Incubator 1 hatch day 2

Woke up this morning to 11 little fluffies cheeping away in the incubator, have so far hatched all the light sussex bantams, all the lavender pekins, both the wyandottes, 2 silkies (one has just hatched) and 1 crele pekin, the last silkie is well on it's way, one of the crele looks like it died about day `16 and the other looks like it's about to internally pip (I might have put it in a day later....can't remember), so 12 out of 15 so far and one almost out, I'm happy with that, especially at this time of year.

 

Well.......I couldn't help myself, could I?

So much for not opening the incubator until the hatch is done....had to open it this morning. Both blue Wyandotte bantams have hatched so far, and most of the others are pipped and cheeping away :)

Not impressed with the heat lamp bulbs I bought. I got them from swell reptiles, thought it was a bargain and £3.49 each for 100w infra red heat bulbs, but I put one in the new brooder this morning to make sure it's ready for the chicks and it went within 5 minutes!!!!...So, not having an spare, I have had to remove the bulb from the other brooder with the 3 week olds in it.replace that with a 60w fire-glow bulb and the brinsea ecoglow electric hen in there. I'm not keen on using the ecoglow this early in the year as it doesn't give off much heat.

Had another roofing sheet ripped off with the wind last night :(, I don't think I'm going to replace them though, I'll just wait until I do the new pens and they'll be roofed properly instead of the "quick, slam it up" job I'd done before.

Yet another miserable day

All I seem to do is sit here and moan about the weather, well it's been one of them days today, driving rain at times and gale force winds. Hopefully the winds haven't caused too much damage to your chicken set up, we've so far had one roof panel ripped off the lavender pekins run overnight, but that's the only damage so far...hopefully, it will be the only damage!

Not been outside much at all today, with the weather and sorting out my new laptop (which I am writing this on now). As a used laptop, I had to install my own o/s (windows xp pro), and like a child in a sweetie shop, I was rushing around downloading and installing all the programs I use, without first installing any protection, so needless to say, I paid the price by picking up a nasty virus which I couldn't get rid off and ended up having to reformat and start all over again..A LOT MORE CAUTIOUSLY this time!

Anyway, the only chicken news from me today is that one of the wyandottes in Incubator 1 has just started to pip and I've challenged myself to leave it alone and not open the incubator until they've hatched...something I've never managed to do in years of hatching....I still get the same buzz now as I did when you first see a little slimy dinosaur looking thing come out of an egg, and within an hour or so, transform into the cutest little fluff balls.

Thought I'd post some pics tonight of some of the lovely birds we've had in the past, as you know, we can't keep every breed we'd like, so we have to move some breeds on to make room for others

what's that in the crele pekins cage???

Obviously, I spoke to soon yesterday. When I went to check the birds in the shed last night, what did I find in the crele pekins cage?...after almost 3 weeks without one from then, there was an egg!!...so maybe I won't quite be putting them outside just yet. I am currently collecting eggs for the next batch in incubator 1 later this week. So far, it's mainly cuckoo pekin, light sussex bantam and sablepoots, would be nice for the legbar to lay us another egg or 2 before setting though!.

 My new laptop (well a secondhand one) has just arrived, so no hopefully, I won't have to keep getting on the kids computers when they're at school and moaning at the other half to get on the computer in the evening.....oh the joys of having an author for a wife.

I think the cold weather has killed off my few remaining brain cells!!!

Well, I checked the calander this morning to see when I needed to stop turn the eggs in incubator number 1, thinking they were due at the weekend and it turns out that they're due to hatch on the Wednesday!, so I've stopped turning now and added water to put the humidity up. We have 15 eggs in there still, really hoping to get a good hatch from them, especially the silkies and crele pekins.

I have been planning to move a few more birds around during the week to make room for others, so the millifluer pekins will be moved and there pen is big enough for the hybrids I'm getting next week. Thinking of putting the Crele pekins outside too, as they don't really seem to be laying much (like nothing at all now!).

Nothing else to report, so I'll just add a few more random pics of some of our birds

Looks like the deal to swap the Indian Game and the Shamo hen, so if anyone wants them, please get in touch

Incubator number 2. the candling results!

Candled incubator 2 today (day 5), and am pleased to say that quite a few were fertile. a couple of the cuckoo pekin, 5 definate welsummer bantam (although hard to tell due to the darker shells), white and buff pekin. light sussex bantam and the legbar egg. The Yokohama's need another day or 2 to see if they're fertile yet. Very pleased that one of the 4 sablepoot eggs was fertile, that means the new cock bird isdoing his job :). Hopefully I'll have lots of eggs from my pair to put in Incubator 1 next weekend when the current lot have hatched.

