October egg swap---sign-ups closed.

[BirdMom]

SillyStunt, I did candle them last night again, looks like I might have one quitter, but I'm giving it a few more days, but the others looked like they were growing and very healthy, and one was super active! On another one, I could actually see the outline of the head and bill against the side of the egg! So cute! Amazing to see these guys developing.

Only one more week...

 

[tofuranch]

Bananas ---the other ones are Barred Rock, enjoy

 

[Countrywife]

I locked down my swap eggs this morning, so now we are on baby watch

 

[Bananas]

Thanks Tofu, they are all so cute- even the little weak one pulled through!

How are your ducks, did you get any babies?

 

[Sillystunt]

Quote:
AWESOME!

 

[firedove]

ChooksChicks, I've got 4 chicks out since noon today and 2 more pips so far.

Since I set the eggs at 2pm on October 26 it is still way too early to write everyone else off

I am curious now though, what is the difference between the eggs marked M5 and the eggs unmarked? I know they are all EE since they are all green eggs. I have 2 of each hatched. The first out was an M5 who is all yellow. Second was unmarked and looks similar in coloration to a Speckled Sussex chick, except more black and yellow than different shades of brown. Third was an M5 that is dark grey with yellow belly, chin/chest, and wing tips. The 4th out is an unmarked who is all yellow. Pics in my next post. Unfortunately in the pic of the first 3 chicks the flash kept whiting out the head of the SSish looking chick. I prayed hard that I would get at least 2 chicks because I was concerned I'd get just one and then have to buy some chicks to keep it company. Instead my prayers are more than answered with 4 healthy looking fuzz butts so far! My house is filled with the happy familiar peep peep!

ETA: I guess I didn't look at my chicks enough, the SS looking EE is brown and darker brown, not black and yellow, lol. You'd think after staring at these guys for 2 hours straight I would get the colors right!!!

 

[tofuranch]

Quote:
The duck eggs were a side swap...I ended up with 5 Little Pekin Babies....I will take a picture of them tomorrow...all are doing good

 

[firedove]

Here's pics of the first 4

 

[firedove]

7 chicks hatched and who knows how many pipping, the incubator is so full of fuzzy chicks, I can see pips on 2 eggs but the others are being laid upon by other chicks so if they are pipping, or even zipping, it's hidden by the fluff

The chicks are almost all different colors, except for the two yellow ones, a veritable chick rainbow

I've lost track of which eggs are M5 and which are unmarked as far as who came out of what. There's just so much cuteness in such a little space! They are popping out fairly regularly at this point so I expect there will be quite a few more as the morning progresses! More pics, cute fluffy pics, will come when I take the chicks out of the 'bator tonight!

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
Well, I guess that answers my question about how well the eggs might do shipping halfway across the country! I'm so glad they are popping out like that!

The difference was one of original destination- some of them were going to go to a buyer who decided to hold off for a week, so I just handed them all to you!

The eggs come from 3 of my EE girls and my big, fabulous roo that is a gentle giant. The pullets that hatch blue will stay that way, generally with some dark lacing. The yellows will either end up splash, becoming more so as they age, or be a buff splash. The ones with racing stripes can end up becoming anything- there's no consistency whatsoever!

The roo passes on a very dark blue/green gene, so the eggs they lay will likely be even more richly colored than the ones from which they hatched. One of the girls has a brown overlay on her eggs that makes them nearly olive after a molt, and so some of the B/B/S looking ones will likely inherit that- very nice eggs.

Have some pics!

Very sweet birds- I hope you enjoy them!