She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[AmyLynn2374]

Time to go sit on your hands again. Within viewing distance, of course!

Back in the house where it's nice and warm...lol She won't let me see anyway and she's enclosed so the others can't bother her too much. But I do love hearing those little peeps!

 

[Ravynscroft]

I have a badge, so I can do this.
Just dropped in to say:

 Leave that bird alone. She'll introduce them to you when she's done

 This one just felt good

Gets a badge and narcissism level goes up... typical...

I'm prepared to do my homework all winter. I've decided that's what's going to get me through my winter blues. I have a question for you. I spoke to a call duck breeder and he knows the breeder I'm getting the eggs from and said she's excellent BUT sq call eggs have about 60-70% fertility, then take into account a 50% hatch rate on shipped and I'd be lucky to get 1 or 2 out of a dozen. So...do you think this is probably true and if so, should I get 2 dozen eggs?
Awesome!! I'm hoping to have a good breeding set up by spring!

It's not the fertility that is an issue in SQ, it's the hatchability that is harder... think I invented a new word there...

Anyways, the closer to SQ you get with Calls the shorter their bill is... this is the biggest issue with hatching them as many can't pip externally cuz their bill is too short...

Get as many eggs as you can afford within reason and keep your expectations lower than anything else you have hatched... getting a single shipped Call to hatch successfully is a major accomplishment...

Calls are not for the faint of heart in incubating... it is super hard, very stressful and will make you absolutely insanely crazy...

But it is also absolutely worth it...

Hahaha!!! That was GREAT!!! I loved it!! Thank you so much!! It's was quite memorable! I'm such a lucky girl for such great chicken friends!!!

Congratulations!! It's about time!!

Ya did GOOD!!! Very fitting parade!!!

I agree with the natural bloom being the best... but like in Megan's case, she got nasty eggs.  It just seems like there should be something that we could use.  I want to research the stuff that Walnut mentioned further.   

Instead of using anything, personally I would just scrape off what I could dry and set... I had gotten a bunch of OEGB eggs last Spring from a guy who was selling off his dad's flocks... eggs were in bad shape since he didn't collect them and we had a freeze right before... I washed half and scraped the other half... my hatches came from the scraped eggs and all the washed quit in stages up to lockdown...

ETA: and I see WV swiped the 25k post without anyone noticing...

 

[WalnutHill]

In other news: The last two white eggs I have candled have both had firm air cells, so hopefully my pullet's system has straightened out.

I can hear the peeping under my broody. Earlier you could hear them tapping/zipping something....lol It's cute to watch the broody. All of a sudden her back end will come up and she'll shift like the baby moved then she sticks her head down in front and chortles to them. I have to say documenting mommy's behaviors makes a great addition for our bird life cycle study. Maybe I should order reptile eggs.....

Just joking.

Now THAT would be funny if you set turtle eggs under a broody!

 

[kwhites634]

My broody has a hatcher under her. We went to check on the coop and there's a hatched egg pushed out from under her and a peeper peeping away. Every few minutes you see movement up by her breast and she sticks her beak down there and pushes her back....lol I want to see her sooo bad. There's 2 more eggs under there so we are still waiting. My son says, "You would think her sitting on it like that would squish it's guts out and kill it." LOL Yup, it's proving to be an educational experience for sure!

Time to set up a web cam in the hen house

 

[kwhites634]

Time to set up a web cam in the hen house

Oh, and stream it so the rest of us can watch, too

Think you can handle that before supper?

 

[WVduckchick]

ETA: and I see WV swiped the 25k post without anyone noticing...

e I didn't even notice!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Time to set up a web cam in the hen house

I was thinking earlier I wish I had the ability to put a cam in with her, then it made me think about creating a nest with a glass/plexiglass bottom.... lol I am soooo bad.

 

[CaseyV]

I was thinking earlier I wish I had the ability to put a cam in with her, then it made me think about creating a nest with a glass/plexiglass bottom.... lol I am soooo bad.

We set up a camera when our mare had her first baby, I have to admit... I got obsessed with watching it

 

[kwhites634]

We set up a camera when our mare had her first baby, I have to admit... I got obsessed with watching it

Some guy in northern WI set up a web cam focused on his deer feeding area; watched it constantly for 4- months...knew every tree on his place

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Some guy in northern WI set up a web cam focused on his deer feeding area; watched it constantly for 4- months...knew every tree on his place

I watched a little of the eagle cam that kept showing up on face book. It was pretty cool. Watched an owl one too.