Outsourced to Hen...

[franklinstreetwest]

Even though I can't hatch as many chicks at one time, Dinka is so much better at this than I can ever hope to be! I got 22 eggs and expected that many would be quitters. I started the ones I really wanted under my hen, the rest went in the bator. After culling quitters I put all 6 that were left together with Dink. The ones that started in the batot are hatchin a full two days early. I candled the other three and they are alive and kikkin n right on time! And I didn't have to help anything hatch or worry about brooder temps.....sigh....I need four more girls like her!

 

[franklinstreetwest]

 

[partsRheavy]

Awwwww!!! That silkie is so cute with those chicks!!!!

 

[franklinstreetwest]

She's my best girl! She started out the runt from a batch of 10 Showgirls. Her first go at hatching was this summer...on the last day when the eggs started pipping, she got up off the nest and wouldn't get back on. I thought she had lost her marbles. It was a hot day, but I could hear the chicks in the eggs not peeping as loud...then it was just faint. And the daffy bird wouldn't go back on the nest. She was content to dust bathe. So I ran around like an idiot getting the incubator ready to do a last minute "save". That evening, she got back on the nest to sleep. By the next morning there were 3 perfect chicks.

She must've just know instinctively that they would be fine. For whatever reason she wanted to slow down the hatch.

This time it's bitter cold out. She only gets off the nest for a quick minute in the morning, and then right back in...no protracted dust bathing or grazing. Her butt has been on lockdown for days! The three chicks in that have hatched so far are BBS Ameracauna Bantam & 1 Lavender. There is one Banty Barred Rock, 1 Showgirl & 1 Porcelaine Silkie due to hatch soon. I'm so excited!

 

[cmom]

That was a great hatch!!!