Mission Control...we have LIFTOFF!!! Ooops, I mean LOCKDOWN!

[wholewheatchicken]

Love your new baby additions!! I'm getting the incubator ready tonight. I am going to set more silkies and six Rhode Island Reds. They're from our chickens so the Reds were laid fresh today. I went through the bucket and asked each one of them if they were a girl, LOL. I don't really want any more LF since they eat so much, but thought I would experiment with banty and LF to see if there was any difference on how to get a baby to pop out.
I am going for 40 - 45% humidity this time. I sat eight eggs under a broody last Tuesday and candled tonight. Only three were fertile, but at least the two I really want to hatch are developing. They are from a buff/partridge hen that has nice colors and I can't wait to see what the offspring will look like between her and my roo. I think my dark partridge must have too much cushion because I saw my boy with her, but no developing babies. Will have to trim for next time. She's broody too, but wouldn't set in a good place so I didn't give her any babies.
Will keep you posted on my humidity experiment.
P.S. Your cute pics have inspired my daughter to pose our little chicks too. She even has pics of them driving her Barbie car around!!! They are adorable. If I can ever get my chickie business going, hopefully I can convince her to be my PR person.

 

[MyNameIs86]

Congratulations...

I just set mine yesterday so I still have a way to go.
I see you have the same incubator as I do. However, the instructions I got with mine is that you uncover both holes. I see from your picture you didnt uncover the 2nd hole...

is it correct to uncover both holes?

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Congratulations...

I just set mine yesterday so I still have a way to go.
I see you have the same incubator as I do. However, the instructions I got with mine is that you uncover both holes. I see from your picture you didnt uncover the 2nd hole...

is it correct to uncover both holes?

I'm not sure which one of us you're talking to, but if it's me I don't have a pic of my incubator on here...might be Cali Chick's?
I didn't uncover my holes my first hatch and the second hatch I read you should so I took the plugs out on day 15. This time I was going to leave them out the entire time. My bator is homemade so there are no instructions, just me tinkering around.
So your instructions say to take the plugs out? And for how long? And do you ever put them back in? Why are there plugs anyway if we're taking them out LOL.
Have you ever incubated before? I am taking any advice on humidity and I think the plug thing is interesting also.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Oh, you must be talking about the red plugs in my incubator. In the first photo, one of the holes has a plug just sitting above the hole, but I actually removed both for all of lockdown. -Not sure if I figured that out on my own or read it in the directions? LOL I used a different incubator for the first 18 days and had just switched them into the HovaBator and sort of learned as I went.

Good luck with your hatch, MyName! Is this your first time incubating?....like it was mine.

Congratulations...

I just set mine yesterday so I still have a way to go.
I see you have the same incubator as I do. However, the instructions I got with mine is that you uncover both holes. I see from your picture you didnt uncover the 2nd hole...

is it correct to uncover both holes?

 

[CALI CHICK]

WWC-It's great to see you. (I"ve been MIA from BYC) How exciting that you are setting a new batch. I'll hold my breath for them ALL to be fertile & ALL hatch. What color are your Silkie parents of the eggs you're setting? Hope you don't think I'm dumb, but, what does LF stand for?

Love your new baby additions!! I'm getting the incubator ready tonight. I am going to set more silkies and six Rhode Island Reds. They're from our chickens so the Reds were laid fresh today. I went through the bucket and asked each one of them if they were a girl, LOL. I don't really want any more LF since they eat so much, but thought I would experiment with banty and LF to see if there was any difference on how to get a baby to pop out.
I am going for 40 - 45% humidity this time. I sat eight eggs under a broody last Tuesday and candled tonight. Only three were fertile, but at least the two I really want to hatch are developing. They are from a buff/partridge hen that has nice colors and I can't wait to see what the offspring will look like between her and my roo. I think my dark partridge must have too much cushion because I saw my boy with her, but no developing babies. Will have to trim for next time. She's broody too, but wouldn't set in a good place so I didn't give her any babies.
Will keep you posted on my humidity experiment.
P.S. Your cute pics have inspired my daughter to pose our little chicks too. She even has pics of them driving her Barbie car around!!! They are adorable. If I can ever get my chickie business going, hopefully I can convince her to be my PR person.

 

[wholewheatchicken]

