babies due today!!!

Ann@Nanango · **Posted:** Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:10 pm

Yip yip yippyy for Kirsty.

I just threw out the eggs my Light Sussex was sitting on. I think about 6 blew up in her face this last week. Poor girl. I think she's over it. I've put her in the dreaded cage up off the ground to try to "unbroody" her. Cleaned her box and gave it to my 16 week old pullets one of which layed her first egg today.

May we respectfully request some piccy's now Kirsty.

Love to see the babies.

Have fun.

Luv
Ann

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 8:42 am

Thankyou, I am so happy as she is doing really well. I have seen 3 but I know there is more under her, but she is sitting tight at the moment. 1 popped out this morning to have a look around but she soon coaxed him back under her, such a dear little thing.
I shall get my camera out today and take some happy snaps of them. My kids went crazy when I told them there were baby chicks, and there was a fight to get front row to see them...lol
I shall pop over to my neighbour today to get some chick feed (seeing as we didnt use it for our incubator eggs) and the baby water feeder is already in place, I cant wait to see all of them running around.
How long will she sit on the remaining eggs for if there are any left ?
My neighbour told me that if she does hop off the nest before all have hatched to bring the remaining eggs over to the incubator to see if can hatch them there, he has it on and it seems fine so far. We will also candle them before they go in just incase they are duds.
Anyway thanks again, pics will be up soon.

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:08 pm

O.K. well Flora (mummy) has decided to answer my question by moving out of her nesting box with her 7 chicks. I went in and took the 4 eggs that remained and candled them, 3 had early devolpment that had ceased. But the 4th had already pecked through half the egg and you could see its down and it was breathing......eeek
I have taken him inside and put a warmed wheat bag under a mink rug which is also wrapped around and over him. He managed to take the top off the egg and i helped a little with the bottom, he is now resting.
My question is," What do I do now???????
When he is alert and dry can I put him back in with the others???
or should i put him in a broody box with a light?

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:15 pm

Well scratch that last post, the poor little tike just passed on. Bit sad but at least we got 7 happy, healthy little ones out of 11. I will be out taking photos tomorrow as I need to get some more batteries for my camera, but I will post them then.

Ann@Nanango · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:59 pm

Well Kirsty, that's great news (well mostly

).

I would have suggested (if he had survived) - sneaking out in the middle of the night and putting the little one back under. We had a broody girl, but no rooster so we got 6 day olds and popped them under her at night and snitched the "eggs" she was sitting on. Boy oh boy, what a different mumma chook we had in the morning, she was such a good mum. Doesn't always end this way though. We were just lucky I think.

Can't wait for piccy's.

Well done.

Luv
Ann

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Wed Oct 07, 2009 9:08 pm

Well I have posted a couple of pictures in the gallery, will upload some more soon.
They are all so cute and very much alike.

nevit · **Posted:** Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:57 am

Awesome looking little chickie babes Kirsty.

Ann@Nanango · **Posted:** Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:05 am

Kirsty they are so cute.

Flora looks like a bit of stunner. Are you going to show her? I love her markings.

Bye for now.

Ann

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:53 am

Yes Flora is a lovely looking girl. I have not really looked into showing yet, as it is my first time with all my chickens. All 7 baby chicks are doing well, I was a bit worried that they weren't eating but Flora went and sat on their chick starter food and encouraged them all to hide beneath her, when she stood up again all were eating and pecking at the food, well thats one way of showing them were it is.
Now I have to start collecting eggs from my light Sussex again, I have 1 sussex girl (Eliza) with my sussex rooster (Ronnie) and 2 other sussex girls (lottie and deanna) with my neighbours RIR rooster (Clive). I wanted to breed some buff girls purely for laying eggs for breakfast, I was also very interested in how the whole colour sexing works, it just sounded interesting. Weird how the girls come out buff and the boys stay white like the light sussex.
I also had my thermostat delivered from ebay yesterday so I am just waiting for the indoor/outdoor thermometer/hygrometer to come now, will start putting my homemade incubator together when it arrives.

kirstyhyde · **Posted:** Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:58 am

We are giving the incubator another go this Sunday, so we will see how it goes. There is a special spot on the inside of one of the doors of the incubator that has holders for the thermometer and wet bulb (hygrometer) so you can easily read through the window, this apparently is the problem. The positioning of the thermometers is right on the window not on top of the eggs which is giving a false reading, the temp must have been way to low giving us the explanation of why the eggs had no formation at all. Its strange that they have holders specifically there to hold the thermometers if it is wrong, although our thermometer had 103F as being the temp we should be running it on for incubation.
Anyway we are going to move the thermometer to a better position and try that, hopefully we get a better result.
On a bright note not all has failed on trying to breed some more Sussex as one of my sussex girls has gone broody and sitting on 10 eggs, although I did have to move the other girls and our rooster to another coup as they were laying eggs ontop of her as they all like to lay in the same box.

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