setting eggs tonight!! anyone else?

[LaGeniaLoca]

I did some candling last night...

Incubator #1 started with 42 eggs. Of those, 27 are developing. Incubator #2 started with 22 eggs, and then I added 6 Ancona duck eggs three days ago. So far, it looks like 11 of the original 22 are developing.

This all breaks down to:

2 out of 7 LF Polish
4 out of 5 LF Ameracauna
7 out of 11 bantam Cochin
13 out of 18 Silkie
12 out of 22 Serama

So, my grand total is 38 out of 63...for now, anyway. A few of them looked a little iffy. I'll probably candle the duck eggs on Sunday.

I always crack open the eggs that are taken out to see what was going on and found a few duds, several scrambled, a few early quitters, and 1 totally disgusting, rotten, ready to explode, green, goopy, stinky mess...

...almost got sick! I HATE when that happens!!!

 

[CALI CHICK]

I did some candling last night...

Incubator #1 started with 42 eggs. Of those, 27 are developing. Incubator #2 started with 22 eggs, and then I added 6 Ancona duck eggs three days ago. So far, it looks like 11 of the original 22 are developing.

This all breaks down to:

2 out of 7 LF Polish
4 out of 5 LF Ameracauna
7 out of 11 bantam Cochin
13 out of 18 Silkie
12 out of 22 Serama

So, my grand total is 38 out of 63...for now, anyway. A few of them looked a little iffy. I'll probably candle the duck eggs on Sunday.

I always crack open the eggs that are taken out to see what was going on and found a few duds, several scrambled, a few early quitters, and 1 totally disgusting, rotten, ready to explode, green, goopy, stinky mess...

...almost got sick! I HATE when that happens!!!

Woooooh, how do you do it???? I'm a nervous wreck with 15 eggs in one incubator!!!!!!!!! BTW-What day are most of your eggs on?
Not only am I thrilled to see development in most of my eggs, but I actually slept almost 6 hours straight without checking them.

(That was a first for me!) And, the old Brower held a steady 100 ALL night long....very pleased!

 

[CALI CHICK]

I could not tell you were excited at all ...

With the candling at day 3, 5 and waaaaaaaaiiiiiiiittttttting until day 7!!!!! Just tell me you are getting some sleep now? With sleep I might have the energy to be excited even if I don't have much time this week. My 4-H kids are getting excited though!

Yes, I am just thrilled with this experience! I slept 6 hours last night. When I woke up this morning, I panicked like the first time my baby slept through the night without needing to be nursed!
But when I checked the bator, it had held 100 ALL night. I really think my eggs have a chicken angel!

We are in 4-H too. My son is in the poultry project (of course), rabbit project and dog obedience. I teach the sewing project. Sewing is another of my passions, besides raising animals, so it's my way of sharing my love of sewing since I don't have a daughter myself. I'm thinking about moving my eggs to another bator that has windows for lockdown. I've even thought about doing that "marestare" website so friends could link on and watch the hatch.

 

[LaynaDon95]

The chicken coop. So far. We put two white panels in for extra sunlight. Those are the walls sitting on top on the saw horses and under the ladder. I've put the feed under the coop already to get them used to being in there.
The limb sitting on the edge of the building is their future roost.


I opted for white over clear so that when (not if) our cat tries to break in and ends up on the roof they won't be able to see her as well. You can see leaf shadows through the white. XD

 

[CALI CHICK]

LaynaDon, That is really nice and big, so far.

You definitely need MORE chickens to fill it up! I like their roost made from a natural tree branch. I have a tree branch in the chicken tractor, but used an old closest pole for the coop. Is that a barn behind the coop? I'm getting envious. Do you plan to enclose the sides with chicken wire or actual walls and windows? Oh, and one last question...how much of the building did you actually do? (Supervise! - LOL)

 

[LaynaDon95]

lol I'll be filling the coop up in no time. My dad thought I was crazy when I picked up that branch after a storm and told him I was saving it for a roost. We didn't even have chickens yet...

I have a smaller on in one of our tractors, also. Great minds think alike. It's a... Not a barn. It's like a big garage. It has two big drive in doors leading to a big room and off the the side is a smaller room. The guy who lived here before us used it as his wood shop. He was a carpenter. We use it to store food. We are using waferboard for the walls. There will be a big run also, but we haven't quite gotten there yet.
I helped set the poles in concrete, and put the roof boards on. My initials are in concrete under one of those poles.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Hi Guys, so sorry I haven't posted much lately but I have been reading up regularly on the thread. I am so jealous of your candeling. Most of my eggs are Marans and they are too dark to even see what is going on in there. I did find a couple that I had to throw out because they were leaking, that is a first for me. Now I just hope and pray for the best. Won't know if anything is growing until they either hatch or stink. Day 10 and really no clue what is in those eggies.

Layna Don - We have built 3 coops since I started getting into chickens and my one recommendation would be to make sure to section off your coop. Your going to want an area for chicks or broodies and maybe one area if you want to seperate a breed or quarantine a chicken. The bigger the better on the size. You know...Chicken math...

 

[LaynaDon95]

We have three tractors and we are going to building a mobile wall in our coop. It will divide the coop into two rooms and with it being mobile I'll be able to determine the size of the extra room depending on how many chickens I need to fit into it.
Oh, chicken math. I've already got that going on. I have 7 chickens. Unless you don't count Oliver because he's a pet and the others don't like him. You should also discount "Feather Legs", a mean roo, destined for the pot once we get around to butchering him. That leaves 5 but only if you count both other roosters and the hen that isn't laying yet. XD

 

[CALI CHICK]

LaynaDon, what did you guys build your tractors out of? I made my (1) tractor out of scrap wood (mostly) and chicken wire. It is not pretty - but it keeps the big, bad hawks from seeing my babies. Well, more like 'you can look, but you can't touch!' I move it around our yard 2X or 3X a day and the chickens love going for the ride to new scratching ground.
Here are pictures of our coop (built from a playhouse kit) and tractor...don't laugh, it's the best this old girl can do for now.

Someday I will move to a farm and build a real coop. We had to place 6 foot poles in front of the coop, stapled with chicken wire to keep the dog out. This is an old picture when we still had the silkies. I helped with the cement (like you) and I built a nice gate I do say so myself (it isn't in the picture, sorry). The funny thing is -I asked a neighbor to cut my wood and he didn't even realize it was for the chicken yard....he still doesn't know we have chickens -I hope!

Hey-who is that big rooster with the stripes? JK- That's my son refereeing the meat chickens

 

[LaynaDon95]

Your coop is so pretty! My tractors look almost identical to yours, but mine have metal roofs. Mine are built out of pallets and scrap wood my dad brought home out of the big scrap piles at construction sites. It's amazing how much yours looks like mine. Right down to the roost! We put white plastic around about 3/4 of ours for the wind chill this winter.

And your son is adorable!! I'm sooo jealous of that tan skin! I'm as white as ... really white chick. :\