Not dumb at all. I had to look around on here to see what others meant using that term. Large Fowl. I only have partridge silkies right now that I have eggs from. My roo is a typical partridge with gold on his hackles (? is that what they call it around their neck) and black/ little grayish mixed in on his chest. He's not red, though. My hen that just started laying is some kind of buff/partridge split. I need to put pics up on the partridge silkie thread and see if someone can help me with colors. I have two silver partridge hens with brown flecks in their coloring, one a little darker than the other, hence their names dark Earleen and light Earleen. I named them both Earl when they were little because they were just a plain old gray at the time and it made me think of Earl Gray Tea! I thought they were both boys and almost got rid of them and then they turned out to be both girls.
I have hatched two babies with my roo and gray hens. That is the combo Miss Pretty is out of and I have one about three weeks older. The older one is really starting to get her feathers and she is, in my opinion, turning out to be really pretty. I can't wait until she gets grown to see what she will look like.
I did just buy my roo a girlfriend who is correctly colored. She's in quarantine right now and I can't wait until it's over to let them meet. I am hoping to have babies from them this summer!!!!! And I bought a silver baby chick at the same time and I have my fingers crossed it will be a roo to put with my silver partridge girls.
As you might be able to tell, partridge is my favorite color for the silkies. I know a lot of people don't like it because it's hard to breed for the SOP, but I'm willing to give it a try as that is what has captured my heart. I am going to take my best babies this fall to the Ohio Nationals and see if I can win anything. I'm really excited about it. I got a little advice on how to get these guys to pose and work with them and I need to research it a little more. And I'm trying to get the kids to join 4-H and maybe take a few birds to the fair and see how they would do there. I've been really excited about it and coming up with ideas. I would love to get hatching eggs from some of the top silkie breeders and bring in some great lines to work with. I have a Catdance boy right now and he is HUGE!!!! I'm going to need a sturdy girl with him. I love how their birds look....they are so incredibly fluffy......I think I dream about silkies in my sleep, I'm that anamored with them. And to think it really all started because we were just going to get a few Rhode Island Reds to have healthy eggs and now I've become a chicken nut LOL

 

[MyNameIs86]

Oh, you must be talking about the red plugs in my incubator. In the first photo, one of the holes has a plug just sitting above the hole, but I actually removed both for all of lockdown. -Not sure if I figured that out on my own or read it in the directions? LOL I used a different incubator for the first 18 days and had just switched them into the HovaBator and sort of learned as I went.

Good luck with your hatch, MyName! Is this your first time incubating?....like it was mine.

Yes. It's my first hatch....ever. Really eggsited about it. Hehehe. I only have 1 incubator though, I like to read the instructions many times just in case. lol.

 

[chiqita]

hey wwc,
I just wanted to follow up with more info on our side of the humidity issue. As you know our next batch of quail chicks didn't hatch at all. But the next next batch, set 4 days later wasn't affected by the huge humidity bonanza at all. Mind you it was only 3 eggs ( one that didn't start) but that's a 100% hatch rate on the fertile eggs on one batch, and a 0% on the other. This concinced me to buy a seperate incubator for lockdown, since BBGG wants to do staggards hatches of these quails. no more unexpected 80% humidity for the little babies that are going to hatc next week to mess them up.

I want to get this right before I get my breeding stock of Maran eggs so we put more local Marans in today . This guys birds are a little small, but the egg color is amazing, his young pullets layed some eggs that were almost black. I tried to take a picture but the color isn't coming out well.Of course the older ones are lighter, but thats to be expected. His rooster died the day I got these eggs, so this is the last batch from him for a while. This time we will mark the air cells we can see, got a good candler but these eggs are dark! And we are going to be putting in cabinets when they hatch, so we wont be hovering QUITE so much.

CC, I too am looking to find someone local for silkie eggs. No luck so far. We will have to keep trying!
Hope all your babies are doing well!

 

[CALI CHICK]

WWC-That's neat that you are from Ohio. I grew up in Massillon, but I'm familiar with Lebanon, because (before he retired) my Dad was a long distance truck driver that went through your town on many of his loads down south. My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this June, so I'm probably flying out there this summer. Although, my favorite time to go home is in the autumn when the leaves are gorgeous. Summer gets so humid and winter is just too cold-LOL! Do you ever visit the Amish communities in Holmes County? I love driving around and shopping in Berlin and Charm everytime I visit my family. When is the Ohio State fair? Maybe I could meet up with you?


I think it's great that you love and are focusing on the Partridge Silkies. Their coloring reminds me of "calico". I guess I like the blacks and blues so well because our favorite silkie was a dark blue we named Storm. Remember-all of our silkies were roosters? Well, we had to rehome ALL of them and I decided if we ever got silkies again...we would get the Blacks and Blues. Focusing on these two colors which can be kept together is probably best for a novice like me.

