Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[Country Chickens]

They're stunningly beautiful! But...I'm beginning to realize just how many keets you must have underfoot. However do you keep up with them all? Have you ever considered one of those universal brooder boxes? They seem kind of impersonal, but they would make cleanup/food/water easier, I imagine.

So many pretty keets! I just want to hug them!!!

Here's all of Batch #3


I'm setting batch #7 this evening, hehe...yep, hatch-o-holic!

 

[PeepsCA]

Actually I'm continually advertising everywhere I can and posting flyers everywhere I can locally too, and selling as I go. I have 9 small brooders and 2 huge brooders, that will hold about 250 keets or more combined, plus a grow out pen for keets that are off heat. Believe me, I have method to my madness, I absolutely have to, to do what I do... but it's still a ton of work, with all the feeding watering and cleaning up (which is what burns me out), besides all the stresses and chores involved in just collecting, storing and incubating all the eggs and feeding the flocks! (And then there's my other 76357654 animals I have to take care of, lol). I'm trying to maintain some hatching control this yr tho, as far as numbers of keets hatched goes. I HAVE TO, last yr got WAY out of control.... dang BYC enablers

(It's all their fault!!!) This yr I'm breeding for/hoping to hatch a few new colors then I'm stopping/slowing down, and focusing on mostly selling hatching eggs. (Yah sure, right peeps).

 

[Country Chickens]

Oh, I'm sure there is a method to your madness! I guess I was just hoping for a peek inside your brain, since I suspect this may be where we are going, between the silkies and the guineas and the Marans...and the kids want cochin... I am a writer by trade so home during the day and enjoy having the chicks/keets hatching and peeping to keep my brain from falling into a stupor. Plus, I can't seem to get enough birds so I figure I better do something productive with them, right? Right!

Anyway, what I really wish is you lived closer so I could feel comfortable ordering some of your eggs. I may still, but I usually prefer the eggs to cross no more than half the country. Just seems safer. I have a friend who just ordered bantam cochin eggs that didn't have to travel THAT far but were held up mid-transit for several days due to bad weather...we'll see if she gets any to hatch. But, even as I pipe off sounding down on mailing, I wait impatiently for eggs that will be arriving next week. Guess we're just incorrigible! 'Sides, how else are we supposed to feed the habit without someone to enable us?

Actually I'm continually advertising everywhere I can and posting flyers everywhere I can locally too, and selling as I go. I have 9 small brooders and 2 huge brooders, that will hold about 250 keets or more combined, plus a grow out pen for keets that are off heat. Believe me, I have method to my madness, I absolutely have to, to do what I do... but it's still a ton of work, with all the feeding watering and cleaning up (which is what burns me out), besides all the stresses and chores involved in just collecting, storing and incubating all the eggs and feeding the flocks! (And then there's my other 76357654 animals I have to take care of, lol). I'm trying to maintain some hatching control this yr tho, as far as numbers of keets hatched goes. I HAVE TO, last yr got WAY out of control.... dang BYC enablers

(It's all their fault!!!) This yr I'm breeding for/hoping to hatch a few new colors then I'm stopping/slowing down, and focusing on mostly selling hatching eggs. (Yah sure, right peeps).

 

[mr bellmere]

Am in loooooove with your baby pictures. They are just going to have to suffice to look at for the time being.
Season is drawing to an end here so need you guys to keep us enthused.

 

[PeepsCA]

Am in loooooove with your baby pictures. They are just going to have to suffice to look at for the time being.
Season is drawing to an end here so need you guys to keep us enthused.

Glad you are enjoying my hatches mr bellmere

I felt the same way when you guys down there were hatching and I didn't have eggs yet! Here's a few more pics from that last hatch. Clockwise starting from the left - Lite Blue, Coral Blue, another Lite Blue, Pied Buff Dundotte, Pied Lavender and a Porcelain.

A Lite Blue and Coral Blue up close

The Porcelain up close (It's pretty dark colored, so it may be a Hen)


And my Hens hatched another pure White for you

. Pictured here with the Pied Buff Dundotte (that has the solid or Teddy Bear markings - lacking stripes). No sign of a dark dot on the head of this White keets, same as the last one. Last year at least 85% of my White keets had the dot.


