I had to go away for the weekend. Lockdown was on Friday. So the eggs went into the lockdown bator, I had a 1/2 day to make sure the temperature hadn't changed much and I had the next batch of eggs in there warming, as I've learned it's bad to put cold eggs into an already 1/2 full bator. I left strict instructions that under no circumstances was the lockdown bator to be opened. And I think they listened. This was the first hatch using the new (to me) round bator metal beast, I forget the name and will edit later with it. I had read to turn the lid 1/4 turn every day, have used egg cartons as my turning rack, and only had one minor hic-up with temperature, and did a dry hatch. And then I moved them to a home-made bator for lockdown.
I got home Sunday around dinner time, and found a bator full of 18 little fuzz butts - the only 3 eggs remaining are marans eggs with dark shells, those shells were so dark I couldn't see a thing so they may or may not have been viable..but they will stay for atleast another day before I crack them. 18 fuzz butts. There are atleast 5 marans with the FUZZIEST legs, they almost look cochin - they are a Wheaten Roo over blue or splash Black copper hen (I didn't have a black copper roo, but wanted more dark egg layers and marans are tasty to eat no matter what colour), 2 BLR wyandottes, some wyandotte/wellie crosses, and barnevelders. And of the 7 barnevelders, there are 6 boys. GACK. 1 girl, 6 boys. So i think with my 4 hatches, my barnevelder tally is at around 9-10 girl barnevelders and about 30+ boys. Sure would have been nice to have it the other way around, I guess I will have lots of boys to choose from! My first hatch had many girls. The last 3 hatches one girl per hatch and predominately boys. It will be interesting to see what the other breeds produce for boy girl ratios. I want egg layers, so I hope more girls.
But these are by far the cutest chicks, those little marans x marans are darling. And there's a couple of different colored ones I haven't seen before. So cute.
I got home Sunday around dinner time, and found a bator full of 18 little fuzz butts - the only 3 eggs remaining are marans eggs with dark shells, those shells were so dark I couldn't see a thing so they may or may not have been viable..but they will stay for atleast another day before I crack them. 18 fuzz butts. There are atleast 5 marans with the FUZZIEST legs, they almost look cochin - they are a Wheaten Roo over blue or splash Black copper hen (I didn't have a black copper roo, but wanted more dark egg layers and marans are tasty to eat no matter what colour), 2 BLR wyandottes, some wyandotte/wellie crosses, and barnevelders. And of the 7 barnevelders, there are 6 boys. GACK. 1 girl, 6 boys. So i think with my 4 hatches, my barnevelder tally is at around 9-10 girl barnevelders and about 30+ boys. Sure would have been nice to have it the other way around, I guess I will have lots of boys to choose from! My first hatch had many girls. The last 3 hatches one girl per hatch and predominately boys. It will be interesting to see what the other breeds produce for boy girl ratios. I want egg layers, so I hope more girls.
But these are by far the cutest chicks, those little marans x marans are darling. And there's a couple of different colored ones I haven't seen before. So cute.
But where's the pics?! lol I'm not allowing myself anymore 