Candled all the eggs.

So I candled all the eggs because it's not looking good. We had 18 eggs to start with and 5 were not fertilized at all (mostly the tiny eggs). There were 7 embryo deaths; looks like a range of 5 days to 9 days. You can tell that they've died because of a ring around the egg, it's caused by the blood leaving the embryo. There are five eggs left but 3 out of the five look like they have an air pocket, which shouldn't be there. The chick should be taking up the entire egg and using the air for it's first breaths. So I guess we'll see tomorrow what will happen.

Adding more water.

This is where the chicks are at now and I can't believe that they're crammed in the egg like that. I've added more water today into the second trough the ("T" trough). To increase the humidity for the hatch. We've also removed one of the two red plastic caps to increase the oxygen flow because we're at high altitude and want to make sure the embryos have plenty of oxygen to exchange. In some places you want to be sure that there isn't too much moisture but up here it's so dry that we're not worried about that. Tomorrow I go pick up the feeders, water dispensors and wood chips for the chicks. The brooder guard, the brooder thermometer and our chick starter mix arrived today from McMurray Hatchery. I can't believe it's going to happen already. It's so exciting. As soon as it starts happening we'll post pictures! If you have kids this is a great site I found. It's hosted by the Sacremento Zoo and has so much information and great activities to do with the kids. Go check it out. http://www.saczoo.com/3_kids/17_eggs/_egg_develop.htm

Our First Three Egg Day!

Our Flock:

Today we had our first three egg day. All three girls are laying now! Sylvia and Penelope laid early this morning, before 10am and Victoria laid after noon. I'm still in shock. I never thought it would ever happen since it usually takes up to 25 hours for an egg to form. It's pretty exciting and I think I'm going to do some baking with them, since we have quite an accumulation. Over 10 eggs stockpiled since Friday morning.

The New Clutch:

I added more water today into the incubator since it was almost out. I guess I let it go too long with out checking, it's only been a couple of days though. It's very difficult to see the water well through the automatic turner. We candled the eggs today with a homemade candler. We made a cone with dark paper and left a 1" hole at one end and stuck our maglight flashlight in the other end. I put the eggs up to the end of the cone with the 1" hole and counted 10 out of the eighteen eggs fertilized and growing embryos. Which is more then I expected because some of the eggs are so tiny. We were only expecting the 12 eggs so we have more chickens then we expected. One of the eggs looks as if the embryo is sticking to the side of the egg shell so we'll most likely lose that one. Good site to check out for embryonic development is:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/Embryology/EmbryoPhotos.htm

It's totally amazing that a fully formed chick starts to pip out after only 21 days. If you think about it, they're pretty evolved for such a short period of time. We bid and won on ebay on a different kind of coop to house the Bantams in. Like the eglu it has an attached run and the whole thing is enclosed and covered by a solid roof. The coop is also off the ground to protect against predators and from draft. There is a ramp that the chickens can walk up and down into the coop. My husband just wanted to combine all the chickens together, but this is a big no no. Salmon Favorelles are very docile so they tend to be picked on (literally) by other breeds and they're are a Bantam breed so they're about half the size of our other chickens. We want to keep every body healthy and happy.

We have a 40 gallon tank that we will put the chicks in as a brooder and when they've grown out of it, we will use a cardboard barrier (which can be found on McMurray Hatcheries website). We're waiting for the omelt people to start importing their large coop and run the "cube". It houses about 10 birds. It's pretty sweet and colorful! Go check it out at www.omlet.uk

This is where we should be now:

Peneolpe is Laying!!!

Yesterday was my birthday and what a great present, I went outside to check on the girls and Penelope was missing! I immediately went into a panic looking to see if she could have dug her way out of the predator proof fencing. No holes and then much to my surprise, Penelope's little face came poking around the eglu door from the nest. Probably to investigate whether or not she was missing out on some goods. I waited anxiously to see if she had laid. She came bolting out of the eglu right to the food and sure enough there it was! A teeny little egg, reminiscent of when Victoria and Sylvia started laying. I felt like such a proud parent! Penelope is the most spunky of the flock and she loves to chase the other girls. She runs across the yard with her feathers flying and goes darting toward the other birds. I thought it was a dominating behavior but it's strange that it's coming from her since she's the youngest and the lowest in the pecking order. So now it's been a two egg day, two days in a row!

Our new full length shade came as well yesterday and my long awaited door pin for the front door of their run. DHL delivered my box a bit bashed up. We were missing a corner square piece for the run and the door pin. Omlet sent them out no questions asked but they had to come from the UK so it took a little while. Yea I now get my screw driver back!

The clutch in the incubator is still doing their thing. I don't have a candling tool to check the eggs so it's going to be a waiting game. I keep checking in there for what I don't know. It feels kind of silly since there isn't going to be any action for two weeks. Maybe it's the mothering instinct to check in every once in a while. Surprise surprise, their still there!