Candling video :) I GOT IT!

Ok I candled ALL the eggs today just so I could get rid of the bad ones and I ended up taking I think nine out total :(  2 of those were B size Serama's...one had a definite blood ring and was not alive...the others was totally clear.  SO here is the end results of what I have left.

Starting with the first set of eggs I got in the mail which were

6 Blue/Black/Splash Orpingtons.

1-6  ALL alive and moving :) 

Next set I got in the mail were from Kelly

7 SERAMA

4 are alive (one may be dead...I did not see any movement but kept it in there...I did seem veins so maybe he was asleep)
2 clear and removed
1 died in egg and removed

3 POLISH

1 was clear and removed
1 not sure yet...looks clear but left in there
1 alive and movement

1 Golden Phoenix ALIVE and movement :) 

Now the third shipment of eggs I got were fromSerendipity from a forum I visit

12 SEMATRA

8 are alive (one I did not see movement but seen veins) seen movement from the rest
4 were clear and removed

4 POLISH

1 movement
1 clear and removed
2 unsure but look clear and one with possible blood ring

SO now I'm down to 24 eggs and had to remove 9.  Prob  have to remove 3 or 4 more next week.  One exciting thing I DID get was movement in the egg...the first part of the video is hard to see but once I cover the light you can see it better...the second one I candled you can see even better.  Isn't that awesome! 


Here is a pic of the eggs I had to dump :(  Only 8  here because one was tossed a few days ago already.



Here WAS the incubator only minus one egg!  Now were down even eight more!



Well that's all I have for you today so I hope you are all well and I hope you enjoyed seeing the babies move in the egg today :)  

Chicks 1st Storm/why we had to go to coop at 12am! candleing results

The chicks had to endure their first thunder storm the night before last!  The next morning I went out there and they freaked out on me.  I can tell they were still a bit shaken up.  Poor things!  I spend about an hour in the morning (before Nic wakes up) with them and then an hour or sometimes it turns into two...after dinner.   They are getting so big...I have to take new pictures of them...they are coming up on 6 weeks old now!  Soon they will look like full blown chickens.  


Last night it got down to almost 40 degrees so at midnight when I looked at the outdoor temps hubby and I rushed out to the chicken coop and hooked up their heat lamp for the first time.  They were all huddled in a corner trying to keep warm...5 were up on the highest roost all scrunched together staying pretty warm as it was warmer up there.  So we got the thermometer out there and it soon reached 69 degrees in there.  I slept better knowing they were warm.  

Still no predators trying to get in that I can tell anyhow.  Not like they would succeed...I have fort knox built! 
They are all healthy as can be so far and they sure do eat alot! lol  I can't wait to start letting them out to forage.  We will be starting on the fence very soon as they only have to stay in their coop for two weeks before we will let them out into their run.  If we keep them in for two weeks they will then know where they have to go to go to bed at night and will do it on their own at dusk.  So this makes four days they have been in there.  I can tell they are REALLY anxious to get out and have a look around tho.  They all hang by the little chicken door begging for it to be opened lol.

We had to candle some eggs 6 orp eggs we candled on the 28th of June (their 7th day of incubation) and we candled the eggs from Kelly the day before yesterday...here are the results of that on day 7 of incubation:

6 Orps:  
         2 possible clear ones but left
         4 alive and one was moving already :)

Kelly's eggs:

7 Serama:
         1 clear had to be thrown out :(
         1 possible clear one but left it in.
         5 seen veins for sure!  They are fine

3 Polish:
         2 possible clear :( left them for now.
         1 saw clear veins for sure :)

1 Golden Phoenix
         1 Saw LOTS of veining :)

Tomorrow I will be candling the Sumatra eggs and more polish eggs (on THIER day 7 of incubation!) ...will post those results tomorrow. YES, I have three different  hatch days going on here lol.  On July 1st I candle MORE eggs on day 14 of incubation.  I'm going to try to take a video of the movements in a candled egg to see how it turns out. I SO want you guys to see this. It's so cool.  I tried taking pics of the candling results but it didn't work :( Tomorrow I will try the video.

Here is another video of my girls...hope I didn't share this one with you already...if I did, my apologies! 

Videos of chicks

Ok here are two videos and I have two more to come...excuse Addison's pooping right in front of the camera! :0  LOL  I just realized you can hear my dad in the background talking to Nic.

Got my camera...ready for some cuteness?? second day in coop

Ok first Everyone IS alive and well... we will start with the first day in the coop which was actually yesterday. I have video which I am working on uploading now...so I will do a separate entry for that. 

I took some hardware cloth out to the chicken door and nailed up two layers of it.  The first one i did earlier in the day but it wasn't cut right...I guessed.  So then the second one was over and I stapled it well.  THEN I put pieces of plywood over the edge of the wire and nailed it to the coop to be SURE nothing was getting in there.  Nothing did!  We did hear coyotes howling in the near distance last night tho. 




