The 5th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[LBKS]

28/32 lockdown eggs hatched, looks like that hatch is nearly done. Tweaking incubator temp down a touch as it averaged slightly too warm. Next hatch due on Friday/Saturday. And set pre-hatch along eggs tonight - hopefully shipment two arrives so they can go in early tomorrow. Eggs, everywhere!

...Then I'll be "practiced" for the HAL

 

[PAchickenlover]

Good morning! I have a chick out!

Good morning!!and congrats!!!!

Thanks

Good morning! I have a chick out!

CONGRATS! I love chick pics! Mine go into lock down tonight. I'm so excited! Keep the pictures coming...maybe it will help me keep my hands out of the incubator. I've been hand turning mine so leaving them alone is going to be torture!

Done that already. I'll try to keep posting pics. It was hard for me to keep my hands out too.. Thanks

 

[chicken pickin]

Good night. Hopefully in the morning I will have a chick to show off a little. Lol

 

[Penny Hen]

Sparkle, my House Silkie, has gone broody again. She has raised four, small broods of chicks for me in the past 14 months; her last brood hatched 12/31/13, a day early for the NYD Hatch-a-long. (She is a fast hatcher!)

She was broody on two infertile eggs (her own) for a week before I gave her the NYD eggs, so I am going to risk letting her brood her current single infertile egg until 3/29. I am pretty sure she will go the distance, as she is well protected and has easy access to feed and water. I also give her special, high-protein treats 'cause she's such a good momma.

I'm hopefully getting some Penedesenca eggs from Jason (Hangtown Farm) because I can just drive over there to pick 'em up - no shipping! I have plenty of fertile eggs here, which Sparkle and other broody hens have hatched to increase the size of my mostly Heinz 57 flock. It will be very cool to have another actual breed running around here.

In the semi-near future I will be setting up a couple of breeding pens. If I get a Penedesenca cockerel, that may be a breed I might focus on, along with Plymouth Barred Rocks. I had hopes for breeding Speckled Sussex, but my SS roo from LAST Easter's HAL was on the bottom of the rooster totem pole at the Ranch and was pretty badly traumatized by the Gang O' Boys.... He is in Hospice Care now in my office Infirmary.

Anyway, unless I manage to find some SS eggs somewhere, I will be incubating Penedesenca eggs. Well, Sparkle will be doing the incubating....

The geese are not setting, just laying. I don't need any more geese, but if one or more of the girls DO decide to stay on a nest, I will consider "letting" some eggs turn into goslings. I already know Caleb is a great Daddy Gander, as he co-raised 14 Cayuga ducklings before I got the three sexed goslings he now keeps as his wives.

Geese eggs! Sounds like you have a great trade item there though. I bet you several people with chicken eggs of types you want would trade for geese eggs.

 

[chicken pickin]

Good morning! I have a chick out!

YAY! Incase I missed it What kind of chick is it?

 

[Penny Hen]

Well I am having to engineer another fix on my Chestobaor. My light bulb/ heating rod arrangement began to malfunction and not heat up properly. The lightbulb was just bareley glowing. It was a brown out. So I have the 90W element back in the Chest without a thermometer so I have to check it several times a day to regulate the heat. Turning the fish tank brooder into a hatcher. Going to candle and move any eggs that have a chance into it to finish the hatch so I can rewire the Chestobator for the Easter Hatchalong.

 

[chicken pickin]

I have 13 chicks out of 20 eggs so far here and with 1 pip that I can see.

So far I have
2CL cockerals
3CL pullets
4 Sexlink OE cockerals
2 Sexlink OE pullets
2 OE unknown gender

I also have 12 eggs on day 19
6 CL
6 Spitz

 

[abmaddox1981]

Mornin' y'all!

 

[chicken pickin]

Mornin' y'all!

 

[ocap]