A chick!!

[jessmorris]

SB - I think you may be able to sex them when they first feather up at about a week. I've just read that with Pekins the girls have four rows feathers, the boys two. I'll try it out and ring them and see if it works. Sometimes the feathers are different lengths for the different sexes (legbars??) - there may be something on the tinternet 'bout sablepoots.....

What a b***er about your broody! Can't believe hens can be so contrary! I've no idea if they will be ok or not, someone else may tho' - Richmond?.....

[RichmondHens]

Nerves are setting in now, broody abandoned the cream legbar eggs on Sunday afternoon - she would choose to do it while we were out so they were left for around 2 hours. Soon as we got back I put them straight in the inccy (which had been on since Friday just in case) in the hope that they might still be viable - 21 days tomorrow, wondering what the chances of them hatching will be....

If it was warm weather they may just be ok (it was hot here on Sunday). It's a long time for them to be without heat at this late stage but you might be lucky. Fingers crossed for you!

[SuzyB]

No signs of anything by the time Id left for work this morning - interested to see if any progress when I get home. I need to stop reading up on it though, Ive scared myself to death reading about all the things that can go wrong with incubators and humidity etc!

[RichmondHens]

Did you/have you candled them to see if they all contained chicks? It's just possible the broody abandoned them because there is nothing happening inside them.

[SuzyB]

I candled at 14 days, but didnt on Sunday as I wanted to get them back in the warmth asap and it was too light to see much. At the time of candling 4 out of 6 looked promising. One cracked and leaked last Thursday and was dud so if Im lucky, 3 of the 4 in the inccy were fine. If nothing has happened by the time I get home do you think its safe to candle them tonight?

I figured because they went under her a couple of days later than the other that have hatched, she might have thought they werent worth bothering with. Its strange because its the bantam eggs that she kept leaving and messing about with that hatched and the CL eggs that went under and stayed under for the duration that now look like they mightnt make it.

[RichmondHens]

You could just hold them to your ear and listen for cheeping or tapping sounds. On day 21 if they are going to hatch you should be able to hear something by now. You should also see them wobbling a bit as the chick wriggles into position. Just be careful that the humidity doesn't drop too much when you remove the lid. Some incubators take several hours for the correct humidity to be reached again once the lid has been disturbed. If it were me I would watch for any signs of movement through the lid today and if nothing has emerged by tomorrow then have a listen to them then.

[SuzyB]

I'll do that then, thank you for the advice. Fingers crossed!