My Saturday hatch went pretty well. Two malpositioned babies didn't make it to hatch but the other 10 did (1 was also badly malpositioned but I got to her in time). No definite mottled or mottled splits this time, all the chicks look either black or paint. I finally got my first Nn baby from my mottled/split Nn boy and his paint (maybe) mottled carrier partner though! Out of 10 eggs incubated only 1 of 10 got the gene.
This pair makes the lightest skinned paint babies, I'm guessing the mottled influence.
View attachment 3000750
Oh I'm so sorry the other two didn't make it.
Ezzie sure is adorable though and I'm so glad she is doing well! I hope it won't be too complicated getting some little buddies for her!
You always get the cutest pictures of your adorable little youngsters! Barney and Betty sound so adorable together!
Oh goodness what a gorgeous pair Mirabelle and James are! I'm so glad the carrier helped with their relationship!
Shipped eggs are just such a gamble. Sometimes you get great results and others the whole batch might never even attempt to start development. I haven't found that my silkie eggs tend to be much harder to hatch than other breeds except sometimes when a baby has a large vault which makes malpositions more likely. Shipped eggs though have always been trickier. I do find being more hands on at hatching time is sometimes required for better hatches with the shipped eggs. I've had too many malpositioned babies from shipped eggs that couldn't pip properly at hatch so I candle often during lockdown and usually add a safety hole when I see an internal pip. Once I got more hands on like that I lost a lot less babies at lockdown with shipped eggs. Quitting earlier in incubation or not starting is hard to prevent though. Do you treat your shipped eggs any differently than non shipped? I've found letting the eggs rest at least 24 hours after receiving them before setting has seemed to help (as long as they didn't arrive in hot weather which can start incubation and they need to go in sooner). There are so many methods to try to increase the eggs chances when shipped but a lot of it still seems to be luck. I personally try to incubate upright at least the first 3 days and don't turn the first 2-3 days. Depending on how the air cell looks will affect how I position them the rest of incubation.
Adorable 
