Chickam 2015 Is On!

The first set of hatching eggs are ordered! We'll be having TWO rounds of hatching this year, both planned for March.

I'll set the first group of eggs February 27th & 28th, hatch date will be March 20th & 21st.
Second hatch will be set March 6th & 7th, hatch date will be March 27th & 28th.

The reason I'm staggering the set/hatch dates over two days is so more people have a chance to catch an egg hatching. This will be kind of an experiment, but should work just fine with the ReptiPro since you don't have to do the strict 3 day lockdown with it.

The eggs I ordered today for delivery next month for the first hatch will be mixes:
Frizzled Ameraucana/Silkie
Easter Egger/Silkie
Frizzled & Smooth Polish/Silkie
Salmon Flavorelle/Silkie

So the chicks should be, ahh...'interesting' to say the least. I haven't ordered eggs for hatch #2 yet but I've got my eye on some. I'll put some of our own hens' eggs in each hatch as well. The other day I caught Mushroom the bantam Cochin roo successfully mating one of the Giant Cochin girls, so God knows what we'll get...

As always, after the hatch the camera, with sound, will be on the chicks in the brooder box 24/7 for  the first 8 weeks of their lives so everyone can watch them play and grow up.  Since the brooder box will be located in our dining room in the house (God help us!), you will also hear us going about our daily activities.  We will broadcast the hatch and the chicks on our UStream channel, here:  Chickam2008.  The UStream channel also has a 'chat' feature that we welcome people to use as long as they are polite and follow the rules. As we have been doing throughout the year, between now and then (weather permitting) we will use the UStream Chickam channel for our Saturday broadcasts of the existing flock outdoors.  We like to plan various little entertaining activities for our flock and the new chicks as well during our Chickam broadcasts, usually they involve treats for the chickens provided in hilarious and challenging ways that are a lot of fun to watch.

Hopefully we'll have a broody mama available, Rambo the buff Brahma and Pompadour the gray Giant Cochin are both *just* starting to go broody now. We will of course really start to encourage this nonsense about two weeks prior to the hatch dates and get them all fired up in time for chicks.