What I did with the newest babies

  Since the other 14 were getting so big now I added a blockade until the little peeps get a little stronger.  The others are so big compared to them!  I sure hope they get alone when I introduce them.




The newest babies...Kelly, does the cochin in the middle look blue to you?  Or is it just because it's not dried all the way?  It was pretty dry tho.

My video of a chicken hatching :)

I finally got this done!  I hope you enjoy...it's just under 7 min.  I edited it down from 13 lol  And then my battery died so I missed the very first  part of him first getting his head out of his shell!    I do have another video that's about 8 min long with the whole thing taped.  I will post that one too.

TWO MORE HATCHED <<<UPDATED>>>

I have FOUR now that hatched out of the eight eggs I set.  I HOPE to get more pips but none so far.  I may end up with a 50% hatch rate which when considering I had electricity go out and had to open the bator many times to get humidity right I guess that's pretty good.  I will post pics tomorrow..hubby has the "good" computer! 

Just went up to check on my 2 new babies and there was ANOTHER pip!  YEAH!  Now I will have four cochin babies!  I just wish that Phoenix would get on the ball and pip!

Update on the chicken coop

I have been so involved with the hatch I haven't posted what we did on the coop lately.
If you missed the hatch go back to the last entry for that!  BTW Another just hatched and I got a video! :)  I will post it after this entry.  I have to download lots of video...I will try to make it a 5 min hatch by getting the most important parts for you all to watch ;)


Ok here are some updated coop pictures: Small window started that will open




Stefan Nappin in the coop! LOL  He still wasn't feeling well from the migraine he had



We have electricity!



This is our special daylight bulb to keep the hens laying all winter.



Our roof is finished too! Looks good! 



Hen house in between two blooming apple trees :)  How beautiful is that! 

I have a HATCH!

Of COURSE  it come while I was sleeping!  Little bugger! I wanted SO bad to see it hatch but I could not stay up any later.  I stayed up till 1am and was up at 6am the day before so I tried my best!  I think pictures are going to work today so here we go!

Here is the first pip I noticed yesterday afternoon it's to the left side of the egg kind of to the middle:  Temps at 99.5 and humidity is at 65%



My camera sucks at close ups but here you can kind of see the double pip...he broke it right above the old pip:



Then I noticed another pip from the cochin egg! Look way to the left in the middle



Then HE did a double pip...or wider I should say



Then I could not stay up any later so I went off to bed and quess what I seen when I woke up?? And empty egg shell!  And then I seen the baby Serama laying down resting!  BUT breathing to my relief!  



No difference in the cochin egg yet...prob soon! I may be able to record it! 

NOW A QUESTION FOR YOU!?

Do you think I will have to move my bator!? 

I have another PIP!

One of my Giant cochins have piped!  Tomorrow at this time I SHOULD have two chicks!  Still can't post pics but I HAVE them TO post!  Will try tomorrow!  So that makes 2 of 8 eggs that have pipped I hope to see more pips in the morning and maybe some Zips of the two that have piped tonight!  Watch for updates ;)  AND PICTURES! 

I have a PIP!

For those of you who don't know what a pip is it's a little crack in the egg where the chicken begins it's Zip to hatch.  It will now Zip the egg all the way around the egg and pop the top off and come out :) I 'm SO very excited!  When I seen that little pip this afternoon I was calling/emailing my family lol. I feel like a new mommy! 

Kelly sent me an email telling me to send her my number so she could call me! LOL  So she called me a while ago and we had a really nice talk :)  Thanks for calling Kelly and I LOVED your accent too.  Just love  that Texan accent.  Kelly, I have free calling after 7pm to anywhere in the US so I will call you when I get some more pips or hatches maybe tomorrow?  I HOPE! 
I left to pick Cory up about an hour and 1/2 ago and we just got home and no additional pips at all but I DID see the other Serama egg move!  Hopefully a pip soon.  I will be really excited to wake up tomorrow to see how far they come.  I DO have pictures that I will hopefully be able to post tomorrow.  Right now aol is giving me trouble and I can't post pictures!  It wasn't even letting me add an entry at all but now at least I can add an entry!

