I candled my girls eggs tonight. Day 7 for them. Tossed 5 out of 16 eggs and one is probably going to get pulled in a couple more days if it doesn't start looking promising. One had a blood ring o death and the other 4 were just not developing. The two little BBR hens I got from Orscheln's last year just are not giving me a lot of fertile eggs. The guys are trying but they are just too large, even as pint sized as they are. Or the girls are too tiny. Hopefully the SDW boys and the two little cockerels I hatched from the incubator 4 will be able to step up to the base and hit home runs for me. The SDW cockerels are 13 weeks old now so hopefully they are going to start noticing that the girls they grew up with are cute little things just begging to be jumped on along with the two little BBR girls.
Candling was a hoot. I usually just take the eggs out from under my hens while they watch and candle, pull what I have to pull and put te good eggs at their breasts so they can tuck them back under. With 4 hens nesting in one long box, when I pull out eggs, one of the other hens is trying to steal them and stick them under her. I'm trying to candle, one of the more possessive hens is pecking me....hard and while the non owner of the eggs is trying to steal the eggs I'm candling, her neighbor is stretching out her neck trying to steal the eggs out of her neighbors nest.
I'm hoping that each hen is going to be left with 3 eggs when all is said and done. Hatch day is going to be a riot.
Candling was a hoot. I usually just take the eggs out from under my hens while they watch and candle, pull what I have to pull and put te good eggs at their breasts so they can tuck them back under. With 4 hens nesting in one long box, when I pull out eggs, one of the other hens is trying to steal them and stick them under her. I'm trying to candle, one of the more possessive hens is pecking me....hard and while the non owner of the eggs is trying to steal the eggs I'm candling, her neighbor is stretching out her neck trying to steal the eggs out of her neighbors nest.
I'm hoping that each hen is going to be left with 3 eggs when all is said and done. Hatch day is going to be a riot.