Keets are so cute at 2-3 days old!

 

[jarvisite99]

I am going to get some of this interesting fowl but at the moment I am counting on hatching about 2500 chickens this year (I'm obsessed!

but it isn't that many right

).

 

[PeepsCA]

Oh lawdy, 2500 chicks!!! Close to 800 keets last year for me was INSANE, cant imagine dealing with 2500 chicks, lol. You must have a pretty a nice brooder system/set up, and a cabinet style incubator (or 2)?

 

[Country Chickens]

Wow, those are some great keets pictures, Peeps. Thank you! I may get this straight after all. I think part of the problem that got me initially confused was that I thought lavender was blue, since they look blue as adults. Got it backwards in my head and have had to fight to rearrange it ever since. Thank you for helping me set it straight!

And, Jarvisite--2500 chicks!!!

We may one day aspire to something like that...maybe...but that's a long way off. You will definitely have to share the specs of how you do that and stay sane!!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Wow, those are some great keets pictures, Peeps. Thank you! I may get this straight after all. I think part of the problem that got me initially confused was that I thought lavender was blue, since they look blue as adults. Got it backwards in my head and have had to fight to rearrange it ever since. Thank you for helping me set it straight!

And, Jarvisite--2500 chicks!!!

We may one day aspire to something like that...maybe...but that's a long way off. You will definitely have to share the specs of how you do that and stay sane!!!

Lavenders and Coral Blue have the same base color (and both are considered blue gened birds, in the same color family), but the Lavender is fully pearled making it look a little lighter, and the Coral Blue is partially pearled making it look a little darker... and then there are all the other shades of Blue and Lavenders too with different names, lol. It can be really confusing when you are first learning the colors and what the markings mean. Head stripes are one of the major keys to figuring out who's what tho, and once you learn what all the basic markings mean, it's easier to figure it all out when you factor in the down/stripe colors too.

I've spent a lot of time learning the colors of keets and adults over the years, (I've stared at every keet/Guinea color chart I could find online until I was blurry, teary and cross-eyed, dozens of times!) and I have had lots of practice ID'ing my own keets (major understatement there), so I'm pretty accurate at it, lol. If you ever need help ID'n any, just ask and send the best pics you can take, I'll help if I can. (There are a couple colors that I'm iffy about, but usually I have a general idea what they could/should be, so I usually have an "it's either this color or that color" answer, and rarely an "I have no idea" type of answer on those, lol. At least i can narrow it down, lol. Sometimes it's impossible to tell from the pics no matter how many I see of the same keet/Guinea, so I have to give it a best guess then.

 

[Country Chickens]

I will definitely be running any keets by you, then, and thanks for the offer! Also, let's hope I get something other than pearl and lavender so I need the help! The lady who is hoping to buy my first few keets (in the hatching bator) called again today to try and hurry the process. Don't know what she'll say if these few hatch something interesting and I refuse to sell!

Also, what's with this weather acting like it's still February? I want more guinea eggs!!!

Lavenders and Coral Blue have the same base color (and both are considered blue gened birds, in the same color family), but the Lavender is fully pearled making it look a little lighter, and the Coral Blue is partially pearled making it look a little darker... and then there are all the other shades of Blue and Lavenders too with different names, lol. It can be really confusing when you are first learning the colors and what the markings mean. Head stripes are one of the major keys to figuring out who's what tho, and once you learn what all the basic markings mean, it's easier to figure it all out when you factor in the down/stripe colors too.

I've spent a lot of time learning the colors of keets and adults over the years, (I've stared at every keet/Guinea color chart I could find online until I was blurry, teary and cross-eyed, dozens of times!) and I have had lots of practice ID'ing my own keets (major understatement there), so I'm pretty accurate at it, lol. If you ever need help ID'n any, just ask and send the best pics you can take, I'll help if I can. (There are a couple colors that I'm iffy about, but usually I have a general idea what they could/should be, so I usually have an "it's either this color or that color" answer, and rarely an "I have no idea" type of answer on those, lol. At least i can narrow it down, lol. Sometimes it's impossible to tell from the pics no matter how many I see of the same keet/Guinea, so I have to give it a best guess then.