2017 Hatch #2
Our second hatch of 2017 resulted in Easter Egger, Oliver Egger, White Leghorn, and Delaware chicks.
2017 Hatch #1
This first hatch batch of 2017 was in preparation for the Spring Poultry Homesteading Faire. In the past, many people at the Faire have shown interest in Marans. Currently, we do not have a Marans rooster. So, instead I focused on Olive Eggers. I also hatched White Leghorns and Delaware chicks.
What is an Egg Tooth?
Most birds and reptiles have an egg tooth, which is an essential part in the hatching process. On birds, it is small, sharp, and sits at the tip of the upper beak.
Candling Eggs
Candling chicken eggs is an exciting part of the incubating process. I don’t always candle them, but I usually do. Candling the egg gives you a glimpse at what’s happening inside. When I use an incubator to hatch eggs, I typically candle them a couple times within the 21 developing days. I don’t bother candling …
2016 Hatch #3
The previous hatch did not go as expected. I wrote the company from where I ordered the eggs. Their policy is no refunds, etc. since they can’t control what happens with the eggs after they leave their farm. Understandable. I still wrote them, though. Number one, as a company I would want to know when …
2016 Hatch #2
Warning: this is not a happy hatch day post. If reading about the bad days doesn’t interest you, you should probably skip this post. Cream Legbars have been a breed I’d been wanting for awhile. The timing never seemed to work out and there aren’t many breeders nearby. This summer I finally decided to take …
2016 Hatch #1
It had been awhile since we hatched eggs, so back in June I set some in the incubator. We have 3 main coops. These eggs are from the coop with Roost, an Olive Egger, as the papa. The hens are Black Copper Marans, Rhode Island Reds, and Easter Eggers.
2015 Mama Hen Hatch #2
We knew hiding in the shasta daisies was one of our free range Easter Eggers sitting on eggs. Eventually, our farm grew by a two chicks.
2015 Mama Hen Hatch #1
We chose not to hatch chicks this year in the incubator. However, we still ended up with a few spring chicks thanks to one of our free range hens.
2014 Mama Hen Hatch #3
All of a sudden we have 25 new chicks & possibly more soon! Most of the summer we let the chickens in our main coop wander freely. Apparently many of them have taken advantage of the freedom & have been sitting on eggs. Sneaky, sneaky.