The sablepoot egg I put under the broody silver partridge pekin hen was clear, so I've thrown that out and will try to break her and get her laying eggs again asap .

Have moved the OEG bantams out of the shed into their new house today, and moved the cuckoo pekin have moved down into the hutch the OEG were in, so the cage the cuckoo pekins were in is now ready to be used as a brooder next week (if you can follow all that!)

Managed to get all upto date with the cleaning today (it's amazing what a bit of sun and no snow on the ground can do!!!).

New birds are now coming tomorrow and I'm also on the lookout for a white crested polish cockerel, as the boy from the pair I was getting, sadly met his fate with a rat :(.. Should have the girl sometime next week.

The new issue of Practical Poultry came in the post today, so that's something for me to read after dinner and having a bath, as I have finished the William Monk series of books I was reading now (next one isn't out until April) and started to read the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series from the same author (Anne Perry), but just can't seem to get into it)

Anyway, enough rambling for today, I'm starving

It's almost the weekend

Not much to report today, cleaned a few houses out. Now getting the new birds tomorrow as the guy I am getting them from is very kindly picking up an ancona cockerel for me too :)

Will candle incubator 2 tomorrow, but had a sneak today and some of the cuckoo pekin are definatley fertile, along with the legbar and a white pekin. a couple of the welsummers look it too, but quite hard to tell yet.

Just thought I'd post a few pics of our birds that I took today

Day 14 in incubator 1

Have just candled the eggs in incubator 1 (the Brinsea Octagon 20), all I'm pleased to say that all the eggs that passed the first week are all developing well, apart from the indian game egg which to me looks like it died around day 10. Se we have white silkies (desperate for these to hatch as we lost our girl :(), Lav and Crele Pekin, Light Sussex Bantam and Wyandotte Bantam. 15 eggs in there.

Have sorted out a deal to swap my Indian Game + a couple of others for 2 Ancona Hens, 1 Black Pekin, 1 Legbar and a couple of hybrids. If all goes to plan, I'll put photo's of them on here tomorrow :)

Managed to get out and clean quite a few of the houses today, plan to do the rest tomorrow

Bloody cold out there today, but at least the snow is melting a bit!. I have some birds advertised for sale, so I thought I'd put them on here too. I'm open to offers on them for sale or swap. if they don't sell, they'll be going to auction next month

Pair of Dark Indian Game. Last years hatch, laying and proven fertile

Shamo Hen. 9 Months old, very sweet and friendly :/









The Yokohama eggs have just arrived, so they'll be going in the incubator later, have already put a cuckoo pekin and a sablepoot egg in today. I will put anything else that lays today in to the incubator, then start saving the eggs for the other incubator next weekend

Incubator number 2 set

I set incubator number 2 last night. So far it's holding 12 welsummer bantam eggs (ebay jobbie, so won't expect them to be great!). The rest of the eggs are our birds, so it's a bit of a fertility test too. We've got

2 Cream Legbar
4 Cuckoo Pekin
3 Light Sussex Bantam (we know these should be fertile, as I have some in the other incubator due to hatch on the 30th)
2 Buff Pekin (could still be mixed)
1 White Pekin (could still be mixed)
4 Lemon Millifluer Sablepoot (hopefully will be fertile with the new cock bird)

I'll also set whatever eggs I have laid in the next 2 days, apart from the OEG bantams and Indian Game, I'm not planning on keeping Indian Game (still trying to sell the trio) and have enough OEG chicks for now, so they're going on eBay.. Should also have 5 Red Saddled Yokohama eggs tomorrow or Wednesday (Thanks Sean!)

Also my Silver Partridge Pekin is broody, so a couple of days ago, I put just one of the sablepoot eggs under her. will candle tomorrow and if it's clear, I'll have to try to do something to break her.

Will also need to have a move around with the birds in the shed next week, as I'll need one of the pens for another brooder. Was thinking of moving the OEG Bantams outside and putting the cuckoo pekins in the hutch the OEG are in, which will free up the big dog cage that I use as a brooder..

I'd also like to say thanks to everyone that reads my ramblings. Please don't be afraid to comment on any of my posts, offer any advice or suggestions or just to say hi...go on...don't be shy :)

Another monday and snow is turning to ice!

Still very white out there, but a lot more slippery now though, so be careful if you're out and about.

Manage to clean out a few of the houses today, still have plenty more to do tomorrow!

