Chick Update - Rico and Marsha

I have two chicks in the inside brooder right now: Rico and Marsha. Rico is my sweet maran and the only survivor of my first maran egg hatch attempt. He is 2 weeks, 5 days old. Marsha, is my sweet grocery store egg hatch. She's truly fluffy and looks like a marshmallow. She's an Ameraucana/ Brahma mix and getting cuter every day.

Rico is not thrilled about this photo session. Notice the pin feathers on the top of his back.

Joujou decided to interfere.

I find it interesting the Rico is getting only one feather on his foot. In the same place, on each foot.

A better look at his pin feathers.

Here you can see his wing tips nicely and the beginning of little feathers on his bum.

Elly and Joujou, continuing to not help at all.

Now it's Marsha's turn. She angrily chirped at me the entire photo shoot. Note that even though she's two weeks younger than Rico, her wing feathers are almost the same size on her body. This is because she's female, thank goodness.

Her wings are definitely shaped like a females. Since she is a mix breed though, I could definitely be wrong here.

Fluffy Butt!

Learning Experience #14,355 - Hatching a Grocery Store Chicken Egg

This has been my favorite learning experience so far. The story of choosing and hatching the egg is great fun, but my favorite part is the What I Learned at the end. Please stick around for that part.

In my time browsing forums, groups and pages for chicken information, one theme I stumbled upon was the discussion of the possibility/impossibility of hatching eggs from a grocery store. I first ran across this on Backyard Chickens about buying eggs marked as fertile at Trader Joes and Whole Foods (there are several threads actually). I immediately sped, of course, to both of these stores in my town to find that was a big nope.

I head home (with these eggs), continuing to throw this around in my head. I decide to not worry too much about it though and just keep reading and an eye open for fertile eggs in stores.

Then, I started seeing posts from people who just buy regular eggs. Now when I say regular, I don't mean the eggs at Kroger. These kind of eggs are from large hatcheries where hens and roosters (this is a requirement for babies, folks) do not mix. Here's an excellent description of the different labels on cartons and what they mean as well as how these chickens are cared for. I do find it funny that of the conventional method, they say, "birds are more readily protected from the elements, disease and natural and unnatural predators." While this may be technically accurate, it's most certainly a bit of wordsmithing about keeping hens in cages they can barely move in for their entire lives, but that's another blog.

Anywho, what I'm referring to is eggs that are refrigerated in a smaller chain, grocery environment with more natural foods, that are marked free-range or labeled from a local farm. Free-range still doesn't mean access to a rooster, of course, (it doesn't even mean access to much really) but in the right store, it can. Apparently hatching eggs from Trader Joes, whether they are marked fertile or not, is a thing. I haven't tried any of theirs yet, but I'm making plans.

These are not the same eggs I tried, but they are from the same farm

I chose to buy some from our local grocery co-op. While staring at the egg cartons for way too long, I recognized one of the vendors as a local farm that I know sells roosters as well as hens, which means there is a possibility these could be fertile. So I bought a dozen of them and headed home. Out of the dozen, I pulled out all the brown eggs, put them in the fridge for quiche later and popped an olive, pink, and four white eggs in a carton on the counter with one end tilted up and waited for them to reach room temperature, 12-18 hours is a good amount.

This was at about 4:30pm in the evening. The next morning, with my Farm Innovators 4250 incubator set up and ready for action, I put them in the egg turner and started the agonizing seven-day wait until I could candle.

At seven-days (at the latest, I'll be honest) I always candle. In particular if there is risk that some eggs won't be fertile. I pulled the 6 eggs out and took a look. None of the white eggs appeared fertile, or they never developed. The pink egg was fertile, there were webs everywhere, but the air pocket was not in place properly. The olive egg looked wonderful though! Proper air pocket, veiny looking stuff and a lot of movement for so early in the process. So the white eggs went into the compost (never eat or feed an incubated egg or it's shell to your chickens) and I went ahead and left the pink in the incubator with the olive. Because I Really wanted a pink egg layer and I was hoping I was reading the air pocket incorrectly. Several days later though, I learned I was not. I did my final candle and there was blood so that one went into the garbage, not the compost. But my olive one moved to the hatcher. 

You can see the webcam sitting on the duct tape roll in front.

