You made her day LOL she is doing great I just brought her out with her flock and they ran to me to great her, it was sooo cute.... I do think she told them how warm it was inside though because they followed me back to the house and they have never done that before LOL
Sally you said the magic word "more"!!!! One of my Roos My newest roo These will have to do for now having problems uploading pics from my phone.
Yeah, it can be tough when a hen is having trouble with her eggs. I've found that most eggs don't explode in the incubator, some don't even go green. If you candle them and see that they are sloshing around that means they are rotten and may burst, any others probably won't even smell. It means those that do are scary. We have had an egg explode on us before. No fun. Best of luck! If you put the eggs in your basement they could last a week or so in the cool. I mark my eggs that I save with dates (in pencil) and toss the oldest ones whenever I add new ones. Its better then some things you can collect while out in the barn. Reaching into a dark nest is really, really scary. Especially when there are skunks around. Adorable picture! I hope you can get some great chicks out of the hatch, even if they aren't all the ones you want. My "want" list is so long I'd never be able to hatch them all, so I have to stick with just a few. I guess a few is better then nothing though. Best of luck! Congrats! I'm sorry about the one you lost, but getting 12 chicks is awesome! I hope the rest hatch healthy and adorable (I don't think chicks can help but be adorable). So awesome! They are so cute! Welcome. So glad you could join! They sound so cute! I can't wait until my new chicks hatch. Right now I'm working with some 6 week old bantams but they're a little stunted from the cold so they are the size of about 4 week-olds. They sleep up in my room at night and though they were originally parent raised, they will eat out of my hand and let me hold them and enjoy when I talk to them. Welcome to the hatch-a-long! Poor little thing! But so cute too! I guess it wanted to be a camel instead of a chicken. : ) It is so amazing to see any animal give birth! That's so awesome! Little fish are so cute. Poor thing. I'm glad you got to her in time to help her. I hope she gets all the way better soon. If she is still weak for a while she might enjoy sleeping in a crate in the garage or basement. I've got a couple chickens indoors because of the weather (at least during the night) and though they are messy I love knowing they are safe also. Why can't I have that excuse? LOl. Those are some gorgeous, gorgeous birds! Amazing photos!
Sally, love your coop photos. And the signs..are darling! Too funny. I need a bigger coop. Well, I want..another .. bigger coop. Won't happen though. Not enough room. My DH. has made me another small coop, I have a nursery coop, and I have another small run..with a sort of coop at one end, not all the way inclosed..but can be pretty nice for them to get out of the wind.
can you take pics of your nursery coop? I need some ideas ASAP. I have a 5'x10' pin that I want to put the baby coop in and I'll be rewiring it with hardware cloth for better protection. But I would love some good ideas.
Here is my incubator and the eggs I put into it (12 in all), one of which had a hole in it. I picked away at it to see if it was rotten or anything but though I removed some shell, when I saw there was no hole in the membrane I just couldn't break it open and kill the chick inside. I'm going to see if it has any chance to develop and if there are any suggestions on how to help it I would love them. I'm worried about bacteria, moisture escaping, or the chick breaking through the membrane early and bleeding. It still looks alive in there, so I'm very carefully turning it half way when I turn the other eggs. Temperature swings are really bad, but I'm hoping they can make it through. Here is the egg with the hole in it in the incubator. It gets its own corner so it is safe and won't explode on the other eggs. It is also so cold that my poor, stunted bantams get to spend time inside. Their mother decided they were fully feathered and left them at six weeks of age (they hatched the day after Christmas). However, because they were forced to feather out early and have been having trouble getting enough food or water in this weather, they are far smaller then other bantams their age would be. They have a heat-light out-doors, but when it gets this cold the heat-light really doesn't do that much to help them. I'm pretty sure they have the same father, Azul, my blue silkie rooster (I recently found him a new home). One has silkied feathers and I think he/she is Ruby (their mother's) chick. Rain is the smaller silkie mix (no feathers on the feet, four toes) and the blue bantam, the larger of the two, seems almost to have dorking type short legs. I do have a dorking, but I don't know if she was laying at the time and all the eggs in the nest I thought belonged to Ruby. He is likely a rooster by his behavior, though I don't know yet. His/her name is Noel and he has feathered legs and five toes but the small head and short legs and long body are more like that of a dorking then a silkie or OEGB. We need to buy new chick food so in this picture they were eating (and loving) scrambled eggs and little bits of wheat bread. You see, the adults have been pigging out on all the chick food and so we ran out and then these poor guys were hungry and cold at the same time. They are feeling much better in the warmth up here. Rain is much nicer and calmer about it then Noel, who isn't too keen on being touched or held, though he will eat out of your hand. He also pecks at you in defense of himself, something I've noticed far more often in rooster chicks then pullets. It was pretty dark when this picture was taken, but the chick in the front is Rain and the chick in the back is Noel. Rain is nearly black in color but Noel is a nice dark steel blue.
I have successfully put wax on eggs with cracks that hatched just fine. I have the beeswax for pysanky eggs, but I think straight candle wax would work... probably wouldn't use scented
