Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[lcw1995]

nice keets peeps
ive got 5 now
3 males and 2 females
2 hatched in late september so a prety late hatch for me
the girls havent started yet this year
older female is still raisin the 2 babies and the 1 baby is to young yet
so no hatches till much later

goodluck on the rest of your hatches
im sure you'll get plenty more keets

 

[blessedchick]

They are all healthy, eating, drinking, running around pooping all over the brooder and ready to go to a new home, you can come get them! lol

You can't believe how quickly I would be there if I could! Hmmm....wonder how many I can fit in a dog carrier under the airplane seat...

 

[PeepsCA]

Since they wouldn't have NPIP paperwork you'd have to stuff them in your pockets or bra, keep them quiet and smuggle them home, lol

 

[bemba]

Tahh dahhhhh....!!!

CONGRATS PEEPS!!!!! Awesome looking keets! What colour is the one looking at itself in the mirror on the first pic?

 

[Country Chickens]

Wow these are beautiful! Soo preeettyy!!!

You are making me keet-hungry for ours to hatch. We have a few (five that looked viable) due to hatch in a little over a week, and I can't wait!

Got a question for you, though...The female who started laying early was (we think) our pied, and we are guessing the sire is a pearl grey, since he was the only truly mature male. This year we had only planned on keeping keets that were rare colors and selling all the pearl greys, and we already have a buyer waiting on these. BUT we are now wondering if maybe we should keep some in hopes that this female's daughters would grow up to be early layers, too. What do you think? Or is my logic all skewed?

Thaaanks!!! I am loving your pics and flock!!!

 

[PeepsCA]

Thanks Bemba!!!

That little guy lookin' at himself in the mirror in the 1st pic... you mean the one with the grey and tan broken striped head, lighter grey/tan striped body with white wings all the way to the shoulders? That's a Coral Blue. They feather out to a really pretty light blue color and have partial pearling in the flank area, barring on the wings. Absolutely adorable as little keets, but they lose all the white as soon as they start feathering out. I have 7 of them in the flock those eggs came from.

I made a big chocolate cake and a batch of brownies for Valentines day, with eggs that I collected from the Hens in that same flock, all eggs from the 13th (12 eggs total)... I checked for fertility as I cracked each one open and it looked to me 100% were fertile! I felt so guilty for cooking with them rather than setting them, lol. But at least I know my fertility rate is improving!

My 2nd hatch started last night, there were 12 or 13 wet keets in the hatcher this morning, with another 10 or so eggs to go still... 2 of which have already pipped the shell and all but one of the rest look like they have live keets wiggling around in them (and have internally pipped). Loos like I'll be getting a much better hatch rate this time. Hard to tell at this point, but in the batch of wet keets I think I can see a Coral Blue, a couple Pied Lavender and Lite Lavenders, a Chocolate (might be a Blonde, it looks pretty light), another Royal Purple, another Brown, a few Pied Browns and looks like someone snuck in a Pied Pearl Grey on me this time too, lol. I'll be sure to post pics after the hatch is over.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quick peek... hehe!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Hi PeepsCA!! Remember me? I hope so, you sure did help me so much last year when I was hatching out my first try at Guineas, thank you again! OMG, look at your adorable keets! And so early!

Anyway, I have 50 BW quail eggs in the incubator (finally gave in and bought me a Hovabator 1588 and LAWSY, how divine compared to the LG I was trying to work with!) but have decided not to incubate any guineas this year. Famous last words, possibly......I don't know if I can control myself if I happen upon a nest. We will see. For now, the quail eggs are giving me my "fix."

 

[PeepsCA]

Hi Tar!!! Of course I remember you! Congrats on the 1588!!! I love mine (both of them) to death! So easy easy easy, and stable... and the big window rocks!
Glad you are at least gettin' a hatch fix with a batch of BWQ eggs... but I bet eventually you do end up finding a nest of Guinea eggs and setting those too... 'cause once that incubator's going and you get used to looking in it every time you walk by, it's a HARD habit to break, lol. I was thinking about hatching some button quail cuz I've read they are about the size of bumble bees when they hatch but I haven't gotten around to ordering any eggs... cuz yah, early Guinea eggs again for me this year, but I'm not complaining too much, yet

Good luck with your BWQ hatch, bet those are some cute lil fuzz babies!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Soooo.....how many did you end up hatching/keeping/selling last year? What's in your aviary right now? What's your goal for this year? I have such good memories of being GLUED to this website last year when I was hatching my guineas last year. Don't know how people did this without the internet, that's FO SHO.

So, I ended up having a little business going last year! Sold some of my guineas! Fun.....I have a good solid flock of nine here now...four pearls, one pied, three lavender and one hang-in-there white. They are totally free-range, but completely codependent. SO funny and entertaining. Last year was a roller coaster, GOD, they will drive you crazy....if they aren't getting picked off by predators, they are just running off.

Two of my pearls were hatched at the same time, and sold as tiny keets to a woman nearby. She loved them SO MUCH she got them used to living IN HER HOUSE. As they matured, they got aggressive towards their little dogs, and she called me and asked me if I would take them back. Those two are the NOISIEST, most NOSY birds ever, and they have made the rest of the flock nosy. They line up on the deck and LOOOOOK into the house every day between 10-11 am. Those two "buckwheat" all day, all the time, non-stop.

Nice to talk to you again.