Pipd's Peeps!

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Broody daze? I have only ever had one properly broody bird so I am not familiar with the term.

Good luck on the hatch!

Oops, sorry, I didn't even think about it! 'Broody daze' is what I call it when a hen is so broody that she doesn't care where she is, whether there are eggs or not, she's going to sit. Most of my broodies only do the broody daze when I first pull them off the nest, but man, the Wyandottes are dedicated.

"Who, me?"

Oh okay. I thought that might be it.


Lovely birds. Go Marama go!

 

[b.hromada]

All your birds are gorgeous!

Thanks for sharing. Enjoy!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Crashie has a beak!! EEEK!! e Other than that, no progress on any of the eggs. I can still see a lot of movement, though, so I think it's only a matter of time! I just counted back and realized that tomorrow is their actual due date, not today, so I'm trying to be a little bit more passive about it all. But that's so hard to do when I can see a little beak sticking out of the egg and peeping at me!





Meanwhile, Rosie has definitely rejoined the broody brigade. She was 'angry scratching' this morning, puffing out like a little tom turkey whenever someone got too close. Sigh...

 

[TheChickenQueen]

Your birds are beautiful! And I'm sure that they are luck to have such a great mama!


Good luck with they call duck hatch, those tiny ducks are sooo cute!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, it's time for me to admit I don't have enough experience or skill to hatch call ducks. Sorry, everyone.


Yesterday started out great, and we were all looking forward to little duckies hatching out here. I was being good and staying out of the incubator. Today technically was their hatch date, so I didn't want to intervene too early.

Everything seemed fine until I checked on the eggs yesterday afternoon and noticed that Right Top had gone completely still. It was malpositioned with its head away from the air cell, and it had suffocated because it couldn't pip properly. The sad thing is, from what I'm reading, this position happens most frequently when eggs are incubated on their sides rather than fat-end up, and the guide I was following for call duck incubation said to incubate them on their sides...

Now Right Center has gone still and I'm afraid it, too, may have suffocated from being malpositioned. It is completely still and its veins have kind of gone iffy. I'm afraid to try and help it, in case that just makes matters worse...

Left Bottom, the one that was underdeveloped, is still wiggling around. I plan to leave the incubator going for a while and see if it does catch up after all. It still has a lot of space in there, but it does appear to be growing.

And Crashie, sweet little Crashie, is out of the shell and drying. Unfortunately, his head looks a little deformed, so I don't expect him to live a very long life. He's super strong and energetic right now, though, and I plan to give him a happy life here, no matter how short.



I really think my incubator is working properly and everything, and that my complete lack of experience is what is tripping me up. The only thing that even could be off in the incubator is the thermometer, but I really have no way of testing that. I think I may hold off on trying calls again until next spring, and see if maybe the problem was that these were some of Trudi's first eggs. I'm not going to fire up the incubator again at all until I get better equipment for it so I can rule out that as a problem as well.





Been a rough day over here. I may need some Dorking cuddles.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Just to keep things a bit more lighthearted, here is precious little Crashie under the EcoGlow. I took them with my cell phone, so sorry for the quality. Hatching is such hard work...

He is dry, just has some gunk dried into his fluff in some spots. I'm going to have to take a Q-tip to him.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

So sorry about the calls. Sometimes, the only way to do something right is to mess up the first time and learn from your mistakes. Also, you csnt be 100% sure thay this is your fault. Call ducks are difficult. Best of luck with Crashie, really hoping he makes it!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ah, yes, calls are difficult. This is something I've had to accept. Mom keeps telling me this is practice to learn from, too. I'm sure with some more research (and a new incubating technique perhaps) that I can get it down. I never expected to be so heartbroken over dead eggs, though. Who knew?

This was actually my second attempt with call eggs, the first happening in August of last year. Those were shipped eggs, which was probably why only one developed that time, my little Wibbles. I'm still not sure what happened with her, but at this point, I think it was failure to thrive. She was never particularly strong and was constantly getting stuck on her back. She was a cutie, though...

At any rate, because I had such a hard time with shipped eggs, I got Malcolm and Trudi at the next big nearby show in September. I figure I have their entire lives to try and try again. Hopefully with more success from here on out.

