Christmas Chicks

Well Because I like to have constant action around here I loaded up my incubator on Sunday. It always a test of patience for me not candeling eggs a billion times a day


I loaded 25 mille fleur d'uccles, 14 olive and easter eggers, and 4 partridge rock bantam eggs. The millies are my new girls mixed with my baby boys from my original flock. The olive and easter eggers are going are going to be a bit of a suprise who the daddy is as they are all in gen pop right now and the daddy could either be my welsummer roo from cornel or my white crested black polish! There is one olive egger who seems to be in love with mr polish but most of the girls love the welsummer boy. I did have a dream that the olive/easter eggers hatched and they all came out with white poofy heads

Well last night was day 3 and I had to add a little water so I quickly candeled the group. The olive and easter eggers all had faint veins starting to show and almost all the milles except maybe 3 were fertile. I love the cream coloured bantam eggs they are soooo easy to see through. The partridge rock seems clear so far but I was not really expecting anything from her but I was hoping for a cochin/rock cross.

If everyone keeps developing we should have some babies hatching christmas eve/day! How fun!

wow good for you! I would incubate eggs in a minute if I had someone who would take the leetle chicks off my hands right away!
I can't imagine looking after them all in the winter time, it's hard enough in the cool Spring...but Im happy to hear others are up for it!

Oh Anne, you go girl!! That is just wonderful to hear. I MUST, I MUST, I must improve my way of having some discipline when it comes to when to begin incubating. I could fire up my sportsman anytime, or borrow my girlfriend's Marsh rollex, but I must, I must have discipline. The holiday season is so swamped, I daren't to begin to set eggs to heat until at least the middle of January, smiling that big smile, but then, who knows, after the holiday celebration is done..I may be following deeply in your footsteps. Good luck, my wishes for a most wonderful hatch, such a cool thing. Have a great night and wonderful days to follow!! CynthiaM.

im with you on not being able to wait. i seperated all the different pairs and trios that i will be using for breeding this week. 18 more days till i can set eggs!

My December hatch so far eggs hatching today again on the 22nd and 50 on the 26th We now have 16 EOs and 7 MF, out of all the eggs that I got from Susan only one did not hatch and that egg was infertile, we also have 2 Silkoiloa. There is also one older chick in the pics to help train them to eat. Next hatch will be The 8th all candled and all good, then the next hatch after that will be December 15 and they all look good.

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Oh the milles are sooooo cute! I can't wait!

I am fortunate that I can keep them inside in our storage room for a decent amount of time then transition them out side once they are well feathered. Thankfully we are not nearly as cold as you folk on the praries!

I mostly wanted to test fertility on the millies as the new group was laying so well. I find with my old flock that the little hens only layed for a small window then go broody!

In january I will seperate out the others and start in febuary maybe weather depending.

I candeled yesterday to see where we were at. It was day 5. I took out 3 millies that were clear (out of 25) and the 4 partridge rock were clear as well. Everything else looks good so far. Now I just need to stay out of there!

well day 9 is today. I Love embryology! I need to be banned from the incubator! I had refrained for a few days from touching anything but today I could not help myself!

I could see several swimmers in the d'uccle eggs I have a couple that might be quitters but I have put them off to the side and will check again in a couple days. They were still really vascular but looked a little strange. I took out one olive egger that was clear. They are so hard to candle I can only see the air sac and on some faint veins.

Almost half way there! Patience is not a strenght of mine

Anne

I always plan babies at christmas for when the grandkids come. I have 40 button eggs due to hatch 24/25. I also have 18 fertile Valley quail eggs which should hatch on the 25.

I came home on Sunday to find 5 new Bobwhite chicks ,13 button Quail, and 5 Valley Quail. First Valleys since last July.

Perry

I like to think of it as a christmas present to myself. My son loves it just as much as I do though!

Especially not knowing who the daddy will be of the olive/ee eggs it willbe an extra special surprise on christmas morning!

Anne

Lock Down tonight!!!

20 d'uccles and 11 olive/ee ( but I dropped one accident while taking it out of turner It did crack but I put it back in in hopes it still might hatch!)

