Its all your fault

[its hilly]

Well it had to happen. All those exciting egg posts set me off thinking.

So there are 11 Silver Sussex, 4 Araucana and 6 mini white Silky eggs sitting in my spare room next to the freshly disinfected inci It would have been 12 SS but I fumbled opening the box and bloomin cracked one..bother (yeah ok thats not really what I said but there are polite people out there)
The SS are an outcross for existing birds. The Araucana are Lynda's fault cos she gave me a lavender cockeral with Scooby and the girls, and hes just SOOO sweet, and pretty eggs too. And the Silkies are something I've wanted forever.
So keep fingers crossed folks. Tomorrow will be day one...

[walldanzig]

I hold no responsability for this. Good Luck Hilly

[MaureenHall]

Good luck Hilly The "how many chooks have we got" thread should (hopefully!!) be going up a lot in the next few weeks. My lot are due to hatch at the end of next week

[broadway]

Excuse my ignorance on this subject, how long do they take to hatch?

[Nicos]

Excuse my ignorance on this subject, how long do they take to hatch?

21 days!...tempted????

[broadway]

21 days!...tempted????

I am Nicos but I think it will tease my staffie too much

[kirsty b]

I haven't added the babies to the 'how many' thread yet cos they are still quite little and there is 'many a slip etc etc..

But himself has just put another 6 in the incy.....day 1 today, as they went in yesterday evening!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Day one and counting......................keep us updated!

[kirsty b]

I am Nicos but I think it will tease my staffie too much

I have a VERY interested Boxer. She's a gentle soul who will probably want to just love and lick them, but shes 100 times there size and the shock of it would probably kill the poor wee things! Despite her disappointment, she is not allowed to play with them, and just hangs her head over the box watching them.
If I have to leave the room, she has to come too and the door is shut after us! Don't trust that curiosity won't get the better of her

[its hilly]

Its not my dog thats the problem, its my darn cat..sneaky little so'n'so. Thats why they're in the dog cage

Sudden thought..put dog and cat in cage, keep chicks downstairs with us. Much less hassle

On a similar note..brought a sick adult chook home for some tlc. Put it in the kitchen..food handy, tiled floor, door to yard for fresh air. The cat, who normaly insists on being in the kitchen with us, took one look at the feathered invader...and ran

[kirsty b]

Heard a little scuffle last night, and got up to see cat jump out of box looking guilty.
Chicks unharmed and didn't make any distressed noises, but I was only 4 feet away!! Cat has never been much of a hunter as she hardly ever goes out, so I'm hoping she was just curious.

However, I'll be bringing home a length of chicken wire from allotment this morning to cover the box with, don't want to shut it too much in the day so the chicks have daylight and fresh air as well as warmth from heat bulb.

[its hilly]

Quick update
Dont what it is with me and the electricity board but as soon as i set the inci off..we have power cuts
So far we've had two. The first one wasnt too bad as i was woken up by the phone bleeping cos its battery was going flat (it only takes 1/2 hr) so the inci was warm, quick wrap of spare duvet, and power came back on less than an hour later.
Second one was possibly longer, and it didnt get wrapped cos I was out, but it was still warm when I came in, and the power came on as I came in.
So all in all it'll be a miracle if anything hatches. I'd candle them but I'm no good at it

[RichmondHens]

If incubation is interrupted early on then it shouldn't be a problem. It's when it happens in the middle or late stage that you can lose the embryo. All that is likely to happen with the eggs cooling within the first couple of days of setting is that the hatch day will be a day or two later, so don't give up hope yet. Good luck!

[Nicos]

My moms leave their eggs for half an hour or so in the nest when they nip out for afternoon tea and a quick natter with their chums!

I'd have thought an inci would have kept a bit warmer than an 'open' nest???

[RichmondHens]

I still worry a bit when I see a broody off the nest for any length of time and start checking the time over and over. I've known eggs to go almost completely cold (on the surface at least) before now while the hen is away, and I've been hopping around, desperate for her to come back, but it has never seemed to impact on the hatch. Mother Nature always knows best!