Her is our home made Serama coop...this will be used for a trio or maybe one more ;) for our Serama's.  It's measured at them having a little over 3 sq foot per bird.  And in the summer they get to go into a run and forage too.  This took us a little over  a day to make...we could have done it in one but we didn't have everything we needed.  The bottom front is plexiglass and boy do the cats LOVE it.  They usually lay right there watching/waiting. 








That table there in the bottom pic will later be tipped over for the Seramas (kelly gave me the idea) ...I have it there now to help with shavings in the water...id does help.  And the little guys can't jump UP onto it so I had to leave it lay flat.



Later I will decorate it up a bit or maybe add some siding ;)  So it looks nice for indoor use. 




NOW the chickens in their new home...the sure do love it in there as long as it's light outside!  lol  Of course Nic and I have our chairs in there.  Nic is finally learning to MOVE SLOW around the chicks.  He came close to stepping on two already!  Freaks me out!  So I told him he needs to stay sitting and let them come to him.  Lizzy DID go to him and he was pretty proud!  Can't ya tell! lol 




I also made a table for their food to help keep the water clean...works great! 
This water is hours old and LOOK NO shavings in it yet!



Now it's Emma's turn for a little loving from Nic. 



And Olivia takes her turn on ME! lol WHILE I was taking pictures. 




These girls LOVE crocks...It's a little blurry cuz YA they are picking at my feet and it hurt just a bit! lol 



They can fly!  These girls are checking out the nesting boxes with Nic's help.  Olivia, Izzy, and Emma.




It was HOT out but the girls STILL insisted on finding the ONLY tiny sun spot in the whole coop.  They are so much like dogs and cats!  NO matter HOW hot those animals always insist in laying in the sun spots!




Nic left...and so they all headed to the open chicken door crying for him to return. I think they forgot I was in there because when I talked to them they were all fine and started playing again lol




<brstyle="font-family: courier="" new;="">OK KELLY>>>this is for you.  Here is Kelly (the Serama) she is 4 weeks old now.  And the little girl next to her is only a week lol  She USED to be way smaller then Kelly but now she is taller. No sign of any red yet...but the comb seems to be getting bigger. </brstyle="font-family:>

I'm a BAD CHICKEN MOMMY!

OH I feel SO bad for my little girls!  I went back in the coop three times before I finally decided I could NOT spend the night out there with them :(  I spent literally HOURS making sure I had all the cracks and stuff covered well so nothing would get my girls.  The little hen door has two layers of hardware cloth stapled to the hole PLUS I put strips of wood around the edge of that and nailed it on so nothing could rip the screen off.  I could not even budge that wood...nothing else will.  I still feel so bad!  Spending literally hours in with them really REALLY got them super friendly...in ONE night!  I mean my salmon Faverolle jumped up in my lap, she hated me before!  I pet her and she stayed and enjoyed it.  My brown shy sex link!  SHE jumped up on my lap!  This was only ONE night of sitting and talking with them. 

They LOVE their new coop in the day light but boy once I turned their light out for the night it was like I was killing them!  THey were all crying and screaming for me to come back.  I went back in, turned on the light and stayed with them another 1/2 hour.  My dad came over and asked if I was going to spend the night with them! lol  I was about ready to cry it was so sad...they all crowded by the little chicken door when I would leave like they were crying for their mommy. :(   That worked THREE times...finally at 10pm I decided it was time to get them a few night lights and went back in the coop, plugged those in, and sat in my chair and turned out their lights once again. I sat there another 15 min in the dark just to see how they did.  This time they weren't quite so noisy but then I made a noise rolling my tongue at them, and everyone became suddenly quiet!  Instantly! lol  They were all crowding on one another in a corner. I just hope they are all right over night.  I'm going to be running my butt out there right when the sun comes up I can tell ya that!  I'm so worried about them I just no I"m not going to get any sleep tonight!  OHHH I'm getting my camera back tomorrow :)  WOOHOO!  Now I can take some video of the chickens in their new home...and take updated pics of them at 5 weeks old.  I hope everyone is having a great day!  I will be back tomorrow to let you know how everyone is. 

16 more eggs yesterday!&The "oceans 11 crew) have moved!

33 EGGS TOTAL! OK...here is what happened...  I am hatching out some Sumatra's for a guy on one of the forums I visit.  I had given him some chicks a while ago.  SO he had some eggs given to him but did not have an incubator.  I'm hatching his Sumatra eggs (whatever he wants of them are his) and I also asked for a few Polish WCB & BCW...found out today they may be both in there so that's cool!  Well she sent me 16 eggs! :)  I'm sure to get a pretty good  hatch out from them!  I hope all the polish will make it.  I can't wait to see those sweet birds!  Here is a picture of a polish if your curious what they will look like...are they not the cutest things ever!? I have three of those chicken in my bator right now.

