Setting Eggs 4/17! Who's With Me?

[mrbstephens]

2 have hatched and one more pip!!!

 

[Starryneedsmorebators]

well this is not going to be as good of a hatch as i hoped. Last nite it got cold here the heat came on and when i got up the humidity was at 45 so had some die in the shell two are out but very weak. One has a huge hole and is chirping but there is blood all on him I have no idea what happened there maybe he was not ready 12 babie so far and 6 eggs with nothen i will give them till in the morn then candle and toss. This was totaly my fault should have added water last nite ughh.


Starry

 

[xyresicchick]

rarebreedeggs4u - those lavenders are so GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!

mrbstephens - good idea with the non-slip mat on the hardware mesh!, i will try that next time! i used washcloths and micro-fiber cloths, and they got really damp from the humidity during lockdown.



all in all i had a decent hatch. out of 21 eggs, 13 developed - 9 out of 12 cochins, and 4 out of 9 wyandottes (the ones that didn't, 4 were porous, and one had a loose air cell so i assumed it would be this way anyways, and it was so), then out of those 9 and 4, 8 cochins and 2 wyandottes were hatched.

i had to help a few out of the egg because i guess my humidity was too high, and they were "swollen" from absorbing so much water, and were stuck in their shells because they were too big to hatch. they were all hatched by sunday. my second to hatch was a little black cochin with a white belly, and he was super cute but he fell asleep shortly he fluffed up, and never woke up. then i had one straggler at the end, the last to hatch who was really weak and did not make it so that brought my count of cochins down to 6.

but in the end i have 8 babies. very exciting. and i will do better with not letting the humidity get too high next time i hatch.

first and second babies

my first baby

1st, 3rd, and 4th babies (speckle, penguin, and yellow)

5th, 6th, 7th! (chipmunk, goldie, and blackie)

the BF next to brooder, there are dishes there because i ate lunch next to the brooder... lol.

the one that looks like a chipmunk

feathered feet! cochins are SOOO cute!

yellow chickie. bedding is a mix of shredded up whole foods bags and aspen shavings

the one on the left is one i've been calling "penguin" due to his coloration. on the far right is the firstborn

bab

in this photo all chick are cochins but the two black ones on the bottom huddling together which are wyandottes. they hang out together so i have this weird feeling that they know they are the same breed. pretty strange.

wings!

on day 3, i gave my chicks 2 worms on their square of aluminum foil... they freaked out at first, terrified of the worm, backing away, and running for the corner of their brooder....

then after about 10 minutes of it trying to crawl away and into the bedding (and me repeatedly putting it back on the foil) one brave one started pecking at one. after about a half hour, they were each taking turns pecking at them... still unsure. after an hour they started going back and forth between ignoring the worms and looking at them with their heads sideways...

suddenly one grabbed the worm off of the foil... and RAN with it, peeping like the most excited chick in the world! the other chicks chased him! going "I WANT THAT THING!"

its like when a little kid picks up a toy another kid is ignoring and they start freaking out saying "HEY! I WAS PLAYING WITH THAT!!!!!!" when they really weren't.

well they realized there was still that other worm, and another chick grabbed that one. the chase was on until the chicks who grabbed the worms swallowed them whole! totally insane! i couldn't believe they could fit that whole worm in them! little bantam babies! amazing. and totally hilarious.


last night i dumped a bag of small crickets from the pet store in there, and it was QUITE the sight. they immediately started darting after them and squabbling over them. watching them chase the crickets was a lot more fun than watching them with the worms.... i think i want to start breeding crickets now.

 

[mrbstephens]

Chicks #3 and #4 are out!!! 100% hatch, first hatch ever, homemade incubator!!!

 

[Jenandnaomi]

Today was the day I was going to crack open my unhatched eggs and see what happened. I took the first egg out and realized there was a little beak sticking out the bottom. One of my ducks tried to hatch upside down and was stuck in the egg carton and couldn't zip.

I couldn't open anything after that.