It's time, it's time !!!

Ok, I've been pretty much gone for most of a week and am I behind !!! I've had work and family issues keeping me tied up but anyway on to the important stuff...lol

The power outage eggs have been moved to the "hatcher" as of Sunday evening. Now wish as I may that I could keep my face glued to the little window to watch I am gone atleast 10 hrs a day. But in the evenings I do see the eggs (some not all) rockin.... YAY !! It's so exciting. They are due to hatch today and tomorrow respectively....

This is sooooooooooo hard, I'd forgotten how hard it is to be patient. Patience I confess is not one of my virtues.... anywhooooooo this morning I wake up and my eyes go right to the hatcher. It's sitting next to the incubator on my dresser...lol. Yep, guess what no movement..... just when I was sorta bummed ( I was hoping to atleast see somebody trying to peck their way out) I heard peep peep peeeeeep.....

I had to fight the instint to open the lid and try to find the peeping egg...lol. I am hoping someone will have successfully hatched when I get home from work tonight. When I left there was no peeping and no pecking marks on the shell... ugh, so hard, so very hard to wait and wonder !!!

My duck eggs were candled Sunday night as well. They are in the kitchen in a homemade bator. My pug and rat terrier were rough housing on Friday and caused an incident and 3 of the duck eggs were broken, I was soooooooo upset. It was a terrible mess to clean up too!!! But the remaining eggs are showing 7 fertile, 2 of which are smaller than the others. I will candle in another week and see if the smaller ones have grown anymore or just stalled. They are runner eggs.

Next week I am suppose to get my turkey and 3-runner ducklings delivered from cacklehatchery. I will have to leave the motorcycle home next week and ride on 4-wheels until I pick them up from the post office...lol. Poor things would stroke for sure if I stuffed them in my saddlebags!!!

I will take new pics of the chicks at home from the Ideal order. They are getting big. Only 2 of the guineas survived which is a bummer. One was dieing on arrival, one didn't grow at all and the other just keeled over. All 4 of the favorelles died.... one dead on arrival, one deformed and the two others died later on. The one hadn't grown at all no matter what I did for him. He tottered around sort of odd, I think the favorelles in general were a bad hatch. All the others are big and boisterous and trying to fly out the brooder whenever I pull the screening back !!!

I have black and blue orpingtons, black and blue cochins (standard), silkies, and blue laced red wyandotte eggs in the other incubator and they are not due to hatch for a while yet. But so far are showing a decent amt for fertility !!!

I will try to post pics of the hatcher an hopefully pics of chickies too tonight or tomorrow. And big chick pics as well

Have a great day and remember to cross your fingers for the eggs in the hatcher while I am stuck at work..... ugh...lol

~Julie =0)

I know what you mean, patience is a virtue, LOL. I look in the bator so many time when my babies were hatching, it's so hard to stay away. I can't wait to hear what you get.

Julie,
Hope you have a good day and when you get home it will work out for you and look and see how the baby eggs are doing..
Call the hatchery up and tell them about your baby chicks they will replace them!!!!
Tracey

Ideal already told me they would give me a credit for the chicks.

The kids just called me at work to say 2 of the eggs have cracking along the top and one of the green ones is rockin....lol

So I've got a couple hours yet maybe there will be chickies when I get home !!!

~Julie =0)

Oooo, fingers crossed that you have nice chicky surprises when you get home.

You know, I sure Ideal's policy is if you lose more than 5 chicks they'll send replacements. Perhaps you'd rather have chicks than a credit.

Ok, when I got home there were two eggs in the process of hatching !!!!

I waited with my camera in hand and these are the best I could get thru the glass as the first one popped out.

out a little bit more from the shell

another

another

**dial up is soooooo slow**

sorry it's a repeat !!!

This message was edited Apr 25, 2007 7:45 PM

and right after the first one came the second chickie

they are both bantam salmon favorelle

Now the rest of the chicks shouldn't be hatching until tomorrow maybe the next day. Those are Silkies and Amerucana

I won't sleep a wink tonight waiting for them to pop out...lol

~Julie

Now here are pics of the Ideal chicks at 15 days old

The box is 6 ft long but boy they sure make it look crowded when they all gather together. There is more food at the far end and they are eating there too....

I think I like this one best, see the way they are all craning their necks to see me

What beautiful birdies!

Thanks a bunch for the egg pics and hatching chicks. My girls are very impressed with them. I think when things calm down here (if they ever calm down!!), the girls would enjoy hatching eggs too.

