Last fall we had a situation develop where we had to make a decision to split our flock of chickens and foster farm half with a friend, and keep the other half in town with us as "stealth chickens". Our Buff Orpington rooster went to the farm with the fosters.
When spring came we started making plans to take all the chickens back to our place up north, and about 2 weeks before we would be doing this we got a call from our friend saying that our beautiful Buff had died. He seemed to have had a heart attack. I couldn't ask my friend for any more favors, as he was busy with calving and other duties, but when we did pick up those hens and take them north, I watched for the first week for their eggs. Brought the eggs home and put them in the incubator, one of those inexpensive foam ones.
Now my Buff had been gone for 3 weeks. My friend had roosters, some bantams, and some Black Australorps. I figured something would happen with these eggs, not sure what. After 8 days I candled them, and discarded 4 that glowed. On the 18th day, I candled again and turned off the turner motor. The day before Mother's day, I noticed that 2 eggs had pipped. (This is my first time ever for incubating, and I was just geeked, and am so proud of myself that I have learned all the terminology and things to do and look for) By that afternoon, I had 2 chickies, a black one and a gold one. By the time it was all over on Mother's Day, I had 15 altogether. I'm not actually sure what happened with the ones that didn't hatch, but when I opened the eggs later they seemed to have stopped developing at some point, and didn't absorb all the yolk.
There are 12 Black Australorps and 3 Buff Orpingtons. Well, I guess I should qualify that they are really mutts, as the hens are all RIRs. But they are beautiful to me, and such a neat gift for that special day. But I'm especially happy that my Buff will live on in these new babies.
edited to correct some spelling, LOL
When spring came we started making plans to take all the chickens back to our place up north, and about 2 weeks before we would be doing this we got a call from our friend saying that our beautiful Buff had died. He seemed to have had a heart attack. I couldn't ask my friend for any more favors, as he was busy with calving and other duties, but when we did pick up those hens and take them north, I watched for the first week for their eggs. Brought the eggs home and put them in the incubator, one of those inexpensive foam ones.
Now my Buff had been gone for 3 weeks. My friend had roosters, some bantams, and some Black Australorps. I figured something would happen with these eggs, not sure what. After 8 days I candled them, and discarded 4 that glowed. On the 18th day, I candled again and turned off the turner motor. The day before Mother's day, I noticed that 2 eggs had pipped. (This is my first time ever for incubating, and I was just geeked, and am so proud of myself that I have learned all the terminology and things to do and look for) By that afternoon, I had 2 chickies, a black one and a gold one. By the time it was all over on Mother's Day, I had 15 altogether. I'm not actually sure what happened with the ones that didn't hatch, but when I opened the eggs later they seemed to have stopped developing at some point, and didn't absorb all the yolk.
There are 12 Black Australorps and 3 Buff Orpingtons. Well, I guess I should qualify that they are really mutts, as the hens are all RIRs. But they are beautiful to me, and such a neat gift for that special day. But I'm especially happy that my Buff will live on in these new babies.
edited to correct some spelling, LOL
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