Happy Lockdowned Halloween!

Ultra low-key this year, just making a comfort-food dinner, watching scary movies and snarfing down Halloween candy...but the kid is carving jack-o-lanterns (yes, those teeth glow in the dark!), which will be dutifully turned over to the chickens for snackies tomorrow.

Criminy, I think the hens could stand inside that one and eat.

Chicks In Lockdown!

So we ended up with four chicks...so far 2020 has the dubious distinction of being our worst hatch year, ever. We went around to our local feed stores, thinking to pick up a chick or two...but they were all sold out--people seem to be hoarding chickens, now, I dunno...
We may end up running another hatch in a month, we'll see.

But--! The chicks we DID get are all healthy and happy. In order of hatch, here they are.

First up is Carrie, a chick from our flock who has one of our black bantam Cochin mixes for a mom, dad is likely Milton, our bantam Belgian d'Uccle/Cochin mix roo. She earned her name when she caught a wingtip on the corner of the rack, started bleeding...and before we noticed it ten minutes later, had absolutely painted blood on the inside of the incubator...the other eggs...herself...the hygrometer...everything.
So when someone suggested we name her 'Carrie', it really couldn't be avoided. I applied some chicken leak-stop to her and she was fine, but left me a gruesome clean-up job and we apologize to everyone for that.

Next is Bobbie, a chick from one of our neighbor's eggs. Bobbie looks to be a full buff Brahma or a Brahma/white Leghorn mix, she is very tall and something of a chunk. Time will tell. Hard to see, but Bobbie has a bit of a malformed outer toe on her left foot--it's a bit shorter. She gets around just dandy, tho.

Rapunzel, a very pretty chick from our flock who likely has Cheese, our Americaunas hen for a mom. Daddy *might* by Rafiki, our Russian Orloff roo.

 ^^^ Stubby lil' tail alert! ^^^

Last is Boombox, from another one of our neighbor's eggs. Boombox was somewhat a surprise, hatching a full 24 hours after Rapunzel--very unusual! Boombox required a little help in unzipping, but seems healthy. She is likely a full white Leghorn...but is very chunky for a Leghorn, so *may* be 1/2 buff Brahma...but she doesn't have feathered feet, which is a VERY strong Brahma trait. Boombox closely resembles a meatball on stilts.

Boombox was confusing right out of the gate, and continues to be. She YELLS when the people are out of her sight, and right after I took this one, poor-quality pic of her, my camera died.

Hmmm...

Lockdown!

Because *all* the cool kids are doing it!

We ended up with 7 eggs with chicks inside, with another 4 I'm not sure about but *may* have chicks. I removed 5 other eggs that had quit.

So our hatch this year should be between 7 and 11 chicks!
I've stopped turning the eggs in the incubator and moved them to the bottom of the ReptiPro, and upped the humidity to 65%--all of this signals to the eggs that it's hatchin' time!

Two eggs have pipped already, #32 (you can see the crack across the number in the picture) and #10--but haven't started unzipping yet. Right now they are in the 'venting and drawing down' stage, where the chick is getting fresh air through the pip it made in it's shell, and the blood supply to the veins lining the inside of the eggshell are drying out as the chick draws the blood into it's body.

Since our high-altitude chicks always hatch a day or two early, I'd guess that the hatch will begin sometime around 11PM (PST) tonight and into tomorrow, April 10th.

Hit me up in the YouTube chat during the hatch with your chicken name suggestions, the goofier the better! If your name suggestion has been used already I'll let you know ('Dinner' and such are taken). I'll make a list and as each chick hatches, we'll draw a name out of a hat--one name to a person, use your imagination and make it a good one!

Lockdown!

Just put the eggs in Lockdown!  That means I moved them (and all the incubation apparatus) to the bottom of the Reptipro and did their final turn--after this we only open the incubator for a few minutes 5 times a day to give the eggs fresh air, no more turning the eggs--raised the humidity to 65% and increased the temperature setting on the ReptiPro so that the lower part of the incubator gets up to 99.5 degrees.

I placed a sheet of soft rubberized mesh on the bottom of the incubator, it cushions the eggs and will give the freshly-hatched chicks traction so they don't develop spraddle leg. On the right is the hygrometer--even though it displays both humidity and temperature, we use it only for the humidity reading--the temperature reading isn't accurate enough for the eggs. The small white dish with the marbles (to prevent chick drownings) holds the water that provides the humidity, and the weird sparkly pink Disney Princess water weasel toy with the white cord sticking out of it is a 'fake egg'--the cord holds the thermometer probe--one end is inserted into the water weasel, the other end is attached to the thermometer readout outside the Reptipro. The water weasel mimics an egg, and by inserting the probe into the inner pocket of the toy you get a reading of what the temperature is inside of an egg. This little trick gives you a much better hatch since inside the egg is the temperature you are concerned about!

Club Flamingo--the brooder box--is all ready to go!  Sadly, no broody hens right now, so no broody mama this year.

Now we wait until this Saturday, March 31st for the hatch...allowing, of course, for the bantam eggs which always like to hatch 1 or 2 days early! 

When the first egg pips (when the chick pecks out a tiny airhole) we will start the webcast here: Chickam

If you check the link and see EGGS, it means the hatch has begun! 
Tune in and suggest names for us to draw out of a hat as each chick hatches! The weirder, the better when it comes to names for chickens, naturally.