What, AGAIN?!

 Yup!

We decided to go ahead and do a second batch of eggs this year, so there will be another Chickam hatch!

I started 18 eggs in the ReptiPro this morning. Six of them are Calico bantam Cochin eggs that I got from a fellow poultry club member (the reason behind this hatch, as I have NO willpower when it comes to bantam Cochins), the other 12 are from our flock. The parent flock for the Cochins are a mix of smooth coat and frizzles, so we can rightly expect some frizzles from these eggs! Since our bantams weren't *quite* in lay for the first round of Chickam, but are in full swing now, this bunch is mostly banty eggs with a couple of large eggs. I also leaned more towards the blue and green egg layers.

So here are the candidates for Chickam Round 2!

#1-6 are the Calico bantam Cochins (top of the picture, the breeder marked them with either C15 or C16 on the large end), #7-18 are from our flock. I don't know any of the mama hens this time around.

And here they are in the ReptiPro, cookin' away! Pardon the artsy angle, I had to kinda lean in to take the pic. The tiniest of the Calico Cochin eggs (#6) is so small (top right in picture) I was worried at first that it might fall through the holes in the rack.

I'll candle them in 10 days to see what we have for embryos. If all goes well, I expect the hatch to be May 14-15th (normal incubation is 21 days, but our eggs consistently hatch at day 19 or 20--and bantam eggs tend to hatch a day or so before standard eggs...so I'd say start checking the cam on the 13th! When the hatch begins, we'll switch the cam over from the brooder box to the incubator, so if you tune in and see eggs, the hatch is on!