Why do I pick the difficult hobbies!

My Silverlace Wyandotte Bantam Pullet

GRUMPY POST ALERT!!

Hatching in the Homer household has gone quiet for now, not a bad thing as the back garden is full at the moment and the boss has dropped several hints about wanting her garden back.

The accommodation situation has not been helped by the reluctance to put anything back down on the plot for fear of more theft.  I am, as they say up the creek without a paddle.

That saying never made any sense to me really, if you were "up" a creek, I doubt you would want a paddle to go faster? Presumably you could just throw yourself off in your kayak and hope for the best.  Mind you being down in sh1t creek without a paddle would not be much of a concern either I guess.

Where was I?  Oh yes, I'm buggered!  I have too many birds for the back garden.  The garden looks like a pig has been living in it.  If mud were valuable I would be a multi millionaire.

We can't move house, I can't find any land locally to rent. Trying to find land in north Cardiff is like searching for a winning scratch card.  So that's that.  Do I give up?

What is the point if I can't breed the poultry?

That would certainly be a waste of some rather fine silver lace wyandottes I have (photo above) who will be ready for breeding next year.

I guess I have to take on board some advice given to me by Grant Brereton whilst at his Poultry Genetics seminar on 26th October up in Oswestry.  Pick one breed and one type (feather colour) and stick to it. Concentrate on it, give it your all.  Get to know it and love it.
Very sound advice.
So perhaps this is what I should do.
Ducks were possibly a step too far at the moment, even if they are a lovely Welsh Harlequin.  Mind you, I had never planned on keeping them in the garden.

So on that note I'm off down the local shop to buy a lottery ticket.  That way I may be able to keep the ducks!

Thanks for reading.

Let Hatching commence - Croad Langsham and Wyandotte

4 Silver Lace Wyandottes and 2 Croad Langsham

I have been a little quite on the hatching front recently. Probably because the little darlings have caught me off guard. The eggs started hatching 26th Feb, two days before I was expecting any action.
The first egg to hatch was a Wyandotte Silver Lace.
On the 27th Feb, we had three more hatches with another Wyandotte and two Croad Langsham chicks.

As at 28th Feb at 8am the tally was seven. One Faverolle hatched over night and is still in the incubator drying out. The other 6 chicks are now under my brinsea brooder that has capacity for 20.

Wyandotte Silver Lace

I am now waiting on the two Wyandotte eggs that when I candled at day seven I though were not perfect, one owl beard and one salmon faverolle.

Fingers are still crossed especially for the faverolle and the owl beard!

I will be updating the blog with more photos of the chicks soon and some information on integrating new hens with your existing flock.  Watch this space!

Croad Langsham chick

Thanks for reading

Naughty naughty

So, I have done something I shouldn't.  

I candled the remaining 2 eggs last night.  Most suggest this is a bad idea.  I have never candled so late before so why now?

Well I have had concerns for a while that the 2 eggs are not progressing well.  The air sacks seem too big for my liking.  However I will let them continue until at least 23 days just to make sure.
I guess I just could not resist checking.  This is my first time using an incubator, all previous hatches have been under a broody hen, and no sane person is going to try and remove a broody from their nest in the last 2-3 days.  

They sit tight and defend their nest with that prehistoric beak!  Its a little like the final scene in Zulu!  
Plus it hurts and I have been given enough wounds in the past so would do everything to avoid this.
However in the incubator there is not a crazy hen trying to peck your finger off your hand, you can just lift and check.  Naughty naughty.

I will have to sit tight now and wait.  Its day 20 out of 21, so not long.

More updates to follow tomorrow - official hatching day! :-)

Wyandotte hatching update day 18

Day 18 of the hatching of Silver Lace Wyandotte Bantams in the new incubator is proving to be exciting, for me anyway!

Hatching egg, candled at 18 days

I candled the eggs again last night and saw what I am hoping is a chick, moving around in the egg.  The photo is to the left and you can quite clearly see the blood vessels.
There are some quite strange air sack shapes going on in both of the remaining eggs.  I hope this is not a bad sign.

As it is 3 days before hatch, I have removed the 4 non-fertile eggs and the dividers separating the eggs and the auto turning mechanism has been turned off.
It is recommended to increase the humidity for the hatching period.  I had no idea how to do this until I read Katie Thears Incubation, A guide to Hatching and Rearing book and the instructions that came with my incubator.

Apparently you may not necessarily need to add more water but just reduce the temperature by half a degree to 37 degrees c and this increases humidity.

My Incubator manual also helped my understand things a little clearer.  Its not the level of water in the incubator dish, but the surface area of water.  So if you fill two dishes with water a quarter full each, it will produce higher humidity than if you fill one dish to the full capacity!

So, I am still clinging onto a little hope that the two remaining eggs will hatch.  If they do, it will go a little way in helping me set up my little project of breeding pure breed poultry, 1) to ensure their survival, 2) for fun and 3) to encourage other chicken keepers or want to be keepers, that pure breed is an option over hybrid birds.

Wyandotte Goldlace bantams at 14 weeks

Here are a few photos of the Gold Lace Wyandottes, taken more recently in the snow!

Not happy hens on the snow

I seem to be getting as addicted to taking photos as I am keeping hens and hatching chicks!  Nevermind!  Could be worse!

Wyandotte Chick with mum

I resisted the urge to drone on about it.  The hens did not like it at all but I quite enjoyed our little wintry spell.  Certainly made a change to all the mud!

