MAY 2016 "Land of the Free Because of the brave!" Hatch-a-Long Hosted by, Mike & Sally

[Lucky Lemon]

I bought a new flashlight to try and candle my super dark olive eggs, and I still can't see a thing inside them! Can't even see air cells. So I guess I just hope for the best ? ? ? Can't even tell if they are fertile or not at this point. I have turned them every which way trying to get a good view inside, but still nothing. Frustrating. The flashlight works great for my Lavender Orpington eggs though. I took another picture of the suspected blood ring (it only goes half way around, so does that mean the chick started but quit?).

Olive Egg....Day 7 candle


Suspected blood ring ? ? ? Is it time to give up and remove it? (Day 7 candle)

 

[sdubski]

Chicks are really enjoying the perches and dust bath/grit pit we added yesterday. We also let our daughter give them some bits of clover, grass, and dandelions and a few tiny worms. They were so funny playing keep away with the grass flowers.

Have any of you used dirt as bedding? We're still using non slip drawer liner, but they're getting it dirty pretty quickly. We bought a bale of pine shavings. I was thinking a mix of dirt and shavings, then can add bedding and stir it up to bury the droppings, change it all out a few times a week.

They're in our large mud room, which will be remodeled soon so not too worried about dust. We have a few in progress landscaping projects, so have lots of dirt, and we don't use chemicals in our yard.

 

[Honora]

Well, Day 20 here and no chicks yet. No pips in the incubator, as expected, and no chicks under the broody. Come on chickies! Hatch!

 

[NaJoBeLe]

Well, Day 20 here and no chicks yet.  No pips in the incubator, as expected, and no chicks under the broody. Come on chickies! Hatch! 

 

[bbgranch]

my broody marans momma with her 7 keets out for a stroll. Three weeks old today.

 

[BantyChooks]

Chicks are really enjoying the perches and dust bath/grit pit we added yesterday. We also let our daughter give them some bits of clover, grass, and dandelions and a few tiny worms. They were so funny playing keep away with the grass flowers.

Have any of you used dirt as bedding? We're still using non slip drawer liner, but they're getting it dirty pretty quickly. We bought a bale of pine shavings. I was thinking a mix of dirt and shavings, then can add bedding and stir it up to bury the droppings, change it all out a few times a week.

They're in our large mud room, which will be remodeled soon so not too worried about dust. We have a few in progress landscaping projects, so have lots of dirt, and we don't use chemicals in our yard.

I use dirt, and I LOVE it. I have been using a dirt/sand mix and that works best.
-Banti

 

[shahtir101]

I have 3 more pips!

 

[sdubski]

I use dirt, and I LOVE it. I have been using a dirt/sand mix and that works best.
-Banti

Thanks! It seemed like a good idea, just didn't know if there were any negatives I hadn't thought of.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I went to turn my eggs earlier and there was no heat in my cabinet incubator... I hope the eggs don't mind a long, cool cooling period! It was 73 degrees! Sometimes I think the universe doesn't want me to have a million silkies. I promise I won't keep them all!

lol, I want you to have a million silkies!

I came back to cull the chick and it was already dead

Im sorry!

at least you didnt have to do it

Hey everyone!!! I've been trying to keep up with reading. I'm loving seeing all the lovely babies!!

My biggest news would be that my main rooster "Big Red" died this week, leaving a big hole to fill as far as breeding EEs. I have a couple other EE roosters that "may" be suitable but haven't been proven. They're also a different line than him. I'm hoping I find a suitable replacement from this last hatch of chicks from Big Red, hopefully in the black/blue color.



Above are the chicks from my May hatches; the broody hens, Big Red's hatch and the 3 guinea keets.
(Apparently several chicks are photo shy...

)

I "weaned" all the broody babies and stuck everyone together last week.

I've been surprised and very pleased with the robust nature of the guinea keets.
I was expecting them to be kind of...frail, I guess?
They caught on to everything so quickly and were so active that they were only a few days old when I amalgamated the chicks. I wouldn't usually do that.

Two of the OEGB chicks (cockerels) were aggressive with the rest of the chicks, so I plucked them back out and gave them back to the three Silkie moms.

I hatched 3 chicks last week (eggs laid under broodies) and am hatching eggs from my blue egg laying EE right now.
Once these chicks are done, that's it for me. We're supposed to get an excessive downpour of rain tonight.
I'm hoping the power stays on...lol.

Three chicks.

sorry about big red but cute chicks!

We've had so much fun this May. Our first chicken, salmon favorelle, went broody, so we gave her 5 chicks to adopt - they are doing great! Then another chicken went broody so a friend asked if we would hatch out some of her buckeye chicks. They hatched this past weekend - three buckeyes and two possible frizzles! We also had a third hen go broody, our austrolorp, so we gave her 13 eggs to hatch, a mix of chocolate orphington, chocolate cuckoo orpington, and bbs orpingtons! Two more weeks to go!

yay for broodies!!

Well, Day 20 here and no chicks yet. No pips in the incubator, as expected, and no chicks under the broody. Come on chickies! Hatch!

C'mon chickies!!!

I have 3 more pips!

Yay!!

 

[SunnysideFowl]

I have a gender fluid cockerel. This little guy from my april hatch started with yellow/orange feet and kept that color until just recently when he decided to take on the dark leg coloring of his sisters. (Leg color was a sex link for this batch). He is the only one to have two colored legs for now.