Recent content by PrettyCoolChicks

Broody was off the nest taking a break when I let the birds out this morning, so I candled all eggs / gave the sniff test to the blue ones and they all look great. One maybe seemed a tad cloudy but still had healthy movement inside. They look to be about day 15. I transferred the whole nest...

So cute! For what its worth, anyone I bought eggs from for hatching, I asked if they wanted me to pay a bit more and they all said "no you buy them they're yours" and then replaced some eggs with better/fresher ones before giving them to me... So I'm with you on this!

I will have to move mama out of the nesting box (which is over 2ft above ground) and onto the coop floor in the next couple days. I've set up a pen below the nesting boxes, hopefully she'll enjoy the privacy and accept the move. When to do it is the question now :p

Also agree with keeping membrane moist with coconut oil or vaseline, and cornstarch if needed to stop the bleeding. It still has a good chance to hatch, since the hole doesn't look tooo big. @New duck mommy 2021 might have great advice

Glad to see Peggy is starting to recover, i'll be following along and rooting for him!

All look like pullets to me, but if others think roo I'll be curious to hear why so i can learn from this too!

You could make a trap box, so the hen gets caught inside the nesting box and you see who laid what when you let them out. There were some examples on this site for how to build. It's just a door that closes behind the hen when she goes in. I tried to make some and it can be tricky to get the...

Ducks take longer so you may need to finish incubating yourself if the hen leaves the nest after the chicks hatch. If you have a broody duck hen, that seems like a better option so it also won't be the only duckling potentially and a duck mom would teach it more appropriate manners. That said...

Found one of the eggs cracked tonight. It looked odd/behind when candling so I opened it and it had ruptured yolk, looked scrambled and watery. I accidentally poured the empty sac in the sink so couldn't tell if it had developed at all or not. Unsure if it was pecked but if broody takes a break...

I wasn't planning on hatching more poultry this year, but one of my hens went unexpectedly broody and I happened to have some eggs (slightly older but proven to be good stock), so I gave her 7 of her "siblings" and a couple extras to sit on. First time incubating with a broody! The first couple...

It's not stupid to try things, ad we all learn by making mistakes! Sometimes trial and error is the only way to know if something can work for you/your set-up. And it's not too late to adjust as long as some of the eggs are alive... Keep us updated on how the remaining eggs are doing! I'm...

oh and the temperature should be fine, I think, if it gets too low hatching may be a bit later but it seems about right to me.

If your first hatch was successful, I would stick to the same method. It sounds like the "too high" humidity wasn't a problem the first time since most hatched, and as @Bigblackcat mentioned, waterfowl eggs need more water than say chicken. I "dry hatched" mine, but where i live that means...

How much does the tuner turn? Chicken eggs would need more turning than quail eggs, I assume, wondering if that is the difference... I've never cracked open eggs after starting to incubate so I'm just guessing, but am not sure what is normal. Curious to see pics if that is an option, to learn...

If anyone is curious, different bear traps stored at a parks ranger office.