I know it has unfortunately been a while sense I last posted. I tried to a few weeks ago but my computer tends to be a POS and after I had typed up a Very long blog and pushed post it would not load and did not save! Needless to say I was beyond mad and it sort of chased me away from blogging for a bit.
( as I type this I am hoping it does not happen again)
So happenings sense then......
Well the 25 eggs that I was incubating got down to a small number of just six eggs for lock down. Sadly through out days 19 and 20 of incubation all remaining 6 died. 5 of them were fully developed.
That was very frustrating adding that to my first hatch with 31 eggs that went though a huge temp spike and I had to discard all of them.
But I am hopping things work out better this time around. Fist of all, I have a beautiful black Cochin mix that has gone broody (meaning she wants to sit and hatch eggs) and boy has she been a champ so far! The day that I planned on moving her into a separate safe area to lay peacefully she had stepped out of her box to stretch and eat a bit while allowing another hen to lay in her box. Now normally I stand guard while the "other" hen was laying in her box so that I could remove the new egg before Momma came back in that way I did not have to disturb her later on. Well this time I did not and when I came in to check on Momma and make sure she was back on her nest, I found her in the box right next door with out her eggs. Then I noticed that one of Mamma's eggs had been broken by the "other" laying hen and she got yolk all over all the Mamma's eggs (just not her own damn egg of course) So I had to discard all 5 of those eggs as most likely they would have been contaminated and would not hatch. I immediately cleaned up her box and gave her 6 more eggs, she watched as I did this and hopped right on over as soon as I began to walk away.
I then went to work getting her broody room ready! Because she hunkered down so quickly onto her new eggs I just went ahead and moved her right then and there. ( Best time to move them is at night when they are sleeping and not really paying attention.) Momma had not problem with the move.
Decided to candle the eggs a few days ago and found that 2 were not developing so I removed them. The rest are due to hatch around our youngest son's birthday April 27th. My excitement levels are so high right now I can't stand it. To be able to watch a momma hen hatch and raise her own young is going to be GREAT!
Also, I finally decided it was time to try my hand at incubating again. I put 30 eggs in my bater on April 17th at 10 am.(Hopping this time an even number will be more lucky for me) So far so good, temp is steady around 100 and I also bought an automatic egg turner so I only have to open the bater to candle my eggs. Really have my fingers crossed this time.
More Baby news, Hanna Bean is due to deliver next month around the 12th of May. I have already got her birthing pen put together in my "barn", although right now it houses my 5 7week old pullets whom will be going into a large dog crate at the end of this week and be put into the coop so the girls can all get used to them.
This birthing pen so to speak will also be used for many other things, like..... Brooding my baby chicks (such as now), separating sick chickens from the flock, quarantine for new hens that arrive from time to time, and if not being used at the time I will put all broody hens in there with nest boxes on the ground for babies to get in and out until ready to go into the coop with their momma.
And now for the grand finale, seeing as we are already on the large subject of babies....... We have come to find out that we are adding one more to our home! I am about 6 week prego!!!!! Yes people if you have counted that will be a total of 6 children in our home. As for your next question, after this one I am done.
I will try to post the progress of chicks and kids (goat babies) as we go along.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Whoot Whoot tomorrow is Friday!
