Setting duck eggs on Saturday, 8/18 - Anyone wanna join? (Set by next Saturday for chicken eggs)

[bigred7469]

Thx, I candled again tonight and most are doing great and getting big but I have 2 that look like they have quit. I dont see vains anymore.

 

[Pyxis]

If they had veins earlier and now have none they probably quit on you I just tossed three more of my duck eggs that I'm pretty sure quit on me. One had another blood ring and two were those ones that had veins but the veins went away and left a blob. They were in for three days and never got any better or bigger. Do your eggs look more yellow than dark orange and red? That's a sign of a quitter too.

On a happier note, all the silkie eggs in the incubator have veins! The one from my polish girl looks to be fertile, too! Hoping it's a little girl in there so I can keep her! No more roos for me. Three is plenty. I also found one of her eggs under the darn silkie and stole it for myself. Looks to be from today so we'll see how that goes.

 

[bigred7469]

I notice on here that alot of people have silkie's. Why is that? I really have no clue what a silkie is either.......

 

[Pyxis]

Oh goodness, they're great! Their feathers lack the barbules that hold the feathers of regular birds together, so they look like they have fur and are very fluffy. They're pretty heat tolerant because of this. They have five toes and heavily feathered feet which makes them less destructive to plants and landscaping. They're technically bantams, but they're large bantams. They lay a small white egg. They're known as 'lap chickens' because they are so sweet and cuddly, and even the roos can be sweet lap pets. They also make fantastic mothers and hens go broody regularly so if you're looking for a bird to raise chicks for you, a silkie is the one. I had a white hatchery quality chick this spring but something took her My older hatchery quality hen has gone broody for me three times this year, and this time I've given her some top quality eggs from a rare color that's still being developed, which means my extra babies should sell fairly easily. Really, they're one of my favorite breeds. This is a silkie hen in paint coloration:

You can't get that color from hatcheries, only from breeders. Mine are going to be paint, and are from a breeder. There'll be some showgirls in my hatch too, which is the naked neck version of a silkie.

 

[bigred7469]

Thx for the info

 

[Pyxis]

No problem So what two eggs might have quit on you? Were they Welsummers again?

 

[bigred7469]

1 RIR and 1 Welsummer

 

[Pyxis]

I found yet another polish egg under the silkie today. So that went in too. That'll be the last one for now - I only even put that one in because the silkie had been on it so chances are it'll be just as developed as the others and have the same hatch day. Oh, and my aunt has a duck sitting on eggs, way more than she wanta, and the hatch date is close to my guys, so I may be stealing a few to make up for all the ones I lost. How is everybody else doing? I feel like we haven't heard from a lot of you in a while!

 

[Habibs Hens]

all 24 eggs showing lovely veining activity

 

[just2rosey]

Silverfox, that's great! Where did you get your eggs, did they come from your own flock? I find it so much more satisfying to hatch my own eggs.

My postal service is very hard on eggs, I am usually lucky to have a hatch rate of 40%.

This time I am hoping for 50%, it is still possible. I lost two more though, the veins disappeared, so I am down to 13 out of 24.

Oh, the chick that hatched is a blue Ameraucana. The hen is a blue Ameraucana and she hatched both purebred Ameraucana and Leghorn X Ameraucana babies. I have three more eggs in the incubator which should hatch by the end of the week. Seven out of 8 hatched. One died after zipping most of the way. I am not sure what happened there.

The hen sure is being a good momma though. She stayed with her eggs and chicks even after I moved her before the last two eggs hatched. She was in a nest box a couple of feet off the ground, I moved her to the floor because I was afraid the livelier chicks would fall out of the nest box before she was ready to leave it. I will try and get pictures of them tomorrow when they are out and about.