I keep a 10 gallon tank with a lid I built as a hatcher. I move my eggs there at lockdown. This enables me to easily see what's happening from hall as I walk by as well as keeping a webcam up so I can check on the eggs from my phone, work computer, anywhere I need. It's very nice. I can also have multiple hatches incubating at a time without worrying about too little or too much humidity for any of them.

Love this pic

So then, it's lockdown and I waited. On day 20, I got my pip! I was so excited. It was about 10:20am when it happened and I noticed it on the livestream about 30 minutes later! I immediately posted pictures on my various chicken facebook groups and stared at my screen, anxiously waiting...waiting...waiting...

A mere 11 hours later, it pipped again and started to zip. I kept the webcam going, but I also started to record the hatch with my phone at this point, since that is a much better camera.

Ok, so if you watched the above video, or at least the last few minutes, that's the story of Marsha, my sweet Brahma Ameraucana mix chick. I was able to contact the farm and they were so helpful to tell me who the mommy and daddy are.

And this is what I learned:

1. Fertile eggs are able to develop even after refrigeration.
2. In my extreme excitement of getting my little one, I posted pictures on my facebook page. Most of my friends are not chicken folks and I was kind of floored to have it pointed out to me that many of them were assuming the chick was one I Found in an egg accidentally and not one I incubated. This is something that simply didn't cross my mind. An egg HAS to be incubated and cared for over a specific period of time (depending on the breed or species) at a very specific temperature and humidity to even START developing, let alone reach the point of fluffy butt. 
3. Many also do not realize that they may buy eggs at the grocery (depending where they shop, which we already covered) that are infertile or fertile and they will not be able to tell and they taste identical. Because an egg is fertile, does not mean you're eating a developing baby. Development of any baby doesn't ONLY require a mommy and a daddy, it also requires a very specific care. With us, all of a woman's reproductive organs also need to be in order to process everything properly. It's the same with an egg. If an egg is not provided the correct care after fertilization, it will never start to develop a baby. This is why candling an egg in the first 2-3 days is a waste as the egg needs a little time to kickstart.
4. My chick hatching facebook group though, LOVED this and totally got it. Even though it took 11 hours, I was amazed at how they stuck with me and if they happened to miss the hatch, loved the video. I love my fellow chicken folks who are as crazy about these guys as I am.

And that's really it on this one. Until the next learning experience, here's Marsha the Marshmallow:

Abbreviations for Chicken Folks to Use When Posting

Recently I was running through one of the Facebook groups I follow and someone asked if there was a list of the abbreviations folks tend to use when posting or commenting. Someone replied and said that people would be happy to help them if they asked each time. People in these groups are very helpful, true, but posting a list people could quickly check is a less cumbersome option and many of us take for granted knowing the millions of things we've learned in chicken keeping.

So here is my list I put together based on what I've seen and surfing around on the net a bit to see what other people tend to find important.

I tried to stick to terms specific to poultry. If you're looking for more universal terms (i.e., LOL, BTW, IMHO) Google is your friend. 

If anyone has any additions, please comment below and I will happily add them to the list. Meanwhile, if you'd like a downloadable PDF, click here.

Click on the images below to enlarge for better viewing.

 

4 Week Update - Cochin Chicks

As of tomorrow the chicks will be 4 weeks old! It's hard to believe it's been that long since my very first hatch. Below are some pictures of these gorgeous babies.

What could you possibly want?

She's really getting the partridge coloring from her dad, quite a bit.

 Stevie is the one I'm keeping for my flock. She's a partridge/blue cochin mix and is growing so much. She gave me a lot of trouble getting her to pose for a picture, so this is the best I can do, unfortunately. Haha

 This one I believed to be a hen, but now I'm waffling on it a bit. Her feathers came in very fast and she's larger than the other chicks, but look at that comb. It's still fairly yellow, but getting some pink at the bottom. We'll see.

 And we have a roo here, I'm sure of it. He feathered slowly and has the stance. His neck is tall and the feathers are starting to poof out a bit. He's the sweetest of this batch. He also prefers to hang out with Rico, our maran roo that hatched a couple of weeks later.

 This one is our little escape artist and I'm sure she's a hen. She stood still and checked me out while I took pictures, very polite.

Here they are together, except for the light yellow one. This is a good picture to show how fast chicks grow. Rico, the maran, is on the back roost and is 11 days old. So there is only a 15 day difference in their ages, yet the older chicks look so much different.

