You need the lows to appreciate the highs!

What a day I had Sunday. I have been harping on about it for long enough on twitter now. I'm still no closer to knowing what caused it, but the potential reasons for the chicks I have been hatching all of a sudden moving on to the coop in the sky have increased. So I am putting it down to bad luck and will be keeping a close eye on future hatches.

I had 11 chicks in total, most were 2-3 days old. 3 gold lace Wyandotte chicks were recent hatches, they had fluffed up and so I added them to the brooder.
Long story short, one check all seemed fine, 30minutes later the gold lace were dead on their backs with 2 lavender Araucana staggering around and one silver lace wyandotte in a similar condition. I put them straight back in my incubator thinking it may have been a heat issue. Sadly they did not make it.

There are many theories including loss of heat, infection, bullying, fighting or maybe it was just a defect inherited from parents.

It's sad, but it is time to move on. I have 3 Araucana Lavender bantams and 1 silver lace Wyandotte bantam to add to the 4 silver lace hatched 10 weeks ago and 2 croad langshan.
I'm lucky to have these and hope the silver lace will be good enough to create a breeding trio from.
Looking forward, I am still fascinated by the Wyandotte, so I'm sure they will be on the agenda at some point again soon, but I'm thinking long and hard on what breed to hatch next.

I currently have 2 CLB females at 4 weeks old and I hope a wheaten maran to go with them, but what other pure breed would you add to this collection producing dark brown and blue eggs?

The leghorn has been suggested and I like this idea due to the white eggs that it lays. I also like the idea of Rhode Island Red. Great looking, good layers and of course a good size.
Some careful thinking required over the next few weeks is required.

I am also being drawn to ducks, specifically the Welsh Harlequin. I don't want many, just a drake with two ladies. To hatch or to buy a trio, that is the question. The other decision is how to provide a water source for them to bath in. Plastic paddling pool, trug, old bath?

Short term there is a pause in the hatching whilst I catch up on all the veg jobs I have been putting off. Main crop potatoes need to go in, carrots and parsnips need sowing, along with runner beans, butternut squash and sweetcorn.
It's amazing how in control you can feel in February and March, then all of a sudden it is 1st May, we hit the panic button and I find I sow everything at once and end up with a glut of veg.

Thanks for reading