Apologies for the overall tone of post #15. I didn't mean to have a pity party, but I was still upset about it all there and just a bit emotional...





Anyway, well, Crashie is still bobbling along and getting used to his land legs. Already, he seems a lot stronger than Wibbles ever was. He has been flipping himself over, for example, when he gets stuck on his back. I was relieved to see that! He's also a lot more active than she was, it seems, though he has been sleeping a lot as well between bouts of activity. He's got some depth perception issues I've noticed. I tried to show him the food and he was air-pecking at it until I moved the light directly above him. He doesn't seem to have much of an appetite or be particularly thirsty, but he did just hatch this morning, so he probably still has a lot of yolk in his system. We'll see how he does in the morning.

Nighty-night, Crashie.

In other news, yesterday after posting about Rosie joining the broody brigade, I separated her off with the broody Wyandotte in the broody buster. When I set her loose last evening, she ran straight for the nests and laid a little egg! So thinking maybe she wasn't quite broody, I trusted her out of the broody buster today--only to find her on the nest tonight! She betrayed my trust! Ugh, broodies!


Oh, and Dorking cuddles. Me and Elly had a few words about life. (Taken with my cell phone again, so they're really bad quality thanks to the evening lighting...)

"Put down the phone and no one gets hurt."

I flat out adore Dorkings! They seem to have an innate 'upsetness radar' in their head, and they come running to me whenever I'm upset about something as if they just want to cheer me up. These two are definitely keepers.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Crashie has finally figured out drinking, and I think he's getting eating down. Still a bit wobbly, but a lot more stable than he was when he hatched out. I'm trying not to imprint on him with the hopes that he won't be as needy as an imprinted duck, so I've been checking on him frequently instead. He is too cute, though! Hard to stay away from him for very long!


I woke up at 7 am to him peeping at the top of his lungs. I think the chicken noises over the baby monitor got him stirred. Every morning, the girls spend about ten minutes doing the egg song for no apparent reason. Who needs an alarm clock? Anyways, since Crashie was a little freaked, he wouldn't let me go back to sleep after they were done. He just kept peeping and peeping and peeping...


Finally, I grabbed an Easter toy I had gotten a few years back, a chick that makes peeping noises when you touch its feet, and I held it down with him for a while, making it peep on occasion as well. I sat it next to the EcoGlow, and Crashie toddled right underneath, finally quiet. After a few more precious moments of sleep, I finally got up and checked on him, only to find him snuggled up next to the chick toy just underneath the EcoGlow. He's been napping next to it and the little stuffed animals under the EcoGlow through the day, but I think the peeping chick is his favorite.

Editing to add Crashie and his buddy.

I performed a, well, light 'eggtopsy' on Right Top and Right Center after determining that they both were definitely dead. They were both malpositioned in the same way, head away from the air cell. Wish I knew how I could have helped them, but it sounds like helping malpositioned chicks is tricky at best. :/ I will definitely not be incubating eggs horizontally from now on, as that seems to be the cause of this particular embryonic position in poultry.

There is still hope that Crashie might have a broodermate, as the last egg, Left Bottom, is still wiggling around. It appears to be catching up on development now, so here's hoping all goes normally for it. Today is day 27 of development, I believe. Duck eggs average 28 days, but call ducks usually only take 26, so he's right in the middle, I guess. Come on, LB, Crashie needs a friend!




It's been rainy all day, so I haven't had much chicken time today. However, I did do a spot check on their litter this morning, which, as always, was fun. Whenever I'm working out there, the girls have to come over to investigate. And usually, 'investigate' means 'scratch poop into the space I've cleaned up already so I have to go over it again'. And then there's Frou-Frou, who walks right over and parks herself where I'm working so I can't finish the job. OI!

So, as I usually do, I let them all know that they're lucky I love them so much, some more lucky of that than others (cough the Frou cough). And as they always do, they just kept going on like usual because they know I have nothing but empty threats. Spoiled brats!

 

[TheChickenQueen]

They are singing to the mighty glowing egg in the sky, duh

Hopefully he gets a friend, poor little bird

That sounds eventful! You sure have some great birds.