Poultry Keeping General Discussion #2

Hi Mildez :) I am doing well. I have 15 in the incubator now, all are moving and getting harder to see just due to the babies getting so big. This afternoon marks the beginning of day 18. I think I should take them off the rocker now. Or do I wait until day 18 is complete? I have had so much conflicting advise! I can't wait for my babies to come. Fingers crossed it all goes ok! I have $55 worth of eggs in there!

Mildez, enjoy your snuggly cuddles with those sweet little ones. fingers crossed they all come out ok

Bella I now have 6 out of the 9 and 2 more have cracks in them. The 9th looks like its doing absolutely nothing. I'd definately take them of the turner now and lock them in for the remainder of the journey. You often have an early bird that comes out on day 20 so if you leave them until the end of the 18th day that only gives them just over 24hrs to get their direction right before hatching. How exciting. I'm at the end of day 21 now (counting the first day as O) My first lot of eggs I paid $130 for 2 dozen. Only 12 were fertile and of those only 6 hatched successfully and their almost 2 weeks old now and doing well. I had to pay alot of money for the particular breed I was after as they are hard to come by in purelines and not bantums. In saying that although they were dear I paid $260 for my trio so if all survive I paid basically $21-$22 each for them but do have to raise them and I obviously have no idea what genders I have yet. So I guess $25 for a dozen is not much but I do hope to get more then 1 chick out of the 4.

Wow mildez, that is a lot to pay for some eggs! But if they are what you want then it is great to get them. I am lucky that I have yet to get expensive tastes. I have gotten that with everything else in our lives, so watch out!

Day 19 here. I am so excited!!! I have pretty much everything ready. I have yet to get feed, but I am still hoping I can get organic chick feed brought in soon. Otherwise I will have to wait. Fingers crossed for me girls!

Cool your on day 19. You might see them wiggling if you look long enough. By day 20 I had my first cracks in the 2 incubations I have done. Do you have a brooder and that sort of thing ready for them to go into? I've got 2 my Dad made for me and I find I need another. Thats only because I have a weak chicken that cant go in with the strong ones as they think he is dinner and will peak him to death little vulchers.

I just did something naughty and paid alot of money for an R Com incubator. They are suppose to be the best out there (very expensive unfortunately) its 2nd hand. I'll be collecting eggs now to incubate and that will be it for the end of the year as I want them outside by Christmas. I'll only be putting in only my buff orpingtons and the new speckled sussex I brought.

Other good news is I just found out my very old ginger hen is laying eggs. I was mistaking her eggs for another hens eggs and another hen that I brought a month ago has just started laying. I dont know what was wrong with her when I got her but her comb/ear lobe things were very pale like she was anaemic and now she has alot more red to it and she has laid me 2 eggs. Only problem is the shells are so fragile both eggs have been broken when I pick them up and they just shatter in your hand when you push ever so lightly on them. Going to give her some shell grit and keep doing what Ive been doing. I think letting her free range is the best for her and then Ive been giving her the usual bread, wheat, lasyer pellets and meat meal.

Bella what breed are the chickens you are about to hatch?

I have 12 austrolorpes and 3 anconas left, I did put 6 anconas in but those were the ones that went bad or didn't fertilize.

I have hearda fair bit about the Rcoms. Everyone is quite taken with them :)

Oh and I think I heard some tapping before.

My first egg has pipped! Soooo excited

Oooo this is exciting. Has it cracked some more? My 1st chick this time took over 12hrs from pip to chick.
My speckled sussex laid an egg today (and yesterday but it had a crack in it) so Im collecting them to incubate them. Can't wait. Just hope they are fertile. I paid $180 for the trio so I'm keen to breed a few more out of them.

Nope ithas done nothing! I first noticed it at 3. It is now nearly 9. However in the last few hours I have had 5 more crack their shells. Waiting is so hard!!!

Yes it is hard especially when you see some action and think it should be progressing faster than it does. Hopefully you will wake to several fluff balls although they might take a while to fluff up properly.

Fingers crossed! UTI's really strange cos there are 6 there with cracks, but none have progressed further. Ian not hearing cheeping either, but then they may be asleep, cos I did hear some earlier. Iris really hard to wait!!! I will be thrilled I we get babies out cos dd will be hard to explain to if there are none that hatch.

naww thats soo cool!
chicks look soo...bad when they first come out of the shell...kinda drowned rat like hehe
no new broodie chooks yet...waiting waiting waiting. i have a friend who wants day olds to raise, which will be interesting LOL i think it'd be better if it was near-er to christmas though - cus he's still at school (as is his younger sister who wants to 'raise her own') but we'll see.
other then that not much happening with the chooks. keepingmy 3 mottly crew locked up until they roost in the chook shed on their own - as chaseing them and catching them and taking them down there is annoyihng as hell LOL

Thanks dansta! "UTI's really strange". Lol! Gotta love predictive txt!!!!

Two babies this morning! Lots more pipped, more than 6 more. I checked at 2:30 am cos I thought that it was 5:30, there was one egg with lots of progress, but by 4:30 there were two completely out. Dd is itching to touch, but I am making her wait. :)

Congratulations on the chicks Bella. How adorable (when they fluff up) Hope they keep coming.
I candled my batch that is due to hatch on the 5th October and a number have stopped developing. I'm sure its from the new incubator I use (It has the eggs on the pointy end and tilts) where as my other one lies them on their side and you manually turn them. Can't wait for the R com to arrive. I've got 8 eggs in my collection now and am adding about 3 a day to it. My new coop will be ready at the end of the weekend. Not much more to do to it and the chickens have somewhere to go.

Mine puts them on the pointy end and tilts. Three now!

Yes thats what I meant to say the pointy end and tilts. The R com apparently they are on their sides and roll. I really hope the r com arrives tomorrow although I wont start it for a week as I want to collect as many speckled sussex eggs as possible before starting it up..