Chickam 10th Anniversary Chicks!

We ended up with a total of 8 chicks--5 are bantam Cochins from eggs I bought off ebay, 3 are from our own flock's eggs.

First, some pictures of Club Flamingo in full swing!

The marbles in the water dish are to keep the chicks from drowning, after about a week it's safe to remove the marbles. The water dispenser has electrolyte solution in it for the first few days, hatching is VERY stressful and the electrolyte solution is great for giving the chicks a bit of a boost. We feed medicated chick starter since our area has tons of wild birds and things like coccidiosis are a real problem.  The octopus gives the kids something to cuddle against since we have no broody mama this year. The flamingo lamp wasn't *quite* providing enough heat so we put in a second lamp, the base is weighted with rocks so the thing doesn't fall over and burn my house down.

Some of the chicks may get a food color spot on their chest to make it easier to tell them apart at this stage, the food color is harmless and will go as the chicks molt their chick fluff all over my house over the next few weeks.

Now for the chicks, in order of hatch from oldest to youngest with their egg number.

#37, Nora, a chick from our flock. I suspect that Cam is daddy and Pie or Rambo is mama.

#23, Fireball, a bantam Cochin

#21, Bobo, a bantam Cochin

 Bobo is wearing his superhero mask, please do not reveal his secret identity.

#24, Luna, a bantam Cochin. Luna is the chick that had pipped at the wrong (small) end of her egg and got stuck.  I had to assist her a bit by *carefully* removing the membrane that had dried and stuck to her face, then partially unzipping her shell about 1/3 of the way before returning the egg to the incubator and letting her finish up the rest.

#26, Pongo, a chick from our flock. I suspect that Milton our banty roo is dad, Popcorn or Tater Tot *might* be mom. Pongo's face isn't lopsided, just the dark markings on her beak are.

#19, Gumdrop, a bantam Cochin who is actually pretty big for a banty.

 

#25, Pickle, a tiny bantam Cochin

And finally #29, Zuul, a chick from our flock. Groot, our large Dark India Cornish roo might be dad, mom might be one of our Brahma mix girls--I suspect Cluckadorkle.

Zuul just had to poop during picture time...

All the chicks are doing great, there are still unhatched eggs in the incubator that I suspect are quitters. We'll run the incubator for another day, then remove any unhatched eggs and shut everything down.