Our second hatch of 2017 resulted in Easter Egger, Oliver Egger, White Leghorn, and Delaware chicks.

DEVELOPING

Candling an egg on Day 5. This egg looks good. You can see the embryo in the middle surrounded by blood vessels. You can also see the air cell at the top of the egg.

Both our egg turners have quit working. So, I set these eggs right in the incubator and turned them by hand.

HATCHING

One egg pipped!

CHICKS!

I adore this one. It has a unique pattern for our flock.

White Leghorns

The post 2017 Hatch #2 appeared first on .

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.

Love this! Farm Girl asked if instead of reading to me she could read to the eggs. “Yes! Yes, of course you can!”

THE EGGS IN LOCKDOWN

WHITE LEGHORN

DELAWARE

I banded the Delaware’s to identify them from the White Leghorns. A word of caution if you use bands: watch them carefully and remove them before they get too tight on the chicken.

OLIVE EGGERS

Many of our Olive Eggers hatch looking quite similar to our Black Copper Marans – makes sense since many are crossed with Marans hens.

The egg tooth is easy to see on this dark friend.

I adore this fluffy little fella. He/she even has feathered shanks. Most of our chicks that have feathered shanks are black, so this one is unique.

This hatch many chicks do not have feathered shanks.

But, some do.

Another successful hatch of cutie patooties.

The post 2017 Hatch #1 appeared first on .

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.

The egg tooth is the cream colored pointy object at the end of the beak of this chick:

While chicks are developing they need oxygen. Since egg shells are porous, chicks receive oxygen through the pores. As hatching day nears, though, the chick gets too large for oxygen to flow well. It is then that chicks use their egg tooth to break into the air cell inside the egg to get more oxygen.

There is a limited amount of oxygen available in the air cell, so soon they use the egg tooth to pip a small hole in the outer shell. Then they rotate and unzip the egg shell.

In the cracked part of the shell the beak and egg tooth are visible in this photo:

White Leghorn chick pushing itself out of the unzipped egg shell.

This Easter Egger is resting after a long day.

This 2 day old chick still has its egg tooth, but within the next day or two it will fall off.

HAPPY HATCHING!

The post What is an Egg Tooth? appeared first on .

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 them until at least day 4 because I can’t see anything before then. And, I don’t candle after day 18 because the eggs are in lock down.

Most often if a broody hen is sitting on eggs I don’t candle them. I leave the broody to tend her eggs. The exception is if I think her eggs aren’t good. Before taking them away I will candle them.

MY CANDLING METHOD

My incubators came with candling tools, so I use those. But, I’ve also had success with a flashlight. I go in a dark room, hold the candling tool to the egg, and inspect the egg.

DAYS 1-7

The first couple days there is little to see when candling. Usually on days 3 or 4 is when the veins just become visible. By day 6 those veins should really be easy to see.

DAYS 8-14

The embryo starts to grow & fill its shell, but still has room to wiggle around. Often you can see the shadow of the embryo moving inside the shell. It’s absolutely great to see.

DAYS 15-21

Days 15 – 18 the chick is filling most of the egg. When candling, nearly the entire egg is black except where the air cell is.
Do not candle the eggs past Day 18, as they need to be in lock down and not disturbed.

EGGS THAT AREN’T DEVELOPING CORRECTLY

Sometimes the eggs don’t develop into a hatched chick.

Left: This egg is clear – meaning it never started developing. It’s possible that it was never fertilized. If I think an egg is clear, I leave it in the incubator and check it again a couple days later. If it’s still clear, I take it out.

Right: This egg has a blood ring. For some reason, the embryo started developing, then quit. This one gets taken out of the incubator.

Some hatches I candle more than is recommended. Some hatches I candle 2 or 3 times & some hatches don’t get candled at all.

It is recommended to candle only 2 or 3 times within the 21 day period. That really is all that is necessary to check the development of the eggs. But, some hatches I’m more antsy and curious about what’s going on. So, I candle more often. Hands-on experience is how I learn best. Candling more versus candling less, hasn’t changed my hatch rate. Although, I could see how messing with the eggs more than necessary could be a bad idea. So, please use your best judgement when deciding how often to candle your eggs.

The post Candling Eggs appeared first on .

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 things didn’t go as planned with one of my products. Number two, I was wondering if they had any tips on how to have a better outcome if I ever decided to order hatching eggs again.

I was pleasantly surprised when the company offered to send me a replacement batch, free of charge. I graciously accepted.

When the eggs arrived I let them rest a bit longer this time before placing them in the incubator. Then I placed the 19 shipped eggs and 2 eggs from our farm into the incubator.

Well… long story short. I didn’t have any better outcome this second time around.

Of the two eggs from our farm, within the first week I knew one wasn’t developing. I don’t even think it was fertile. So, I took that one out. I was left with one of our eggs. It hatched just fine.

