Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Bens-Hens]

I am very proud of us, have been very good and stayed out of it.

15.5 hours after pipping, we had the first hatch. RIR. I just happened to walk into the room to grab a file and I (as I always do) glanced into the incubator and I could see the first 'pipper' had ziped. I called the wife who had her hands full with making some dough. I took the tool out and started to continue work and though "I might just go back and get a photo" took a still, then swapped to video as my oldest boy walked in, 29 seconds later it was free! Amazing to watch.



And the vid, it's very short but jagged it. Never mind the commentary, not sure who was more excited, me or my 6 year old hahaha

Another still, followed by a hour or so later.






Of the 7 that were in there, one has hatched, 5 more have pipped and one is as it was, which we have suspicion died earlier in the week before our Day 18 candle. High hope for some more chicks by the morning!

 

[NovaAman]

Congrats!

 

[horsesnchkns]

Oh my!!! That's my first time witnessing the actual hatch!!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing!!! I was almost in tears with the joy of it, knowing you and your little boy were watching and experiencing this little miracle of life!! I really pray these babies thrive and you get to watch them grow and that you have much better luck with these babies. How is Mocha? (You made my day, thank you!)

 

[horsesnchkns]

OH, I forgot to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 

[Bens-Hens]

It has been amazing. So far, 5 have hatched, personally I got to see 4 of them. Both my little boys have got to see at least one each. Our whole little family huddled around two windows hahahaha.

Looking forward to getting them into the brooder, a hole new little world for them.

The other girls are doing well, Olivia still gives us an egg most days. She no longer seems the boss of the pecking order, more like equal boss with Latte.

Latte is going great, he caramel and white ratio is changing as she becomes more caramel than white, her blue legs certainly stand out.

Mocha is still limping, we tried to put her in a small cage to make her more immobile and try to hasen her recovery, but she did not like being separated and just thrashed around inside the carry cage. So we released her back into the run with the other two girls. She seems happy, but thankfully she is sitting more now and not trying to range the block. When she does move about, she seems to limp more than hobble if that makes sense. She is alert and eating and still not being picked on.

Yesterday was dragging, so I got the tools out and decided to raise our little coop so it's easier to clean. I will get some photo's of it today as we will install it in the run.

It's been a big weekend so far, and we have a long weekend here, so another day tinkering around the place with the two boys before back to work Tuesday.

I have a couple more little hatch vids, and some photo's to put up later tonight.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Just a couple of pics.

They are all out now (except the one we were worried about. Candled it this evening and it had not changed since last time it was candled Day 18.

Six made it of the 7 that went into lock down.

A couple of images of the four in the brooder.



Light Sussex (L) and RIR (R)


Other RIR


Our two boy's, Cooper (6) and Riley (4) They are very happy as they can see into the brooder box hahahaha




How I found our only surviving Australorp.....gave me a heart attack! Heck of a way to take a nap.

Also, made a few changes to the coop to make getting around in it easier, and also more space for the birds. Nearly all recovered materials, I think I spend about $8 on a couple of lengths of nice timber for the roosts.






I have since cut some friction grooves into the little indoor feeder platform. Just testing if we want to keep that one as we also have a outdoor hanging feeder.


Thanks for reading so far.

 

[NovaAman]

Hey Ben, that lamp you have in there, it is an actual heat lamp? There is something you need to be careful of with lamps, if there is a teflon coating on the lamp or light, that can emit a gas that is extemely harmful to your chicks lungs...

Your set up is really cool! Your chicks are super cute! Just love chicks.

 

[horsesnchkns]

Congrats Ben! Been thinking about you guys all weekend. And when I got my babies almost 2 weeks ago (from a feed store, my first time) and I came in to find one sleeping, I freaked out too. I reached down to touch her and she bolted up... Scared us both! They just konk out however they land those first days.... It's a bit freaky! Looking forward to watching them grow with you!

 

[Bens-Hens]

The lamp is a new desk lamp, I have not seen any teflon on it, the inside is white, the outside is black paint. It's the same one the breeder was using in some of her brooder's. Some of the others had the large dome type reflectors.

I will do some research on the brand and double check.

Looking forward to them being big enough to play of the little roosting thing I made.

It's been tough keeping rules with the kids. We are worried about transfer from the older birds to these little ones before their immune system is strong enough to deal with outside. We have a strict set of rules about picking up the birds so hopefully that helps these little ones.

The family has chosen names now, best to use another pics to help hahahaha

Introducing, from top to bottom;
Rosie,
Milo,
Sunny,
Luna,
Lucky, and
Star



and one more to share of Milo, they are just so photogenic!

 

[Bens-Hens]

Today the wife and I sat and watched few youtube video's ad read some articles and we thing Milo is teh only cockerel we have of the bunch.

Time will tell if we were right of course, but we had nothing to loose learning this technique with our 1/2 Day olds.

FYI, here are the two video's I found rather helpful. I am sure the more experienced readers know ll this, but just wanted to share how we learnt it.

Mike Rowe's Dirty Job's. Sexing Chicks. I love this man's candor!


and part two


If we are right we are kind of staggered, we were expecting to loose more as cockerels than just one.