It's the First Day of Spring Contest!

This contest has ended. Sign up for my blog emails to find out when the next one is posted!

My beautiful Baby's Breath blooming means it's Spring!

 I'm so glad it's finally Spring in beautiful Kentucky. As a tribute to my favorite time of year, I am offering my first ever Rowan Tree Roost Shop contest so folks can win some free stuff!

I will be drawing a name on Sunday, April 3rd, 2016.

What can you win?

First Prize: 

Free Egg-Gathering Apron of your choice (adult or children's) & 15% off additional shop item

Second Prize: 

Free Single Treat Table & 15% off additional shop item 

  

Third Prize: 

2 ounce bag of nesting herbs and 10% off additional shop item

What do you do?

1. Like my Facebook Page

2. Share this post on YOUR social media of choice

3. Comment below to let me know it's done!

And remember, the contest ends April 3rd and I'll announce the winners by the end of the day on my Facebook page and by emailing them directly. 

Good Luck!

** NOTE: Winners are required to live in the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico. 

Fresh Eggs for Sale - Rowan Tree Roost

There's nothing better than fresh eggs.

At the time, I have five layers of brown eggs (I will have two more laying in the next month) and I am selling these delicious, fresh eggs at $1.50 for a carton of 6 eggs.

If you would like some, send me an email and I will get back to you asap to arrange for payment/pick-up. You are welcome to pay in cash or through Paypal, whichever is easiest for you.

You are also welcome to check out my Etsy store and make your purchases there. There's a small bump in the fee there for shop fees. 1/2 a dozen or 3 dozen over two months.

I see this egg count growing quite a bit over the next year, so set up your regular order now!

Two Week Update: Cochin Babies

Here's the two week update on my cochin babies. They're doing really well and so beautiful!

The sweet little roo. He's still super fuzzy, but he's getting there!

His wing shape is still clearly different than the other three.

The mix. She's gorgeous and shows all of the signs of being female, except that she has a large comb. Interesting.

Those beautiful feathers on her legs.

Stevie is still getting big!

Look at those pin feathers coming in.

I can't quite figure out this one's parentage. She's gorgeous though.

I love it when she closes her eyes and rests in my hand.

Here they were when I cam home today - 15 days old. They love the roost and have out-grossed the towel in the brooder.

And here they are with straw bedding for the first time. They were concerned at first, but I set them on it and they are picking at it like mad now. It seems to be a hit.

Adorable Babies Going After Mealworms

The chicks are 13 days old today! They're growing so fast and have discovered a love for mealworms. Here's a cute little video of them going for it.

The audio comes on after about 20 seconds. I forgot to set it first!!
 

5 Day Update - Sexing the Chicks UPDATED

UPDATED AT DAY 8: I have added a few pictures showing the difference in feather shape that has become very apparent at this point. See Below

I have found, in my vast (not really) experience, that sexing chicks is best done early by observing feather growth. I don't vent sex and I'm not super interested in learning. I found this method in this wonderful drawing posted by Lianne at Hanbury House and I've found it to be incredibly accurate for almost any breed of chick. 

I also found this post from 2010 from Cindi on the  Beemaster forum, with pictures, showing sexing by feather growth and it was incredibly helpful. I printed the drawing and the pictures and put them up on the wall over the brooder for comparison.

So, at five days old, I took the below pictures of my new cochin chicks and made an educated guess. Let me know if you disagree and why! I love learning from other chicken folks.

I believe this is a hen. The wings are longer and the growth was rapid and there is a little poof on her bum.

Day 8 - You can see by the shape of the feathers that this is a hen.

I'm calling this one a roo. He's still almost completely fuzz at 5 days, with tiny wing growth. The feathers are also more of L shaped growth.

Day 8 - There is clearly a different shape than the hen's feathers. This is the L shape.

Close-up of the roo.

This is Stevie - the only one we're keeping - She clearly had rapid growth on wings as well as the poof on the bum. This picture was actually taken yesterday and today (Day 6) she's starting to show pin feathers.

This is the only one I go a little back and forth on, but I'm calling her a hen. The wings have grown fast and they have the same shape as the other two ladies. And she has the bum poof. She's just so light, it's kind of hard to tell the down from the feathers.

And there we have it. My first hatch ever and I got three girls and one boy. How can I make this happen every time?