Of the shipped eggs, not many even made it to lock down. One hatched. A Cream Legbar this time. The last time a Black Copper Marans hatched. So, at least I got one of each.

Cream Legbar at 5 days old. Pretty cute!

Cream Legbar & Olive Egger x BCM at 3 weeks.

Hatching eggs shipped across the country apparently isn’t going to work for me. It must work for some people. But, my experience was crummy. Out of 38 total eggs shipped, 2 hatched. Not good. Not good for me mentally, not good for my pocketbook and certainly not good for the chicks.

Live and learn, I suppose.

The post 2016 Hatch #3 appeared first on .

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 the plunge and order hatching eggs from a company in the Midwest. I read good things about them. So even though I was hesitant getting eggs in this manner, I did it anyway. With all the good reviews I read, I assumed it must work out most of the time.

Shipping costs a fortune, so I ordered a few Black Copper Marans eggs to make me feel better about that expense.

I’m not gonna lie, I was teenage giddy when I unpacked this box. #soexcited

I let the eggs sit and rest for about half a day before placing them in the incubator.

When the time came, here’s what went in the incubator:
6 Black Copper Marans
13 Cream Legbar
2 Olive Egger x BCM (from our farm, similar to the ones hatched earlier)

About 36 hours into incubation I decided to check on the eggs. I went to pick an egg up to give it a slight turn and found it was stuck to the turner. We’ve done many hatches in these incubators and this was a first. The egg was stuck like glue. We had to use a scraper to get all the egg shell off the turner. There ended up being a couple more stuck in the same way.

I don’t know why they were stuck. The only thing I can think of is that the egg leaked and then hardened to the turner. But, why would they do such a thing?

All the eggs came out and I quickly washed the incubator and the turner. We got everything back to the way it should be and hoped for the best.

The next day I checked to see if any more were stuck. One Marans egg was stuck. But, just a tiny piece of shell stayed stuck to the turner. The membrane seemed intact, so I put tape over the missing shell piece and placed the egg back in the incubator.

This is not a good sign. You should not see liquid oozing from from an egg.

Between stuck eggs, rotten eggs and eggs not developing I was down to a fairly small batch at lock down:
3 Black Copper Marans
5 Cream Legbars (although, from candling I thought only 3 were actually viable)
2 Olive Egger x BCM’s (from our farm)

Just like clock work on day 21 the 2 eggs from our farm hatched perfectly.

One Cream Legbar pipped, but never finished hatching.

The other 2 I thought were developing correctly appeared to quit growing very late, not quite making it to the 21 days.

One Black Copper Marans pipped and just couldn’t zip. When there is a big hole like this, you know there is a problem. They should be zipping all the way around the egg, not staying in one place.

I have had this happen before and learned that helping them out rarely does them any favors. If they are too weak or have some other problem why they can’t get out of the egg, they usually aren’t going to survive.

However… Farm Girl and my niece had been watching all this and they begged me to help the chick out. After telling the girls the chick may still not make it even if I help it out, I carefully pulled the shell from the chick.

The poor thing didn’t look well. Shell was stuck to the feathers. Feathers were missing. It was weak.

After letting it rest, I took a warm wet towel to wipe off all the stuck on goo. Then had the girls hold it, while wrapped in a towel, to dry him/her off and stay warm.

I am happy to say the little guy pulled through. He/she is the one in the middle.

About 6 weeks later:

A quick note about the band on the leg. I put the band on to mark which chick was the full Black Copper Marans. If you use a band, make sure to check it often. As the chick grows the band gets tighter. If it gets too tight it can cause problems for the chicken.

This was a disappointing hatch. I have never had so many things go wrong.

I don’t know the reason behind the hatching troubles, but I do know the 2 eggs from our farm hatched perfectly.

The post 2016 Hatch #2 appeared first on .

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.

These mixes are a first for us, so I am interested to see what color eggs the hens eventually lay.

All went as planned, and on day 21 chicks began hatching!

The majority of the chicks are primarily black, but there are a few buff ones, as well.

I love that they were following Farm Girl.

The chicks stayed in our brooding pen until about day 11 when they really decided they liked flying out. Then they got moved to a different cage, with a top. Since they like to fly on things, as an experiment I place a log chunk in their cage. They loved it. Almost nobody flew onto their water dish to hang out. Why didn’t I think of this before?

On day 21, they were moved once again. This time to an outside brooder.

Here they are at about 2 months of age:

This batch of chicks has the most feathers on their shanks I have ever seen.

The post 2016 Hatch #1 appeared first on .

