setting eggs tonight!! anyone else?

[cowchick11]

Crazyness here too!

I'm hoping the sun will come out this weekend but we did need this week of rain. I would really like to get the garden in this weekend, one week ahead of our normal schedule, last year we were a month behind because the weather never cooperated!

I keep trying to sell my dahlia tubers and have had very little success. I may end up potting them up and making a deal with someone at the farmers market to sell them that way.

We will be expanding our chick area in the barn this weekend as my SS, BBS/lav Orps are needing more room. They should be ready to go into the yet unconstructed outside

pen by the time the not-counted chicks (unhatched, currently on day 13

, in the bator are ready to move out of the brooder. The chicks in the above photos will be 7-8 weeks old this weekend. I'll take more photos after the pen is expanded and easier to get into with the camera. The eggs in the bator will be at 15-17 days this weekend. I will candle again and hope some that appeared clear have magically formed chicks for my friend and I. After the first candling it appears that we both have about 50% fertility.

I have to pull the turner a day early for my eggs as the other eggs are Seramas and even though I started them one day after mine I am afraid they may start hatching earlier than 19 days! Hope the predicted thunder storms tomorrow don't knock out the power! At least I have drilled the family on what to do to insulate the bator if the power does go out.

Hope things steady out for you LaynaDon and that your "swan" hatches out in 35 days 10 goslings or more! I bet your dad is just thrilled!

 

[LaynaDon95]

ROFL! You do sound busy! My "swan" has 11 eggs. I re-counted this morning. My evil hens have pecked a bloody spot on her head because she won't give them her nest, so I put a "fence" around her.
My grandma is going to bring me 2 dozen wyandotte eggs this weekend! She didn't kill the rooster! I'm so excited!

 

[cowchick11]

Glad your swan has a safety fence to protect her from the evil chickens! Do you tell people at work or school that you are raising swans? Do they give you the look?
Beware of any roosters you keep from your grandma's hatch. I was at a heritage poultry training last weekend (with very knowledgeable trainers) and learned that "mean roosters" are an inherited trait. They come from hatcheries not culling if they get a fiesty one! They mail out the chicks to unsuspecting new chicken owners (or ladies like your grandma and my mom) and then they get not fun boys to deal with.
We are expanding the chick pen tomorrow and cleaning it so I will have to take photos after they settle down from all that excitement.

 

[LaynaDon95]

lol I actually haven't told anyone but my parents that we were raising swans. It would be kinda funny, though.
I don't plan on keeping any of the roosters long. Just until they're big enough to eat. =d

 

[cowchick11]

LaynaDon,
I hope your fertility rate and hatchability is way better than ours! See below!
I did take photos this weekend but I'm so tired and I'm waiting for my bator to re-stabalize that I think I'm going to just set and watch the boob tube or take a quick shower. We'll see what I'm up to tomorrow. I have show photos to submit to others as well (cow show photos).


This is the message I just wrote to my friend about our eggs we are hatching together.
Crap, well out of your 10 you have three that will go into lockdown. The Millie Fluer type hen had all clear eggs, nothing growing. The Black and white mottled hen had one clear, one early quiter or blood ring (I can't tell but I'm not opening it either!), and three that look dense and should have chicks. They are the ones staying in the bator!
For mine, almost as bad, I have 9 going into lockdown. My best hen has one egg out of 9 that is dense and my pullet that I collected 8 eggs from has one weird one with either a bloodring or something (it is in the bator but separated), and 7 that look good.
So that's 12 total to go into lockdown out of 27. Boooooooo!
Yours should hatch late on Thurs. and mine should start hatching late on Friday/early Sat. yours should be done on Sun. and mine should be done by Tues.

 

[LaynaDon95]

Wow! I wonder why your fertility rate is so low? To be fair, it's not my chicken eggs I've been hatching. I've hatched very few of my own, comparatively. I have no idea of their fertility rate. Hopefully all 12 will hatch and become beautiful, healthy, fertile birds.

