Who is with me?

[walkswithdog]

Sorry about the accident, darn it's always something.

My weakest guinea is still going so there's hope for him yet.

I'm going to put some eggs back under the blank blank blankety blank broody hen later. Still makes me angry she freaked out but oh well, all living things learn and make mistakes.

Hope the rest of them are fine - cooling off is far less destructive than over heating.

 

[countrybum]

Wait until it is dark and she is going to bed, then slip them under her. At least that is what I was told to do.

I hope you are right about the cooling off, well, it don't matter, the egg got over heated afterwards. Darn incubators.

I had to move the 2 silkies to the dog pen, the roo was getting picked on to badly and I did not want him dead in the morning. I picked him up and he had blood on both sides of his head. I guess I will find out how he is in the morning.

 

[countrybum]

Well my 1st incubator kicked the bucket, but luckily my friend had the heater to replace mine. He said it will be ready tomorrow, right on time for the 3 day wait.

Mommy Guinea sort of abandon her babies, so I brought them in the house with the others.
We had a really bad storm and Mom was not even paying attention to them soaked and cold in the yard. She walked right by them, I did not even know what it was until I walk over thinking I was picking up trash and it was a guinea keet. There was a 2nd soaked right by it, I looked everywhere for the other 2 and just hope they are with mom in the morning.

 

[walkswithdog]

So much for broodies know best. Broodies can be such idiots but then look at the size of those brains...
I hope you find the other two... but with rain you might not find them well.

So far the momma broodies with chicks have lost two PRs, one went in the turkey pen (really bad idea) and I think one ended up straying to far and was met by hungry delawares, also a bad idea.

Sticking with Momma is a survival skill that these guys need to learn so I just let em go and what happens happens.

One got stomped and was limping heavily and got a four day vacation with a buddy in the brooder but they both went back out when he was getting around reliably.

I rarely intervene and I'll pick the next generation out of the best survivors of these momma brooded chicks. I figure it's the best way to continue their foraging, mothering and free range skills.

Turkeys are up next for hatching

the ones in the house should be a few to several days earlier than those under the broody turkey hens. Hopefully I can sneak these in on them after they've hatched theirs.

I've got enough cage brooding turkeys to last a lifetime.

Then the chicken eggs if I don't put all of them under the broody hen.

Then the marans........omg... if they go...

Best of luck to all my staggered hatching nutcase friends...

 

[countrybum]

Well, I got a replacement incubator, the do-op replaced mine since it was not that old. It is up and running and working on getting to the right temp and humidity. I hope it gets there soon.

Here comes the final count down for my BA's, 1 SZ and 2 or 3 BLCM.

As for my peafowl egg, it is still questionable and I am not giving up yet, 5 days for it.

4 days and counting

I must say, I should quit staggering hatches, it can drive you crazy.

But if I did, I would just be bored only waiting every 21 to 28 days to put more eggs in. Also, what would I do with all the eggs laid in between?

As for Mommy Guinea, glad I brought the 2 in, the would have died. It took them almost 2 1/2 hours to actually look fine. This morning, she did not have the 2 MIA chicks with her. I was really hoping she would, but it is all part of the life cycle for them. At least I saved 13. I gave away 13, 4 to my best friend, 5 to the girl that gave me the eggs and sold 4 yesterday, the other 13 I am keeping for tick patrol.

 

[walkswithdog]

I candled the marans. I knew there was little chance with one egg so busted. They're no - go's. Sigh. I let the seller know and she's sending more eggs.

 

[countrybum]

Quote:
Shouldn't you give them a little more time? I would. I thought mine were no goes at first, I left them in a few more days and I have 2 or 3 fertile.

Any way, hope the next batch is all fertile for you.

Hatching vibes sent your way.

Here is me with my eggs due on the 14th.

and since my temp went up to 104, I will check them the last time today. Then I will stick them in the new incubator.

I just love this board. I could never talk to hubby about my chickens, or eggs and when I try I get this:

Well I hope Chickie mama is enjoying her vacation. VACATION, what is that any way? With all the animals I could not take one if it was free.

 

[walkswithdog]

I will continue to run them for four more days but they all appear clear and most have damaged aircells. While I've had shipped eggs with damaged air cells hatch, they're low percentage hatches.

With the broken egg included, every GCM egg was at least partially compromised and the one broken, only a couple of the 'extra' BCM eggs look even intact inside. And GCMs were what I wanted. So the seller is resending them.

And yes, I'm glad to have folks here to talk to too: once I start talking to Laura about chickens she does this

or this

and then I give up and

although I feel more like doing this

and

 

[countrybum]

Quote:

 

[riqui1]

I am so glad you guys started this thread and that you are still using it, as I am working on a batch to be put in within a few days....and it is my first time! I am very, very excited, but also very, very nervous!!

Where can I find the specifics for hatching silkies? It seemed to me that the specifications that I saw for the temp and humidity, as well as the number of days, may be different and I really don't want to mess anything up simply because I didn't do my research!

I hope you don't mind, but I will probably have another question or two along the way...or maybe three...

Thanks!