Saturday, December 31, 2011

Hatching!

It's day ten of my very first attempt to hatch chickens.   Of the thirty-four I started with, candling indicates 27 are still viable and progressing nicely.    Can't wait to see how many hatch.   So far the mix includes seven serama eggs, one d'uccle, two sizzles, splash marans and some of my "mutt" eggs.

Eggs in the 'bator.  Marans to the right.


The tiny serama eggs are hiding under the guts of the machine and right over the water well so they get plenty of humidity.

The splash marans are a very pretty and lay dark brown eggs.  This particular group came from a color project so the depth of color in the eggs still needs work.   I plan to purchase a black copper maran rooster in the spring to get deeper brown eggs and possibly blue wheaten marans offspring.

The seramas were not originally part of the plan but a bonus batch of eggs.  After doing some research on this breed of chickens I became fascinated.  Serama are a tiny pet chicken roughly the size of a parrot.  They are very friendly and strut their stuff with a cocky attitude.   If you'd like to see pictures here is a link to the Feathersite page on  Serama

I will also be adding a pair of Cream Legbar chicks from Greenfire Farms as soon as the Virginia permit is granted after the new year.  Also ordered to accompany those two peeps will be a straight run group of Marraduna Basque chickens (Euskal Oiloas)  The Legbar is a British breed of auto-sexing chicken that lays blue eggs.  The Euskal Oiloas is a friendly farm breed developed in the Basque country (between France and Spain in the Pyrnees.)  They are supremely suited to free range husbandry.

Bantam white silkies are also on my list of chickens to acquire for 2012.  They are a small breed that don't fly, are considered "lap chickens" and best of all, they are broody.   Silkies will be my natural hatchers.

The remaining breeds on my wish list are Lavender Orpingtons, Barred Hollands and White Laced Red Cornish.  I will also add Narragansett turkeys, but I suspect that might not be until 2013.   An additional coop will be required for them which takes time to build.

Wishing you all a safe, prosperous and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

1 comment:

  1. Oh how exciting, it's always so much fun to hatch out chicks. Good luck!

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