• The pumpkins and squash are growing… slowly. The plants look good, they just aren’t producing much. And for some odd reason, a couple of the seeds just germinated a couple weeks ago.
• Occasionally, particularly in the summer, I like to take photos of the night sky. I didn’t get any wowing pics this time around, but it’s still fun to try.
• Tomatoes growing in a barrel. Love!
• It seems we are having more than usual squirrel and chipmunk type critters visiting us.
• We live on an unmaintained logging road. The only upkeep on the road is after a logging task or when we or the neighbors fix it. New neighbors moved in not too long ago. They fixed the road! Woop, woop! I love them already. As a small token of our thanks we brought them hard cider and apples from our trees.
• The company sent us, at no charge, a new batch of hatching eggs. There was not any better outcome than last time. This time one cream legbar hatched. Also, one of our own olive eggers hatched. Crummy, crummy, crummy. This really messed up my breeding plan. Time to come up with a new plan… without using hatching eggs shipped across the country.

The post 2016 Update – Week 36 appeared first on .

• We have reached the time when the squash goes wild. Squash, squash, and more squash. I blanched some and am freezing it for fall or winter. The chickens have also had their fair share of the larger ones.

• The plums are ripening. And, they are yummy!

• The herb barrels are full and beautiful. This is my first time growing parsley. It’s growing very well. Almost too well. I need to research recipes that include parsley.

• Back in March, we lost all but one of our ducks. She was then fenced in with the chickens. She was not impressed with this. Eventually, she ended up getting out and I didn’t have the heart to put her back. Lately, she’s been sitting on eggs. They aren’t fertile, but I hadn’t gotten around to taking them away. And sitting on eggs is what kept her safe from the predator(s) last time. Unfortunately, she is now missing and her eggs are gone…

• Our laying ladies are granting us with a lovely array of colorful eggs. My favorite right now is the dark brown Welsummer egg.

• Because we’re going through a lot of eggs these days, I crushed a bunch of the shells. Some I’m saving for a craft and others I sprinkled around our tomato plants.

• The olive eggers that hatched a couple weeks ago are growing quickly. I’m sure they aren’t, but they seem to be growing more quickly than our other hatches.

• It’s hatch day! About the same time the others were hatching another batch were set in an incubator. Those ones are starting to hatch. So far, we have 2.

The post 2016 Update – Week 30 appeared first on .

This week it’s all about eggs.

We have eggs coming out our ears. The ladies are laying great. This is a fabulous problem to be having. We are also hatching eggs.

•  For the first time ever, I ordered hatching eggs. I’ve been wanting to add to our Marans flock, but haven’t found what I was looking for locally. Also, I would like to try raising Cream Legbars and haven’t found what I wanted locally. So, I opted to order from out of state. At this point, I am unsure if I think this was a good plan. I was definitely excited to try it as this opens more options for future breeds. I was impressed at how well the eggs were packaged and that none were broken. Once I got the eggs home, I let them sit for about 7 hours before placing them in the incubator. Possibly I should have let them rest for 24 hours?

• About 36 hours into incubation, I tried to pick up an egg to give it a little turn. It was stuck like glue to the turner. The egg broke. Two more eggs did the same thing. And by stuck, I mean stuck, stuck. We had to use a scraper to get it off the turner. My guess is it was the egg leaking, then hardening. Weird. I have never had that happen before. I’ve also never had eggs shipped across the US before. At this point, I need to do more research to find out if this is a common problem with shipped eggs, or if there was something weird with this batch. Also, the egg yolk and white parts seemed a different consistency, more liquidy, than regular eggs. Coincidence? I’m not sure.

• We quickly took the eggs out and cleaned the incubator. Then, put the turner and good eggs back in.

• The next day I checked on the eggs again looking for any that might be stuck. One Marans egg was stuck just a tiny bit. When I picked up the egg a tiny piece of shell stayed in the turner. Ugh! The membrane was still intact. So, I put tape over the missing shell piece and am hoping for the best.

• Thankfully, no more have stuck since then.

• Almost a week into incubation, the majority seem to be developing. Awesome!

• However, last night I noticed a slight odor when I opened the incubator. Dang! Farm Girl and I used our detective sniffing skills to find the culprit. We found it, took it out and smashed it to see why it was stinky. Nothin’. It wasn’t developing, but it also wasn’t rotten colored. It was more liquidy, though, than I feel it should have been.

• I am conflicted on what to feel about this. It is definitely frustrating since these eggs were quite expensive. However, it is still amazing to me that I can hatch any eggs that came all the way from Ohio. The way things are going, I will be thrilled with a 50% hatch rate.

• The barn swallow babies I’ve been admiring have learned how to fly, so I’m sure they’ll be on their way soon.

• I found another nest. This time belonging to a white-crowned sparrow. So far, there are just two eggs.

• The ladies are cranking out eggs like crazy. We’re getting nearly 2 dozen every day.

• We can’t eat all the eggs we are getting, so I have been putting extras in baggies and freezing for future use.

• We have two incubators. A couple weeks ago, I set eggs in one of them for the first time this year. Right now they are busy hatching!

The post 2016 Update – Week 28 appeared first on .