All the helpful people and great pics here are what gave us the courage to start with our birds!

Congrats bird mommy!

Wow, those hatching pictures are wonderful!! I hope you can post some more. Aren't they something? You must be so excited you can't see straight.

You other babies are looking good. I love it when they do the loooong neck crane too.

So cute ! Everybody say cheese !

One of the silkies has been trying to bust out most of the night. The strain is killing me...lol. I hope it finishes before I have to leave for work.

Glad you liked the pics !!! I was happy on my timing for a change that I got to see the first chick actually popping out. I'm also happy with the homemade bator it's working out great as a hatcher. Who knew I would become obsessed and have to have more bator space ...lol.

~Julie =0)

Those are the best hatching pics I've ever seen.

Congratulations!

Great pictures, they are so cute. The little ones are getting so big.

Great pixs. They are getting big..
Tracey

Now I KNOW i have to get a really good Incubator!!! Just cant stand it!! They are sooo cute! If I get this excited looking at your pictures of the 'bator Babies,I cant imagine how happy I would be having my own!
I have just got to make plans and study on how to do it right !

The first silkie hatched before I left. I think I may have gotten some good snapshots but I ran out of time to load them up to the computer...had to fly out the door to work.

I was surprised to see the silkie had a big knot (I think it's called a vaulted skull) on it's head...looked very much like a dinosaur...lol.

Then I had noticed that three of the Amerucana eggs had pipped from the time I woke up and got ready to leave.... man it was hard to leave for work...lol

~Julie =0)

jab, wonderful pictures. Sure makes me jealous. Would love to have an incubator and eggs to put in. Your babies are so cute.

Donna

Ok, here is the silkie that was hatching this morning

Julie, these photos are wonderful. Please post some more when you can.

the same silkie

the same silkie chick resting after all that hard work....

do you see that top knot it's got going on.... is it too big ?? two of the other silkies from the same breeder have hatched and the top knot isn't anywhere near as big. i've read about vaulted skulls but i don't know if that what it is or not.

And here is what they look like when they start to dry off...lol

so far the "power outage" hatch is up to ::::

2- bantam salmon favorelle
3- silkie
2- amerucana

Another egg is hatching now, and another is rocking. the cuckoo silkie was the most active of the eggs I thought it would be one of the first to hatch, hope it makes it.

The count this morning is up to ::

2- bantam salmon favorelle
3- silkie
3- amerucana

another amerucana egg is chirping and rockin a bit but so far no breaking out of the shell.

Julie =0)

Great job Julie,
Any new pics.?
You must be a very happy momma..
Tracey

No new pics this morning. I was busy trying to help the cuckoo silkie but I waited too long and it was stuck in the shell.

By stuck I don't mean it had dried out but like the first silkie had the big top knot on it's head and it seemed the top knot was caught on it's limbs and it couldn't turn completely to open the shell to force it's way out. I should have tried to help sooner. I think it was too tired and weak. That was a bit of a bummer as it seemed otherwise completely healthy in form. I feel bad, but hindsight is always 20/20 right. All along that chick/egg had been the most active whenever I candled.

I will take pics this weekend of the fuzzies. The first 2 that hatched (the banty favorelles) seem to spend a lot of time trying to tag team the other chicks. Hope they don't turn into bullies. I might let them catch sight of the older chicks so they see they aren't top "dog"...lol.

I had an amerucana egg peeping and rocking this morning before I left but no break through yet. The dark amerucana that hatched yesterday sure is pretty now that it's all dried and fluffy .

~Julie =0)

This message was edited Apr 27, 2007 8:38 AM

Congratulations, chickie mama. That's great that so many of the power outage eggs made it. Sorry about your little silkie, though. I can't wait to see more photos.

Don't be too hard on the plucky little favorelles, now. LOL

Here are some pics from this weekend


First off are the big chicks from Ideal out to play in the little dog pen. They really like it outside but it's a lot of work catching them all to carry outside and back into the house...lol.

Here is the silkie with the big top knot

silkie # 3, a little blurry not my best shot but this one is fast...lol

silkie #2 , such a cutie

here is the banty tag team duo

they could be troublesome...lol

here is the bunch in the brooder box

all 9 chicks healthy and accounted for....

Amerucana #2


Sort of a champagne color, not yellow or dark like the others

and here is the dark Amerucana

look at that sad face !!!