Hens and chicks, sheltering from a hail shower

In the last half hour we had a heavy hail storm.  I had let the Chickens our earlier in the day.  Seems the boys climbing frame has another use in the winter!





Thanks for reading.

Candling Eggs on day 11

Excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation!  Words that I would used to define how I felt when I received my hatching eggs through the post back on the 10th January.

There is something special and addictive about hatching chicks.  Sadly my hatch rates have never really been high.  My first attempt under Treacle my Speckledy hen resulted in just one chick hatching out of 3 eggs.

The second attempt in October 2012 resulted in two chicks hatching out of 6 eggs, again under Treacle!

My third hatch is in my new incubator. A Corti AF25 - the automatic turning model.
I set the eggs back on 9th January and candled as recommended on the 7th day.  Being relatively inexperienced at candling, I was happy to leave the eggs for a further few days before discarding any that are unlikely to hatch.

I candled the eggs again tonight the 20th January at 11 days and took photographs of each egg.  I think this may be a useful guide for anyone candling their own eggs.  Apparently you should not candle to often and for too long! So here goes with the photos!

One of my own chickens eggs - Not Fertile

First incubator egg - not looking too promising - I would say this is NOT fertile.

Second Egg - something defiantly going on in this one - good to leave   in the incubator.

Third egg - Not Fertile! :-(







I cant go on really, sad that only one other egg below seems to have something going on. 
2 out of 6 again!!

Hopefully the other fertile egg!








Lets hope the two do hatch and there are no complications.

Thanks for reading! 

Gold Lace Wyandotte Photos 12 Weeks

They are hardly chicks any more.  12 weeks old and they look like mini versions of the real thing.  Gold Lace Wyandotte Bantam chickens.

I'm hoping that in 4-5 weeks I will find out if they are hens or cockerels.



At the moment one of each would fall nicely into my plans going forwards.








I have 6 Silver lace Wyandotte eggs in my incubator, due to hatch on the 30th January, the day Rhys turns 4!  Could be a nice birthday surprise.....well for me anyway.  He gets a little stressed about animals.

The plan going forward is to breed Wyandottes and I will be selling hatching eggs.

A local school has asked if I will help set them up with a hen house and chickens so that the children can look after them during term time.  They could be the first recipients of the offspring. :-)

I know a lot of schools have been taking on hens, but there is always the little problem of holiday's to sort out.  I guess that's where I would come in and happily take them in for 6 weeks during the summer holidays.  Free eggs - can't complain at that!

Anyway, next on the list after that will be chocolate Wyandottes.
I am very tempted by the Frizzle Pekins, but more recently have been investigating the Silver Appleyard ducks and Buff Orpington Ducks.  They would definitely be an allotment project so lots of work to do before then!

 

I best get my feet under the table with the Wyandottes first of all and the quail that are arriving via the West Midlands on 19th Jan!!  Still work to do on the coop as you can see.  The top level is way to dark.  I have all the materials, just need an hour to knock it together!
I have taken the hardwood panel from the back of the run on the bottom level and replaced with a frame and mesh.
Fingers crossed they will like their new homes.
Next stage is to do the same with the panel at the top level and install mesh on the solid door!  

Hope you enjoyed the photos. Thanks for reading!

Hatching Wyandotte's Again :-)

Photo from Backyardchickens.com

So I have the bug!  Not the norovirus thing or the flu, or worse still man flu, I have the the Egg Hatching Bug.

I had considered purchasing an incubator middle of 2012, but had not really given enough thought as to what to do with all the lovely chicks that would then become hens or cockerels.

The good news down at the allotments is that they are allowing me to keep chickens on my plot.  This has resulted in me revisiting the idea late 2012.  I have decided to breed Wyandottes to start with!

 Well a few days into 2013 and I have, sat in front of me on my desk while I type, 6 hopefully fertile Silver Laced Wyandotte Bantam eggs.

On the 8th January I also took delivery of my new incubator pack, which included a brooder, water and drink feeders and cleaner for the incubator.  Everything you need really to get started.

So with the incubator set up and running for the last 17 hours, in 7 hours time I will be setting the eggs in the incubator and starting the 21 day countdown.
Who knows if the eggs will hatch at this time of year, the cockerels may have been "active" so to speak in the mild spell of weather, but if too cold, they are likely to be on strike!

I have been conscious this time around about turning my eggs whilst waiting a day or so after royal mail has played volley ball with them through the post.  This is of course another factor that could effect fertility, but supplies of Wyandottes are practically non-existent around by me and the thought of driving a 300 mile round trip to get some is not very appealing.

I have had some very useful advice over twitter from Norfolk Bantams (Twitter @norfolkbantams) recently.  I have been searching for gold lace wyandotte bantam cockerel but with out much luck.  Now apparently (you can tell science was not my strong point) if you breed a silver lace with a gold lace and then breed the siblings, you would end up with 25% of the chicks hatching as gold laced and the rest as silver laced.  Its obviously an approximate figure, but very interesting. :-)
To help me along my way I have just purchased some breeding books from Grant Bereton (twitter: @gbpoultry) Happy days!!

The eggs I have purchased are from show stock, the male won a first place at the Malvern show and one female won second.  I have lots of fingers crossed with this batch!

Updates to come again soon on the silver lace hatching and the gold lace chicks now 12 weeks old.

Thanks for reading.