Watch for more hatching action tomorrow :) 

10 Chickens gone :(

It's awful quiet in our basement with almost 1/2 of the flock gone.  I had to sell them though because I wouldn't have had enough room in the hen house for all of them and I have 8 more in the incubator to add to our existing flock.  Christine and her kids came and picked them up this morning.  I'm happy it was someone that will share pictures with me as they grown and change.  Nic says he misses them already ;)  Poor guy!  I sold Stefan's favorite one and MINE too because I was pretty sure it was my male...At least I HOPE..otherwise we would have kept it.  It was the cutest of the birds and we all fell in love with it. 

So we are now down to a flock of 14...and we will add to that whatever hens and one rooster we get from my hatch. The remaining roo's will be sold. The Serama's should be hatching today and the rest should hatch tomorrow or possibly the next day since I had four hours with no electricity right after the first week they were incubated.  No pips as of yet but I'm watching!  I will take pics as soon as I see any :)  I will also try to get a video of it as long as they don't hatch in the middle of the night!  :)  I swear I seen one of the Serama eggs move but it would have been all in my head!  I want them to hatch so bad I'm probably seeing things! 

What does having chickens involve?

Well, I can tell ya this...it's not as easy as I thought BUT it is totally enjoyable :) I love them and I spend a lot of time with them.  The biggest thing is to keep their butt clean from concrete poopy! lol  If you don't check their butt daily some of the chicks build up what we call pasty butt and it's HARD!  poor things can't poop if you leave it there and they can die.  So I have a check session every morning and so far I have two chicks who are prone to it.  One will be gone Wed but the other I'm keeping. I will have to tell the lady who is taking the one that this happens and she needs to be watched.  It's pretty easy to get rid of...run their butts under warm water while rubbing on it gently to loosen the stool  and then it's washed away! Takes about 15 min.  I give them a break in between tho it gets to stressful on them.  I have been adding olive oil to their butt area and so far so good!  No more pasty butt yet but I only did it  a few hours ago. We will check tomorrow. 

They are the cutest sweetest things tho!  I don't even mind the work.  I have to clean their water twice a day because the crazy fuzz butts go hog wild and kick dust in the water....then I stir up their bedding every morning and add some fresh pine shavings.  They LOVE that.  They are already starting to take dust baths and it's SO adorable.
I already saved three chicks that would have died had I not done what I done :) one  needed to be forced watered and the other two had pasty butt so bad they could no longer go potty,  that makes me feel pretty happy that I knew enough to help them...thank you BYC! I read a LOT of chicken forum and thank god I did!  :) 

Now as they grow it will get increasingly harder to get rid of pasty butt and there will be other issues I run into but I will adjust to them and I will do what  needs to be done to save them. 

Today I noticed they are establishing their pecking order already.  I can tell which one is boss already.   I hope it's not the male as It's my favorite one and she/he is beautiful!  We are handling them all day (ever few hours) every day so they are getting used to human attention and we had one sitting on the dogs head!  I have to share that picture here in a bit.  I'm holding Max's mouth not because I'm worried he will eat him but to hold his head steady lol.  

Another thing...we threw a worm in there and they had a field day with that!  BIG TIME. Kelly, it SO reminded me of yours with that mouse! lol  I will take a video of it tomorrow when we throw another in there for them.  They were chasing each other and on the run until one of them ate it lol.   TOO CUTE!  I swear everyone NEEDS chickens!  They are so much fun and so calming to watch!  Oh and just to watch them sleep!  It's so cute!  Some stretch out with their legs flat behind them and some lay on their backs.  

Well the chicken coop is getting shingles today...the boys spent the night out there last night and had their tv and computer out there.  They loved it! LOL  We will be ready to pain very soon.  Tomorrow a window goes in.  I have pictures of that too...I will start sharing the pics not and shut up about my babies!  Kelly I can see now why chickens are ADDICTING!  I need another house for NEW chicks! LOL 

All but the right one (she was picking on her x pasty butt) were sleeping face down in the pine shavings.