These are not my pics...they were found on photobucket but just wanted to show you what they look like. 



Here is a white crested black or (WCB) Polish



Now for the BIG news.  The girls have moved outside today.  It makes me sad that they are not in  here anymore...I don't hear their cute peeps anymore.  But they LOVE LOVE LOVE it out there in their new big house.  They run from one side to the other and FLY and roll and dust bathe and chest butt. And all the fun things that chickens do.  I have my chair out there and Nic has his chair out there and we just sit in there with them and watch them be goofs. OH now THAT is NONstressful!  I'm sure I will spend many hours out there today with them until they go to bed for the night.  It's all sealed up and ready for the night.  Right now they do have two windows open for the warm breezes. 

We also have our Serama coop done and it has the medium babies in it now.  I have a dozen in there.  I'm keeping 5-6 of that dozen.   And I can pic up 7-8 chicks to keep out of the incubated ones.  Then my flock will be "mine" I picked and chose enough and I think I got a good flock going on so far.  4 more big girls will have new homes on July 5th so that will bring my ocean's 11 crew down to oceans 7...I'm keeping the cochins I hatched out from Kelly I have decided...I think one is a male and one is a female.  One is feathering out a lot faster then the other. 

OH how I wish I had my camera :(  I have wanted to take SO many pics today!  So many changes for my girls lately.  I hope they all do ok with the change.  I did add pine shavings rather then straw. I want to see how that goes.  I do have to pick up a few more bags at Fleet Farm now tho. 

Ok better get going but can't wait to show you pics of the new Serama coop that will be staying IN the house.  And I want to take a few video of the girls in their new home.  You can tell ME if you think they like it. lol 

Set 11 more eggs today! But guess what??

I got my eggs from Kelly Saturday (7 Serama, 3 Polish, and one golden phoenix :))and I set them this morning after giving them a little rest from the bumpy ride here.  But guess what!!  I forgot my camera 3 1/2 hours away from here (at the going away party we went to) so NO pics!  I'm going to email hubby's aunt to see if she can send it to me otherwise she was coming over here end of July. I don't th ink I can wait that long.  My chicks will be HENS by then!  I want to take pics as they grow.  PLUS they will be out in the hen house by the 4th of July weekend.  I need pics of that lol. 

Thank you Kelly for the eggs...I'm going to be sending you whatever eggs you want when I get some ;) 

I should be getting more polish (white crested black) and some Sumatra eggs coming either today or tomorrow.  Not sure how many!  Suppose to only be six but I guess she is sending more.  The guy I'm incubating them for will be taking the Sumatra but wasn't really interested in the Polish.  I want to keep two polish maybe three so not sure what to do with the others.  Kelly, I'm emailing you a question.  Well, hope to get my camera back soon!

Time for more pics! And a CLOSE CALL!

We will start with the close call.  Last night my dad said he had went down to go to bed and the "chicken door" was open.  It's the door that goes to our family room...we call it a chicken door so when I say "did you close the chicken door" everyone will know what door I'm talking about.  SO anyway,  I went down like I always do before bed and make sure everyone has water and whatnot and i opened the chicken door and out comes JACK!  I can't even tell you how much i DID NOT want to walk over to the new chick box (which is ALL open NO COVER).  I did and guess what I seen?  12 happy little sleeping birds!~  WHEW...Jack was down there in that room for at least 3 hours!  What a good kitty!  He did not eat my birds :) 

Ok now for chicken pictures...here is the "Oceans 11 crew" AT 4 WEEKS OLD

We will start out with the Sex Links...here is 'BELL' the brown sex link: She keeps to herself but will put up with me if she has to.  She would rather avoid Nic tho.




Our Black Sex Link 'EMMA' she is one of the first ones to say hi.  She is my outgoing girl




Here is our Red sex link 'IZZY'  She is always happy and wants to be by us.  Right now she is the head of the pecking order.  Our younger giant cochin is working on it though! You should see them chest butting.  It's so funny.  That Giant cochin will catch up to those girls in no time.  His/her head is huge!  Prob bigger then the 11 girls already.  And he/she is a week younger. 




This is our SWEET SWEET girl 'ADDISON'  OH is she a cuddle bun...she is still a little shy but once you got her she wants to snuggle with you. She is a standard sized cochin.  She is always nice to the other hens even the tiny girls :)  She is my mother hen. She and Kelly (the Serama) are my favorites ;)  GOTTA love something with feet that look like THAT! 




Here we have the Buff Brahma girls.  These girls are shy but also very sweet!  They are my quiet girls.  Very  nice to everyone also...just like Addison.  First we have 'ZOE' my lighter brahma. 