The OEG chick's are doing well, coming up to 3 weeks now (I think) and we have a nice variety of colours...just hope there's plenty of girls:

There's also a blue wyandotte bantam and the chick that hatched last week in there too, all get along happily together :)

The Welsummer bantam eggs arrived today, so have just put the incubator on to warm up and will be putting them + whatever we have in there this evening. I know I have some cuckoo pekin, light sussex bantam, legbar, sablepoot eggs, can't remember what else I have collected in the last week. Would be nice if more birds came into lay (namely my friesian fowl), but I guess this weather isn't doing any favours with that :(

Boring Sunday

Not much to report today. Still loads of snowing laying on the ground, chickens unhappy, had a few eggs (2 OEG, Sablepoot, Cuckoo Pekin, Light Sussex Bantam, Legbar and Indian Game. Not going to be able to put things off anymore, so I'll have to bear the weather and get stuck into cleaning the houses out tomorrow..they need it even more than usual due to spending most of their time in the coops!. Not looking forward to it, you have to take the bad with the good. Should have a good lot of eggs to set in the incubator on wednesday (or tuesday), along with our own eggs, I should have some Red Shouldered Yokohama's (beautiful birds, I did have a trio before, but sadly lost the girls over the winter last year) and a dozen welsummer bantam eggs. Hopefully, now the new Sablepoot cockerel has settled in, we'll have some fertile eggs from the poots :)

Mystery footprint??

 When I let the chickens out this morning, I found a very odd footprint. First impressions was a fox, but I'm sure it's too big, it's about 4 inches wide!!!. Maybe we've got a Grey Wolf living out the back??. Does anyone have any suggestions? Neither ourselves or either of our next door neighbours have dogs.

The chickens are still not going out in the snow...I've had to shovel some away, so they'll come out of their houses...big bunch of wusses!

 The ducks and turkeys are fine with it, don't seem to make any difference to them at all.

Still, the sooner it clears up, the better...There's nothing worse than cleaning the houses out and coming back indoors with frostbitten finger tips!

grrrrrr, bloody snow

Well for the forecast was right and we've got about 4-5 inches of snow so far. It's a nightmare, even got 2 inches in the covered runs!. None of the chickens will come out, so have just had to go and put their feeders in their houses. I have had a light sussex bantam egg this morning though, not expecting many more today :(

The ducks and turkeys seem happy enough out in the snow though.

Sadly we lost our White Miniature Silkie girl this morning, think she had mareks. Laid a few eggs (got 3 cooking in the incy) then wen't down hill and very unbalanced. To be honest, I was going to give her until the end of the weekend to see if there was any improvement and if not, would've put her out of her misery anyway. So no desperately hunting for another one or 2 girls to go with the cockbird before he gets too lonely.

Think I'll be spending most of the day indoors today, can't really do much else, so I'll snuggle on the bed and read. I'm currently reading the William Monk series by Anne Perry, I'm on book 14 now and loving them...once you get over the initial Sherlock Holmes copycat in the first couple of books, they actually make a really good series with the character development and really paints a good picture of Victorian London from the high society to the paupers in the alleyways and tenements.

It's snow joke!!! (sorry!)

Had a quiet day today, not much cleaning out to do...and not much egg collecting either :(

Don't forget to go out and check you've emptied your drinkers tonight. Also if you have netting on the top of your pens, make sure it's supported to stop the weight of the snow collapsing in and possibly causing damage to your fencing...just picked this tip up from the pp forum :). My advice for tomorrow, is wrap up warm, make sure the chickens are well fed, then put the heating on, read a good book and eat a horse burger :)

Well, if the forecast is right, I won't be going to the sale on Saturday Will be gutted as I need to get in some new breeding stock, but can't do nothing about the weather... I'll have to make a plan B and trawl the preloved/classified to see if I can find some new Pekins.

It's freeeeeeeeezing!!!!!!!

Hope most of you are snuggled up in front of the fire indoors, it's certainly a bit on the chilly side today!.

The last chicks hatched last night, so all 4 are now out in the brooder under the lovely heat lamp....think I'll have to make a battery operated heat lamp that fits in a hat!

I have to clean out the columbian, millifluer, buff and gold partridge pekins today, not looking forward to it. Also tempted to move some of the birds out of the shed, but I think I'll wait until Sunday, as I'm hoping to get a couple of new groups over the weekend and will have to work out where they'll all go.

I'm also on a mission to find some silver Friesian Fowl, not sure if there are any in this country, if there is I haven't found them yet, so will be looking into importing some eggs from Germany or Holland. If anyone knows more about these beautiful birds, please get in touch.