Sorry I haven't been on. We're on vacation. This is my first time to be able to be online for any length of time.

I candled some of the Wyandotte eggs a few days ago. A whole 1 had development. :\ I hope all the ones I didn't candle are developing. I'll candle them all when I get home. I'll be better able to tell then anyways, as they were only 5 days incubated when I candled. I'm not really surprised, because she was collecting from one hen to get the eggs, so the earlier eggs had to sit for a long time. Also, she didn't store them how I told her to, over half of them were skinny end up in the carton. I hope I get more than 1 chick.

The duck seems to be doing nicely. I'm having the house sitter slip chicken eggs under her tonight.

I hope I get healthy ducklings and chicks. One of the hens rolled some eggs out from under her accidentally while trying to steal her nest, so I took them down to the house and candled the before I gave them back. They were both developing nicely but they had been out long enough to get cool. (Not 'cause I took them. They were already cool.) I hope they were able to be re-warmed and continued developing.

 

[cowchick11]

I can't believe how busy I already am and it is only June! With my work today we have about 2/3 of our family garden in. Here is what else I've been doing.



Only hatched 5 chicks for me and my friends Seramas didn't hatch at all

This chick was dancing around

, I have no idea what was going on. I can't believe that I caught it! Pretty cute though, right?



Went to another show last weekend. These awards were won by the mother's of the above chicks! It was a small show but I did well, so I'm not going to say much.

 

[LaynaDon95]

Oh how cute! Congrats on your award. I'm sure they must be pretty hens to have such adorable babies.

I can't wait until my babies hatch! How I miss the fuzzy little things.

1 week until the Wyandottes are supposed to hatch and 2 weeks until the ducklings and bantams are supposed to hatch. I candled the Wyandotte eggs and precisely 3 have a good chance of hatching. The rest were either too dark to see into or were definitely not going to hatch. The 3 I mentions were very good looking though. Nice veins and clear movement. I hope they hatch.

I got home from vacation last night and went to candled the duck/bantam eggs after the Wyandottes. Every. Single. One. had development. There were 2 duck eggs that looked like they may have died, because they weren't moving, but they could have just been napping. It's been known to happen over here. =P
The chicks (from Ideal) got so big since last week! The silkies are the cutest chickens I've ever seen!! Their fluffy tails and afros are so fuzzy and adorable! I can't wait to find out if they are boys or girls. (hopefully one of each...)


(Not the best pic of the silkies, they are much cuter in person.)


My beautiful Muscovy on her nest. I'm so excited to watch her raise ducklings!

 

[cowchick11]

Those baby silkies look like road runners! Pretty darn cute. My family loves me some of the time. They spent almost 3 hours helping me clean the pen, weigh, and leg band my chicks from the Easter hatch-a-long.
Do you have duck eggs in the bator or under the Muskovy or both? Very pretty Muskovy. Do you know what color she is considered?

 

[LaynaDon95]

Aww, how nice of your family. I just bribe my siblings. =P All the duck eggs are under the Muscovy, along with the bantam eggs. My nasty, busybody, leghorn hen still won't leave her nest alone. I keep having to take her eggs out of the nest and but the duck/bantam eggs back under her. The leghorn keeps rolling them out! I'm afraid they'll get cold and die if they haven't already. :\ I don't know what I'm gonna do with her. I have no idea how she keeps getting into her nest either, I've blocked it every way I know how. Anyways, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and hope
I get some ducklings and chicks from the deal. I candled my Wyandottes and actually have 5 that look good. :] That's a good thing. They go into lockdown tomorrow. I'm so excited! I can't wait to watch little chicklets hatch!

My setting Muscovy is considered blue and white. I have another black and white hen, and a blue and white drake. I assume all the babies will be either blue/white, just white, or just blue. But it depends if she was still fertile by a different colored drake at her previous owners house when laying the eggs. I'm excited to see how they feather out. I'm also looking forward to seeing how they taste. =d

How old are all your chicks now? 0.o