Pipd's Peeps!

[NagemTX]

Oooh, nice work! You might be right, they don't tend to see super well in the dark so having some light in there probably helps!

And Dr. Girlfriend is adorable with her babies!




I've got 6 newbies as of this morning! All banded and moved to the brooder to start gaining their land legs.

Baby number 7, the one I was concerned was malpositioned, ended up quitting overnight. I went ahead and opened the end of the egg up just to see if my suspicions were correct and no, it looked like the little one was positioned fine. That egg was a bit skinnier than the rest of them, so all I can figure is that it didn't have the room to move like it needed to and couldn't externally pip. Wish I had put an air hole in it last night, but I was pretty sure at the time that that wouldn't do anything to help. Oh, well.

Anyway, here are our newbies! I ended up with 4 Splash and 2 Blue.

These are the two that hatched yesterday; I popped them out of the incubator last night and moved them to the brooder for the night:

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Not long after I moved them, this little one hatched. Seconds old and already in its rebellious stage with that hairdo

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Here are all four that hatched last night. Ugh, such cuties!!

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We're all moved to the baby brooder now to start getting our legs underneath us.

Cuties!

I helped one of Dr.s chicks out of the shell because she kept getting up for the other four! We lost one in the garage. It's why I moved her into the brooder. Had one that partially hatched and quit as well.

Also checked the ladies out in Dustys pen. Have 8 maybe 9 broodies out there. Every one of them are sharing a nest! The two silver Phoenix hens group started hatching yesterday and I can confirm Dusty is Duck wing. Almost all the babies are silver chipmunk striped with just a few being gold and a few black.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oooh, cool! So he should work out for your one project, right? I'm excited to see where you go with that! That's amazing to me that all those birds are sharing a nest, holy moly! I couldn't get my two Cochin broodies to share a pen with their own individual nests on opposite sides of it. Sassy little squirts!

That stinks about losing the chick in the garage and the quitter in the brood. Hopefully she doesn't lose any more now that they've been moved

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

In other news... I'm starting to suspect that one of the Splash babies in this brood is actually a recessive white! Not too surprising because I got a recessive white out of my first batch of eggs from the farm I got my foundational stock from, so it's likely to be floating around in them. But that's kind of exciting to me. I haven't had a White since my sweet little Dandelion. If that little one really is White and has no glaring flaws.... then she's probably 100% a keeper. We'll see once those feathers start coming in!

This is them all as of this evening, really fluffing up and starting to get a hang of this whole 'using our legs' thing. Not a great picture because the two darker chicks kinda blend in with the black heat plate, but the light one furthest to the left is my suspected recessive white. Notice how yellow she is compared to that grayish tinge of the others, and that her beak and feet are just yellow-orange instead of dusky or gray-tinged like the others...

(Don't worry, I only flipped the heat plate up like that for the picture! It's sitting down properly now with six content little bitties snug underneath it )

 

[2ndTink]

So much cuteness, how do you keep the plate down were you can't see them!?!

That's fun on the recessive white, Dandelion was a perfect name for a white silkied cochin

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

So much cuteness, how do you keep the plate down were you can't see them!?!

It's hard, let me tell you!! I'm constantly having to remind myself that they're still fresh little babies and they need their rest and warmth. But they're soooo precious and small!! The Easter babies in the next brooder over are like giants compared to them!

That's fun on the recessive white, Dandelion was a perfect name for a white silkied cochin

She was a great little hen, one of those personalities that sticks with you long after they're gone. I'm actually kind of excited at the possibility of another little white fluff! I've never been fond of solid white chickens, but Dandy really left an impression on me.

 

[2ndTink]

She was so pretty! Total bonus that she had a character to match, I hope this new little one is a equally fun and pretty!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hopefully!

Of course, this could all just be me getting excited about a chick that is Splash and just has a paler beak and legs than the others

I need this little bitty to start growing in those wing feathers so that I can find out for sure!!



Oh, related, with all the chick hatching excitement yesterday, I almost forgot to candle the other eggs in the incubator for their day 7 and day 14 check-ins!

All 5 of the remaining Buck eggs are going strong and will be locking down on Thursday!

Of the 12 Gus III eggs, we had one blood ring and two clears. The remaining 9 are dancing around and developing beautifully

Tomorrow is the first 'official' candling day for the broody girls, day 7 for them.

I have two broodies out in the outer coop, one in Buck's pen (Delphine) and one in Wyatt's pen (Morena). Depending on how many of the Wyatt eggs under unnamed Blue girl in the main coop are developing, I may or may not set under Morena (or maybe set eggs from Gus's pen under her? I don't necessarily need many more Wyatt babies this year between the incubator hatches and the eggs under the other broody). Delphine has been dedicatedly sitting for a while, though, and I'd like to get a few more Buck babies going, so most likely I'll be setting under her at some point this week. I just need to see whether I have extra nests I can use for that so she's not taking up one of the two in their pen.

 

[NagemTX]

OK! Pictures of the broodies and the mommas.

This is Godzila. My only hen that likes to actually attack me when I stick my hand under her. The rest just make scary noises.

The mommies!