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| Chickies! |
Well this was a great hatch this time. I am loving this big redwood incubator, it's keeps the temperature and humidity up really well. If I have to open the door, they go right back up where they should be in a just a couple of minutes. Temperature and humidity are really critical when you are incubating eggs. These little guys hatched right on schedule, the early bird was out early in the morning of day 21, which was April 7. About half of them had hatched by the evening.
I had set 46 eggs from my three easter egger hens, a young Welsummer pullet, an old Welsummer hen and a Welsummer / Leghorn cross. They were all bred by my pretty red easter egger rooster, Lil' Red.
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| Lil' Red |
I'll have to take some pictures of their mammas, I don't have many on the computer right now and none of them very good. I had to be gone overnight and when I got home on Monday I pulled all the now dry and fluffy chicks out and marked them so I would know who their parents are when they get bigger. Now there was one egg that had pipped (had a little hole in it) on Sunday. The chick had made no progress at all in almost 36 hours, but was still alive and talking to me. I could see the chick was kind of stuck and beginning to dry out even though the incubator was at 65% humidity. So I chipped some of the shell off and put it back in. In a little while the chick was able to finish hatching on it's own.
The girls from the easter egger hens will lay some shade of blue or light green. The girls from the Welsummer hens will lay some shade of olive, probably from light to a medium shade of olive green.
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Now I've been raising chickens for a while and I don't usually go gaga over chicks, although they are cute. But these guys with their little cheek puffs are extra cute!
Not all of them have puffy cheeks, but a lot of them do and some have bigger cheeks than others. The cheek puffs and later a beard are traits from the Ameraucauna breed of chicken, which is what Easter Eggers are bred from.
There is a range of colors and patterns, most of which will change before they are adults.
New life in the spring is always a thrill, isn't it. I don't get to witness that much anymore. Urban living just doesn't allow for it. Even though my newer garden "Terra Nova Gardens" is located in the inner city, wild life is abundant there. Last year I did see a young deer wander through the patch while I was clearing the rocks off the garden area. Mom was not seen but I expect she was watching from not too far away. Wild turkeys abound there with a flock of about 20 that are ruled by three Toms. At least they think they rule but it's quite obvious that the real leader is the old matron of bunch who came within 20 feet of me the first time we met and stared me right in the eye as if daring me to make her day. We have since come to an understanding and for now life goes on.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day in the garden.