Then we have 'ABBY' who is a little bit darker then Zoe.



Here is 'MAYA' one of my EE's...they lay blue/green eggs.  She is a very shy girl but I'm working on her.  She's very good girl. 



Here is 'NALA' another EE.  She is a BIG girl...our biggest one.  I used to think she was a he but not so much anymore.  She is getting to be a pretty good girl.  She is also NOT shy...she loves us...she is also our "wall pecker" CONSTANTLY pecks on walls!  She is I think the only one who is not afraid to go by Nic lol. She is one of our sweetest babies!
 




Here is our Silver Laces Wyandotte  'KALA'  she is our biggest secret...lol we never know what to expect from her.  One minute she is shy and the next she wants to be by us.  Never know!  She keeps us entertained ;)  were always guessing what she will want today!  <brstyle="font-family: courier="" new;="">



Here is our Salmon Faverolle 'VIOLET'  she is our strange one  lol  She still does not want much from us and wants to keep to herself.  No matter how much I work with her she still does NOT want us to pick her up.  Now once we have out out she is totally fine..doesn't act scared or anything.  Just don't know! lol



Then we have Miss 'OLIVIA'  oh she is our new sweetest baby girl.  She all of a sudden wants ALL the attention and when Izzy used to be the first to jump on my arm, SHE is now!  She is SO soft!  She is one of our nicest girls. And never pecks us either :)



Ok There you have the Oceans 11 crew...now I want to share another pic of Kelly...she is just totally adorable isnt she!  I did just notice while taking these pics that her little wing feathers had been picked :(  I feel so bad.  She seemed to be holding her own in there but I think the girls just got TOO big for her to handle. I'm glad I got her out when I did. UPDATE:  JUST FOUND OUT KELLY IS A BOY :)  Now I just need two girls! 






Here you can really see the size difference now! 




Check out the crew using their roost.  They are now starting to put their little heads under their wings to sleep!  It's SO cute! 



It's funny...most of them will face the wall to roost at night.  Well, there you have it!  My Ocean's 11 crew! I love them so much...it's so funny how they all have personalities that I know well now.  I know how each one likes to be picked up and held and for how long too!  They have been just a total joy!</brstyle="font-family:>  

Almost finished coop/more chick pics

Howdy!  Boy I have been pretty busy.  Cory got a new picture site up for me since shutterfly has been nuts!  Shrinking all my photos!  GRRRR!  Anyway, i'm all set now and have better photos too!  You can click on the photos and seem other photos too if you want.

Here is my paint project I did tuesday. I got the undercoat primer on the outside of the coop and I got the inside FINISHED! OH wait...still have the floor to pain.  I have it sealed now only.  That will be fast and easy tho.    It's ready for chicks as soon as that is done and it airs out :)  Whew that is a relief off my mind.  I'm going to finish the floor today :)

LOL I just noticed we still have my watermark on my photos...were gong to take it off...just wanted to try it out to see if it worked.  I love this new pic site!  We still have the main coat to do and the roof underside and two sides up by the roof.  That is Stefan's job when he gets home tho...I can't reach it well. 






Here are the nesting boxes.  I did seal them but I don't think I will paint them inside.




We brought out our first "renter" here is our sweet Barred Rock hen who is four weeks old now.  Her name is Olivia....she is a sweet sweet baby girl and she just adores us.  She is one of the girls who will come right to me when I reach in their box. 

 




Our new babies a week old now



Here is Kelly with her buddies (cochins) she hatched with


 


Remember I had to separate poor Kelly...those hens were SO outgrowing her!
We are in the process of making her indoor coop...I will take pics as we go. 

Ok that's it for this entry...I am doing another entry with my "Oceans 11 crew" in a bit.  They have really gotten huge!  They are all 4 weeks old now. 

Pictures of my new babies!

I finally got on here to take some pictures of the new additions :) 

My little Buff Orpingtons (Alexandra & Theodora) They are SO very soft!  I love them! 



Here is a close up of one of Alexandra.  (Don't ask how i know! lol)



Here is one of my Mille Fleur D'uccle's.  We got 7...ordered 6 but got one free :)




Here are my two girl Australorps



Here is my boy Australorp (he has the biggest comb)





Now, here are some of my older girls!  They are REALLY growing!  I didn't get a pic of all of them but here is some.

Here is Kelly....still now sure if she is a she or a he...what do you thinkKelly.  NO red yet at all.






Here is second fav...my cochin Addison  OH She is a doll! SO very nice and she is SO frizzly looking!  And has HUGE feathered feet now!  SO cute!







Look at her feet!  Oh I just want to cuddle her!  lol



Ok now on to one of my Brahma (Zoey)...I love them both but this little girl is my fav of the two.  She is lighter and just a little more friendly too. 






Well that's it for now...will take more of the others later :)  Enjoy your week!