I've been a long time lurker and have finally decided to post up some pictures of my new additions.
I grew up with chickens, but haven't had any in years, so I decided it was time again! I've been hanging out on this forum for a long time learning everything I can and I must say, this forum rocks!
I decided my first hatch would be Blue Plymouth Rocks from Halo. She has gorgeous birds! I ordered some eggs, but unfortunately they were shipped on a truck with square wheels. They were mostly scrambled and all but one had detached air cells, but I tried anyway. That is just the chance you take when shipping eggs from Florida to Colorado and I, in no way, blame Halo. Her eggs are amazing, the USPS, not so much.
I ended up with 5 eggs in lock-down, but saw no movement and most looked underdeveloped or dead. I was on day 24 and decided to candle one more time before I tossed them. To my surprise one was alive and it was one with the detached air cell! (You can see in the pictures that I made toilet paper roll egg holder-uppers for the 4 with detached air cells, they worked GREAT!
Within about 1/2 hour it pipped and was out within 6 hours. (sorry for the fuzzy pictures, it's not too easy to take them through the top of the bator!
Meet Mort, hopefully Mortisha, possibly Mortimer, the one and only survivor of my first hatch. She never took a break from pip to zip to flying out of the egg with her running shoes on. She has never slowed down either! This is going to be one spoiled rotten chicken.
I'm thinking that the temperature was too low, causing her to hatch on day 24 and I think the humidity was too high as she was very sticky for almost 24 hours after the hatch. I have 3 thermometers and 2 hygrometers and they all said something different. I calibrated the hygrometer in the pictures and it was reading 12% higher than it should, or so I thought! Lesson learned, I will make sure to get this figured out before the next hatch!
So, obviously I couldn't let her be lonely, so I had to make an emergency run to the feed store for some chicks. I got 2 BLRWs and named them Pea and Nut. At the time I thought they were just going to be 'packing peanuts' for my dear Mort, but my DH has since claimed them as his babies and they have become part of the family. They have since turned into Pea and Ned and are the most hilarious chicks ever. They sing like a parakeet all day. I don't need an alarm clock as they let me know when it's time to turn on their light!
K9 supervision: (They are in my 'storage' room, so don't mind the mess! This door is usually closed for obvious reasons!)
Feline supervision, well, maybe not supervising:
Mort, Ned and Pea are doing great! They are truly best buddies!
I may be getting some more BPR eggs as well as some EE eggs from Halo. I've also ordered some Black Java eggs. Hopefully we can expand the family soon! I will make sure to post more pictures with the new babies!
Just a note: The first few days we used the red heat lamp and we hated it. I felt it wasn't very good for their eyesight and it hurt our eyes as well. We also wanted them to have 'bed time' early so they didn't freak out when we turned off the light when they were older. I ended up getting a ceramic heat emitter, which is in the silver lamp on the left. This thing works GREAT. The lamp on the right (on the vacuum cleaner) is a full spectrum (no heat) bulb that I turn on at 6am and off at 8pm. They sleep like babies all night long in the dark! I love this set-up!
Thanks for reading my story!
I grew up with chickens, but haven't had any in years, so I decided it was time again! I've been hanging out on this forum for a long time learning everything I can and I must say, this forum rocks!
I decided my first hatch would be Blue Plymouth Rocks from Halo. She has gorgeous birds! I ordered some eggs, but unfortunately they were shipped on a truck with square wheels. They were mostly scrambled and all but one had detached air cells, but I tried anyway. That is just the chance you take when shipping eggs from Florida to Colorado and I, in no way, blame Halo. Her eggs are amazing, the USPS, not so much.
I ended up with 5 eggs in lock-down, but saw no movement and most looked underdeveloped or dead. I was on day 24 and decided to candle one more time before I tossed them. To my surprise one was alive and it was one with the detached air cell! (You can see in the pictures that I made toilet paper roll egg holder-uppers for the 4 with detached air cells, they worked GREAT!
Within about 1/2 hour it pipped and was out within 6 hours. (sorry for the fuzzy pictures, it's not too easy to take them through the top of the bator!
Meet Mort, hopefully Mortisha, possibly Mortimer, the one and only survivor of my first hatch. She never took a break from pip to zip to flying out of the egg with her running shoes on. She has never slowed down either! This is going to be one spoiled rotten chicken.
I'm thinking that the temperature was too low, causing her to hatch on day 24 and I think the humidity was too high as she was very sticky for almost 24 hours after the hatch. I have 3 thermometers and 2 hygrometers and they all said something different. I calibrated the hygrometer in the pictures and it was reading 12% higher than it should, or so I thought! Lesson learned, I will make sure to get this figured out before the next hatch!
So, obviously I couldn't let her be lonely, so I had to make an emergency run to the feed store for some chicks. I got 2 BLRWs and named them Pea and Nut. At the time I thought they were just going to be 'packing peanuts' for my dear Mort, but my DH has since claimed them as his babies and they have become part of the family. They have since turned into Pea and Ned and are the most hilarious chicks ever. They sing like a parakeet all day. I don't need an alarm clock as they let me know when it's time to turn on their light!
K9 supervision: (They are in my 'storage' room, so don't mind the mess! This door is usually closed for obvious reasons!)
Feline supervision, well, maybe not supervising:
Mort, Ned and Pea are doing great! They are truly best buddies!
I may be getting some more BPR eggs as well as some EE eggs from Halo. I've also ordered some Black Java eggs. Hopefully we can expand the family soon! I will make sure to post more pictures with the new babies!
Just a note: The first few days we used the red heat lamp and we hated it. I felt it wasn't very good for their eyesight and it hurt our eyes as well. We also wanted them to have 'bed time' early so they didn't freak out when we turned off the light when they were older. I ended up getting a ceramic heat emitter, which is in the silver lamp on the left. This thing works GREAT. The lamp on the right (on the vacuum cleaner) is a full spectrum (no heat) bulb that I turn on at 6am and off at 8pm. They sleep like babies all night long in the dark! I love this set-up!
Thanks for reading my story!