Not dumb at all. I had to look around on here to see what others meant using that term. Large Fowl. I only have partridge silkies right now that I have eggs from. My roo is a typical partridge with gold on his hackles (? is that what they call it around their neck) and black/ little grayish mixed in on his chest. He's not red, though. My hen that just started laying is some kind of buff/partridge split. I need to put pics up on the partridge silkie thread and see if someone can help me with colors. I have two silver partridge hens with brown flecks in their coloring, one a little darker than the other, hence their names dark Earleen and light Earleen. I named them both Earl when they were little because they were just a plain old gray at the time and it made me think of Earl Gray Tea! I thought they were both boys and almost got rid of them and then they turned out to be both girls.
I have hatched two babies with my roo and gray hens. That is the combo Miss Pretty is out of and I have one about three weeks older. The older one is really starting to get her feathers and she is, in my opinion, turning out to be really pretty. I can't wait until she gets grown to see what she will look like.
I did just buy my roo a girlfriend who is correctly colored. She's in quarantine right now and I can't wait until it's over to let them meet. I am hoping to have babies from them this summer!!!!! And I bought a silver baby chick at the same time and I have my fingers crossed it will be a roo to put with my silver partridge girls.
As you might be able to tell, partridge is my favorite color for the silkies. I know a lot of people don't like it because it's hard to breed for the SOP, but I'm willing to give it a try as that is what has captured my heart. I am going to take my best babies this fall to the Ohio Nationals and see if I can win anything. I'm really excited about it. I got a little advice on how to get these guys to pose and work with them and I need to research it a little more. And I'm trying to get the kids to join 4-H and maybe take a few birds to the fair and see how they would do there. I've been really excited about it and coming up with ideas. I would love to get hatching eggs from some of the top silkie breeders and bring in some great lines to work with. I have a Catdance boy right now and he is HUGE!!!! I'm going to need a sturdy girl with him. I love how their birds look....they are so incredibly fluffy......I think I dream about silkies in my sleep, I'm that anamored with them. And to think it really all started because we were just going to get a few Rhode Island Reds to have healthy eggs and now I've become a chicken nut LOL

 

[wholewheatchicken]

So I had to run to Tractor Supply to get chicken food this morning and DH tries to get me to buy an LG incubator.....I convinced him to let me try one more time with mine. I hate to give up $80 if I don't have to. Surely this is going to work since everyone would have liked to hatch on day 21. I did spring and buy a $50 scale that weighs the miniscule ounces so after I get everything put up from dinner I am going to weigh my eggs and get them in the bator. I have been on a thread about dry hatch and one about making a homemade icubator and although I haven't learned anything new, I have found one person who says the dry hatch doesn't work for them either so I'm not the only one who didn't have huge success with it. Bobbie Porto says on her Web site 50% and Cindy Menear said 45% so that's the range I'm going with. I think I will set all my eggs and see what colors I get. The eggs are to lose 12 - 14% weight in the first three weeks so I am going to try for 12 because I noticed on the last batch between days 16 and 18 they still lost more mass than I would have thought they would, even though by that time I had boosted the humidity rate.
Mynameis86, good luck with the hatch. I would be happy to hatch with you, but I will be a few days behind. Do you already have a thread started? If not, and you want to start one, I will join in and we can see who else is sitting eggs right now. The first batch I did I got to know Cali Chick and the others on here and it was so much more excited to share everything with others who were having the same experience. It would have been a little less exciting on my own. Or we can just keep on this thread, but I think we are the only ones trying to hatch right now, unless Chiqita is saying hers are in. I wasn't sure.... Good luck with your eggs.
Chiqita, I don't know if I do this for the rest of my life I will understand the whole humidity thing. I can't remember where I posted this, but I was out in the barn with my broody last night and put my hand wayyyy under her trying to gauge the humidity. I still couldn't tell anything, LOL!
Cali Chick, I would definitely meet you in Columbus or somewhere else. I am like you...I love partridge because these are my little babies I ran across first. I know from reading they are hard, but I'm okay with that. Honestly, though, I like all the silkies in any color. There is just something about all that fluffiness and their cute pesonalities that I'm hooked on. I have some blue babies I bought that are young and they are as cute as anyone else running around here.
I have been mulling around chicken ideas and I think (maybe???) what I have settled on is once I figure out the bator is getting hatching eggs from the top breeders and putting together breeding trios of almost all the colors. I don't see myself ever doing paint (but who knows) and I'm not sure about porcelain, but lavendar is very pretty and I would love to have that color. There are so many beautiful birds to choose from, but I think I will stick with these for now. The only other thing is in the course of my silkie adventures I have acquired Seramas so if I could get some eggs I would try to make breeding trios out of them. If not, I will have to try to sell what I have, but they are really cute birds. One of my boys is about two months old and crowed for the first time today. It was so incredibly cute to hear this itty bitty crow from such an itty bitty bird. They are tiny!!!!!
I have run across a former APA judge that is a breeder that sells eggs on the auction and he has beautiful crested Polish chickens and I would like to have those. I think whatever I do I will stick with bantams because, as I said, I'm not too crazy about the large birds.
I will have to post some pics of our littlest babies because Gabby has been posing them again this afternoon in her dollhouse and the pics are too cute! I thought she was going to take some of my new silkies, but the babies won again.
I thought it might be fun to stay in touch since we are both trying to figure out show silkies at the same time and there is so much to learn. Did you know you have to train them young to pose the right way? I had no idea. I am going to have to get the babies out and start working with them. I tried last night, but my two terrier dogs could barely contain themselves so it didn't work. Hopefully the weather wil be nice enough to take some of them out this week and start on their proper posture! Also, if you want to show you have to be careful what they do as they can lose toenails and that is a DQ. My guys free range so that would be a huge consideration for me in picking who I think would have a chance to compete and what their life is going to be like.
Also, are you considering becoming NPIP certified? I am going to call this week and find out what the process is here in Ohio. I'm thinking that would open up doors for me because when I buy, I look for those who are certified.
Who did you get your blue eggs from?