Hatching Eggs

Just some rambling thoughts on my plans with hatching the chicken eggs and your input is always appreciated, of course!

I'm half way through this hatch and FINALLY figured out candling and saw some embryos! I was so eggcited! (Pun intended!) Now I'm REALLY getting excited! One that I was successful at candling was the dark Maran egg! That made my day! I found an Energizer 1 Watt LED Light! It's a smallish flashlight and BRIGHT! The glass is smaller than a regular size so much better for keeping the light on the egg itself. I could detect the air cells, embryos and even saw some veining. It wasn't completely dark either! I paid $4.99 for the light and it came with batteries too! Much cheaper than buying a candler light for considerably more money and paying shipping too! I LOVE a good deal!

I'm going to do another clutch of chicken eggs after this one and that might be the last for the chickens this year. It's too nasty and cold here during the Winter and I don't want young and small birds trying to survive it. I'd like them to be close to or fully grown so they can make it through comfortably. Chickens can stand some pretty cold weather but they need to be healthy and to be dry. We're building them a new coop!

I am hoping in the next hatch to be able to get some pullets along with a replacement roo from my Favorelles and also more Cochin chicks. I'd really like another Cochin roo but am hoping that one of the cochin eggs (not mine) in the incubator can be the roo prospect. I'm hoping I can find some Favorelle eggs for next Spring to bring in some new bloodlines and hopefully improve on the birds I have. Then I'll have a new roo that way too.



The Favorelle roo learned some pretty bad behavior at his previous home and was allowed to continue it. He's not wanting to back off now and respect my space. I even tried to cage him and have him learn that I supplied his food and water and I'm not so bad. Instead he attacked me everytime I opened the cage and managed to spur the back of my hand badly. It swelled badly and immediately infected even though I grabbed my milking clean up and cleaned it out. He's going to be replaced and become roo-stew! I will say I've never seen a roo who can jump you and be flipping circles in the air all tucked into a ball except his spurs going. He was like a wet cat in a cat fight! Carried around by the feet to show him he needed to shape up only meant he was going for my legs with his beak and he was trying to propell himself upwards to right himself. He didn't back off the bad behavior and just "take the ride". Like all animals, if we don't teach them to respect humans and at least be civilized (preferably mannered too) they end up as bad citizens. Shame on us for not doing our part as owners!

After I finish the next chicken hatch, I'm hoping to be able to try a couple dozen guinea hen eggs for some guinea chicks to sell. I'm not seeing them on Craigslist for sale in my rural area so hope they would sell reasonably easy. Then I'd have a reimbursement for some chicken feed or the incubator or such.

So there's my thoughts on my 2010 egg hatching. Of course it is subject to change as I can't turn down a GREAT deal if it would come across! I'd have to consider it at the least!