I hauled in my "brooder" today to de-ice. Tomorrow will disinfect all necessary chick supplies and bring in a lamp to start warming things up! Oooooohhhhh I cant wait!

Anne

Oh lovely, just can't wait to hear the results and see pics of little fuzzy butts comin' in a couple of days, you DO have a camera, right, smiling. What a wonderful little gift. I think that I am gonna have to get going soon, but need to wait probably just a couple of more weeks for gals to get rollin' big time in laying. Molts are done on the buckeyes, almost finished.....cochins, only 2 of 4 laying, but the other 2 should start soon, orpingtons, well, that is gonna have to wait for a bit til the eggs get bigger, pullets. Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Pops coops, some very neat pictures, and I really really like the idea of the older chick to "help" babies along, maybe the fuzzy butts think it mamma???? Might have to work on something like that here too, what a nice thing to think about, an older chick (one not too old that would pick on them) to help to show them about life.

So far 10 peepers out! 9 d'uccles and something black out of an large olive egg! The chick is still wet so waiting to see if it might have a poofy head! 5 more d'uccles pipped and 4 more olive ones as well.

I am hoping to wakeup to an incubator full in the morning! Love hearing the peepers!

12:30 and you weren't in bed yet, bad girl!! OK pictures. You need to show us some pictures, surely you have a camera, smiling. Good luck, bet you will be waking up to a bunch more little fuzzy butts, right on Christmas morning, how lovely is that!! I know you will keep us posted, beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Well I am tickeled pink with my hatch! 25 babies on december 25th! 15 of the d'uccles made it out a 16th had pipped but went no further. 10 of the 11 olive eggers hatched including the one I dropped. The 11th pipped but also did not hatch. I hate when that happens. The last one hatched a few hours ago and I am waiting for that one and the last few to dry then add them to the brooder. Everyone else is strong and doing well. The little dudes are drinking and just went crazzy over their 1st meal of egg yolks and chick starter.

So the most interesting part is figuring out who the baby daddies are from the olive/ee. Some are very obvious. The ee hens are red/brown and the babies are look like welsummers but with beards! So Cute!

I have 3 olive egg laying hens who I believe are rir/ee. One is silver and red and the other two are red with some cream streaking around their necks. All three have modified pea combs.

So out of the olive eggs there have been several black chicks. One with some silverish streaking and a little poofy on top. There is one golden one and one very blonde one whom is now dry and a seems to have a poofy head! Mr polish got around a little more then I thought!

I took a few pics but I will get tomorrow when everyone is dry and fluffy!

I wish they stayed this size forever!

Pictures, pictures, foot tapping and smiling. Can't wait. Nice hatch for sure!! Lovely, what are you using for incubation? Or did you mention that already, maybe, have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

Ok I am posting a link under picture to the album I just put on my website. The photo uploader and I dont seem to get along!

Pics are not great as I took them on my iphone. Hard to see the poofy heads and the one little one with feathered leggs you can kinda see the feathering down the side of her leg.

Cynthia I am using a hoverbator genesis. Its been a bit of a trial and error with it but I seem to have figured it out a little better. The 1st hatch I went against the manufactures recommendation and added more water to the tray as the humidity was lower then what I had researched. I only ended up with 3 of 15 chicks hatching and they came out sticky and crusty. My next hatch I followed the directions and went with lower humidity. These were shipped eggs this time that had a rough ride getting here. Two eggs were broken ( despite wonderful packaging) 2 more cracked and several with slipped air cells. I also tried the upright hatch with the ones with slipped aircells and the rest on the floor. I had 8 chicks hatch and 6 of the 8 were upright for hatching. Sooooo for this hatch I had the best of everything. Fresh eggs that only travelled from my barn to the house, lowish humidity and every egg was upright for hatching. I guess I ended up with about 80% hatch so I was happy with that.

Enjoy the pics

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Ooohpalah!!! Those were very cute little fuzzy butts, loved the fuzzy legged ones (that bantam cochin surely doin' his magic!!). Cochin babes are the darn cutest of them all, well, in my book they are, smiling. Thanks for putting the pics on, they were pretty good. Nice work with the bator too!! Beautiful days, CynthiaM.