. Legs, wings, they were a mess. One still has a glued wing but I just couldn't bring myself to inflict anymore misery on him. They had pipped days earlier but made no significant progress. I was getting ready to clean the incubator assuming we were done and heard peeping so I figured, nothing to lose at this point and decided to remove the shell. Was putting that poor now nearly drowned chick back into the incubator to warm up and dry off when the other one started to scream! Oy. 36 hours later, both appear to be hanging in there - even if they aren't quite fluffy yet.
Set 23 eggs. I put 16 in lockdown. (3 of those proved to be clear on egg-topsy.) Only 7 chicks hatched. I used a Hovabator Genesis for hatching. Filled both trays. Humidity read over 65%. I never imagined the chicks would stick in those conditions but they were stuck tight and even those that did hatch didn't have an easy time with bits of shell stuck on their backs and head feathers glued down. I incubate in a Brinsea Octagon with humidity pump for the first 18 days because it controls the low humidity so well. I was hatching in the Hovabator because of improved headroom but after this fiasco, I think I'll stick with the Brinsea!! Dang. Anyway, I have 7 and I'm thankful for those.
This morning, 48 hours after release from their sticky prisons, my two little stickers appear to be thriving - and gradually getting fluffier!