A red star sitting on my cell phone.



That same red star on Max's head.  I'm holding his head steady so the bird doesn't fall.



Again Sitting on Max.  I LOVE this picture.  Were working on training Max to be gentle and stay calm around the chicks.  Every day we set the chicks on top of him in a different place. 



This is Nala our "boss" chicken.  This is the one I HOPE is not a male. 



This is the one I'm pretty sure is the Red Shoulder Yokohama (below)





The door to our coop.  It works wonderfully!  And there is NO way anything but human can open it.  We will do pretty much the same for the chicken door.  I don't want the smart coons coming in and opening the chicken door while were sleeping!




The boys are camped out inside the chicken coop (Stefan and Trevor) That's an air mattress in the corner there. lol 



The guys were finishing up the roof when it started pouring rain.  They come running for cover!  Trevor lost his shoe on the way.



Check out Stefan's umbrella! 





Wet backs...funny they both are wearing their wrestling shirts lol. They got to different schools. 



Notice hubby is a little more wet and the boys are laughing at him.  Readhis shirt! LOL



That's all the pictures but I do have video which I will post tomorrow.  Hope you all have a great day :) 

Check out their ways of sleeping :) CUTE

Ok I fell in love with these thing even more when I seen how they sleep! lol Check ou the black Barred rock with his leg kicked out and his face plastered in the wood chips...does he not look DEAD!? 



Look at Isabella with her leg kicked out.  (the whiteish one)





This one is just hanging out in my hand:



They have been SO fun. I can't wait to see how they will all look as they grow.

How did our night go with the chicks?? Introduction

Well, when I went down there over 1/2 of the paper towel was off the pine shavings so I just cleaned it up and took out the paper towel.  I wanted to leave it on two days but if they are going to continue to take it off then there is no point wasting paper towel.  They were all pretty active this morning except one who had pasty butt.  She had a hardened  waste on her butt.  So I soaked it well and while I was doing that over the sink (thank god)  she really let loose! lol  She has to feel much better now. lol  I don't know if chicks can die from that or not.  I just know she wasn't feeling the best.  It was not the same one that was sick before...that one is totally normal now :)  I was so scared to go down there this morning thinking some would be dead but they were all great and playing in the shavings.  Kicking it all around...into the water, food, each others  fur! lol  I have to find something to put the water up on.

I have lots of pics to share:  Pictures are below the writings

Here are all the different kinds I got...3 brown stars...I recently thought they were Ameraucana's but I was wrong BUT the white one IS an Ameraucana.  The white one is Isabella and the other one were keeping is one of the ones with less brown on the left side and her name is Bell We had to sell the white one as I thought she was acting maleish :( we really miss her/him (this was updated on 5/28)



Three Salmon Faverolle's One is leaving...the other two's names are Ava and Violet Can't tell them apart just yet.  I will find a way! lol



Two barred rock (plymoth rock) Only keeping one and her name is Olivia



Two Buff Brahma's  (these two girls are my favorite along with the cochins!) Zoe and Abby (darker one)



Two black cochins (Addison is the one in the back were keeping her) Steele will be her mate and he is in incubator  yet.  Lily is also in incubator which will be Steels other mate.  Well, ok Steele will have MANY mates as he is the only male I will have lol.



Two silver laced Wayandottes Saba (the more white stripes) and Kala



Two Black Star (the awesome egg layers) suppose to have three but they shorted me one.  (below) One is darker then the other and her name is Emma and the other is Ella



THESE are the Ameraucana's The puffy cheeked one is Nala, the other two are Zada and Maya we have two left now...we have Nala and Maya



 


Now I have another problem...out of the four chicks below...ONE Of them is a red shouldered yokohama and I can't tell which one that is lol.  THe other three are Gold Stars (yet more awesome egg layers) The Gold Stars are named  Izzy, lola, and Lila





There is my crew of 24 chicks...five possibly six of whom are leaving me on Wed :( 

1 cochin
1 barred rock
1 yokohama
1 faverolle
1 Ameracauna

I will sure miss them!  BUT will replace them with whats in my incubator :)

Video of my chicks

Why didn't I have chickens years ago??  They are the cutest things ever! 

