Recent content by Owllea

A friend ordered these nice chocolate brown eggs, supposedly French Black Copper Marans. There were 12 to start, but only this guy hatched (post office forgot to call and they sat too long). Hens were desired, so a future rooster had to go. I offered to take him to replace my older rooster. And...

Is it too late? 1358

Just curious how many hatches or years someone has gotten out of a little giant styrofoam incubator. I’ve got the lowest model: I hand turn the eggs, it is a still air, and I use dry incubation until lockdown and have to add water daily to keep humidity up. Despite all that, I’ve had pretty good...

Had one that didn’t absorb the yolk sac…but tried hard to hatch. Darn. I’m just using a little giant still air, and I think there are hot spots. Poor fella. All the rest are doing swell.

Second chick hatched just four hours after pip! And another pip, and a wiggly egg…it’s like watching grass grow when you stare at them, but the minute you look away, they just do all the hatching!

We’ve got a chick! This was a dry incubation with about 40 to 45% relative humidity until lockdown and it’s been about 65% humidity since then. so far so good. This chick popped out within six hours of it pip and was a very fast zipper!

I set some eggs on March 7, not even thinking about hatchalongs! Glad we fit in the window. Our rooster is four years old, so I’m watching fertility rates. Anyone have a good guess at what age a rooster's fertility drops? Mine are backyard mixes, so lots of possibilities. Hope I can report back...

I also have some pullets about 10 wks: Easter egger mixed with Welsummer. May have a few more, but they are only four weeks so hard to tell for certain who is going to be a pullet. The younger batch came from Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red mixed with Welsummer. You may end up with a good mix...

Yup. Less stink in smell and attitude.

Don’t mind if I do. Just invited myself, but this picture was too fun not to share. Ernie on the left (fuzzy Holland lop) and Scarf on the right (mix or unknown). They love their dandelions. If you never seen a rabbit tongue… it’s so cute!

Entry 1: some of our freedoms rangers

Sounds like I found some like-minds in this thread! I just planted some cabbage starts and it got too cold so many of the leaves froze. But I use deep hay mulch so I’m hoping they survive. We had some left over window plastic from winters past so I used that as a little temp buffer the past few...

Old thread but glad to see others enjoying these guys! I’ve got two box turtles: one ornate hatched by my brother, and one eastern that is just starting to get color. They are 4 and 5 years old and growing steady on bugs and veggies. Here are their baby pictures-They start so tiny!

Someday I’ll time with a group hatch along. As of now, I’ve got two batches of chicks just hatched this week, and no time to sanitize the incubator in time to set up. I’ll run out of room if I hatch more too soon! I’ll be hoping for all great hatches for you all!

So sorry to hear that. Nature does not always come out the way we hope. Looks like a great little clutch of healthy chicks otherwise, so hope it isn’t anything genetic. It is crazy to think of all the things that have to go just right for a baby chick to become fertilized, develop in the egg the...