My new chicks

      I had bought some eggs locally to hatch from eBay. It was suppose to be a dozen+ EEs, but when I got there the seller was very nice and gave me all her old eggs too. There was not much chance of those hatching but, why not, they were free.

Here was what went in the bator:
6 Langshans
5 Cuckoo Marans
12 Salmon Faverolles
The rest were a bit of Black Pendasencas, a ton of EEs, and 6 grocery store eggs for a total of 48 eggs.

Results
8 were destroyed by my son
2 got that rotten egg smell that comes right before they explode
3 grocery eggs hatched
3 cuckoo marans hatched
5 EEs hatched

    So that makes it a 28% for the ones that made it past my son. I was really hoping for some Faverolles, but oh well. What can you do?

Eggs Found!

I found the missing eight eggs. They were dropped, and as a result all smashed behind the incubator. The most likely suspect is the one year old.

My latest attempt at hatching: Day 18

   Well today is day 18. Three days to day 21, aka the days the chickens are supposed to hatch.
   Earlier today, I went to check on the eggs. The 47 eggs I had set in the incubator. After what I saw, I was disappointed, relieved that the hatching curse I seem to be under finally revealed itself, and a little amused by the manner it chose to manifest.


    Eighth eggs were missing.

I spent the better part of the day looking for them, but no luck. I have no idea where they.


   I had a family thing tonight, and when I got home, DH calls me over to look at the incubator. Of course I assume the most logical reason for the summons, the eggs must have magically reappeared! Instead I see this:







No other pips, just one healthy EE chick. WHOOT!

Grays Maiden Egg

Gray laid her first egg today! I was beginning to think it would never happen, but today it did. It took her awhile because the reds kept bullying her while she was trying to get in the nest, she finally wedged herself between the nest and the wall to get some peace. (She is a small bird, a cross between a Silkie and Silver Laced Wyandotte.) The egg on the left is Grays maiden egg, and it is the size of a silkie egg. The one on the right in Charlotte's (a Rhode Island Red) for comparison.

The New Coop

The girls need a new place to hang out, so that we can reclaim our porch, so Jon is building them a coop on the cheap. These are fence panels torn down from the side-yard and Jon took them and leaned them into an A-frame.


You can see the perch, a board left over from the fence and under the hay is more wood securing the bottom together.


I also planted white jasmine to grow up the side, which cost $2 from SaveMart (clearance from Valentines). Altogether, the coop will cost us about $10.

The Poultry Show

    At the Greater California Poultry show I met some of the BYCers and they were really nice. One such nice person was The OEGBman. Not only nice, but also smart, because while I left my camera in the wrong car, he brought his and took some awesome pictures. I asked him if I could use them here, and he said that was fine (affirming what I said about him being nice).


This is an amazing Cubalaya. It was even more gorgeous in person! Apparently it did pretty well at the show too.



The OEGMan "Now, I KNOW this is a terrible pic, but doesnt he look like Hagrid from Harry Potter?!!?!"


Thanks OEGMan! The original post can be found on this thread.

I went home with four chicks!

We met a nice breeder named Angi that sold us some cuckoo marans chicks to us. These should lay fairly dark eggs. She showed us some of the shells that they hatched out of, and they were a nice chocolate color. These were something dh was excited about. I am a little worried that if he keeps getting excited about chickens, I might not get the breeds that I want! :)

(OK, I wanted these too!)

The Greater California Poultry Show

    I am so excited about this show. I have only been to one other show, in Hollister, and it was a blast! This time I may be able to meet some people from my favorite chicken forum ,BYC!

I kill Chicks

My weapon of choice is the incubator. This is my second time through and I think I already cooked them by having the temp set to high. I candled them, but really, who was I kidding, you can't see anything on day 1. I'll keep them going, in the vague hope that my thermometer was wrong, and the temps did not reach 110F (103F is lethal)

Amazing Chicken Tail

      While researching quail I came across this picture:



      Pretty cool, any ideas on the chickens breed?

My Birds

We keep a few backyard, urban chickens. Our first birds we got last spring, two Rhode Island Reds, Charlotte and Angelina.



Now we have four more named, Sara Snowflake Snow (my dd named her), The Gray One (I named her) and the two boys that shall remain nameless.

Here they are giving the Charlie's Angels pose.

Here is another pick, just so you can see how barren our backyard truly is.


(The gray wall is where we planted the two David Austin roses.)