Here they are in their tiny box right after we got them home from the post office

Update on the sick chick

Well....I was so worried about the little girl I carried her around because the others were picking on her.  I got an eye dropper and gave her some electrolytes and vitamins mixed in water at the corner of her mouth.  She drank it and about 10 min later she was up and running around with the best of um!  :)  I don't think she was strong enough to drink on her own yet.  Now she's eating and I can't tell which was the sick one and which was the healthy one! lol  She mixes right in now.  I feel so fortunate to have ALL the babies make it and all doing well.  I am SOO in love with all of them and I have to let six go next week wed :(  I wish I wouldn't have put an ad out now :(  LOL  She wants one of the cochins and there is one littler one and one bigger one.  I am in love with BOTH they are both so friendly and love to be by you already.  

The CUTEST thing...I picked up one of my buff brahma's and when I went to put it down it laid in my hand and went to sleep.  I lifted it back up and went to sit on the couch and he slept in my hand for almost 1/2 hour!  I have a picture...I had Nic run to get the camera and I tried to snap it the best I could lol  She slept right through the flash.  There is only a few I can't tell what they are yet.  I know most of them.  I have been watching them for 4 hours now!  LOL  I came up to eat...I was SO hungry. It's noon thirty and I hadn't had breakfast or lunch yet.  I WILL post those videos I just have to eat something fast. 

OH and Chris...these chickens are layers and we WILL NOT eat them!  Oh I could NEVER raise meat chickens!  Not a chance!  Not after today.  These babies will live a happy life here and feed us breakfast every morning :)

Kelly, yes I did dip their beaks in water and most started drinking right away lol It was so funny.  It felt so weird picking them up!  I had never held a bird before and it was just so funny feeling.  They are so tiny! 

Here is the little buff sleeping on my hand.  This is just amazing! :) I could have sat there and cuddled her all day. 



He was so sound asleep his head fell lol. 

The Chickens are HERE :)

7AM this morning exactly we got a call from our Post Master saying our chicks had arrived :)  We jumped out of bed and got ready.  Nic was already up and ready to go.

They came in a much tinier box then I ever expected!  It was not much bigger then a sheet of paper!  LOL I thought to myself "man they must have forgot some"!~  But nope, 25 were happily squirming around in the box.  Here is a picture of the box with the chicks still in it:



The were noisy little things that's for sure!  I have a video. I will share it in a separate entry soon.

I carried them home on my lap of course...they were chirping pretty good in the PO but boy once we got them out in the cold wind they really let out some chirps! 

This little black girl has ate, drank, and now she's hunkered down for a little shut eye although she keep getting trampled upon from the little other energetic chicks.  So far everyone is being good...except we have one little yellow girl who seems to like to pick a little on the other ones...if that keeps up I will put her in solitaire confinement for a while. 



We decided to let Max explore the babies: He was VERY interested! 



He went from one side of the box:



To the other! LOL



He just could not reach them no matter where he was!  Then we heard a loud MEOW and look what I seen:



So we decided to put the cover on and let Jack in to see what all the tweeting was about.  Max kept nudging him with his head as if to say "YOU FIRST"



Then we let the little babies sleep a while.  Most were trying to hunker down for a some shut eye.  One little baby doesn't seem to be doing so well.  She is in a corner all by herself and keeps lifting her head up like there is something stuck in her throat.  i didn't see anything and I checked her butt...all looks fine.  We will see how she does.  We possibly may lose one :( 

Ok I want to get this entry out so I will add a fresh entry withvideo :)  Watch for that after I download them.