My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Hatching.


We have some new additions at Windyhill Farm.  I was hesitant to look forward to these guys because we suffered a three hour powercut on day 11 of their incubation.  After two hours I put them on a hot water bottle.  Then I got worried that they were too hot, I was worse than a clucky mother hen!

  I set 15 eggs; ten Light Sussex and five Silver Laced Wyandotte.  I candled them on day seven and removed four on the Silver Laced Wyandotte eggs that weren't fertile.  And after the requsite 21 days,  all eleven of the eggs left hatched!


I'm especially excited because these were all eggs from my own breeding pens that I've set up.  I've put some more eggs in the incubator today.  Hopefully my Silver Laced Wyandottes have improved their fertility this round.


My daughter is especially excited because she gets to cuddle lots of little fluffy bundles!  My heart is in my mouth every time she picks one up, but she is really very gentle.

9 comments:

  1. they are the sweetest things!
    i had to show my little ones these pics, they loved them.
    we have chickens but we forget how little they once were.
    have a good day Ms Lottie

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh gosh! How gorgeous!! Are you keeping these as breeding/egg laying stock or will any be for sale? If you have any guff ones I'm more than happy to buy them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey girly, they are CUTE, I know my boys would love them!

    ReplyDelete
  4. awww, sweet little fluffy things! Congrats, now does this make you a chook mamaw? Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  5. So very sweet, seeing baby chicken's always reminds me of Easter time for some crazy reason! Good luck with the rest of your hatchlings. Hugs Jx

    ReplyDelete
  6. We could do with a few new chicks round here this year - the girls are getting very old. Unlike the last hens, these have become pets!

    viv in Dunedin

    ps I may dig out a photo of them for my site :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gosh they are so cute. Adorable bundles of fluff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I absolutely love chickens, I kept chooks 20 years ago but since have not been in a place where I can do so. Fingers crossed for soon. There is something about a chick that makes me well, clucky. Yours are precious, thanks for sharing them with us.,

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks everyone. There is something very endearing about newly hatched chicks. They are all doing well at four days old and I've shifted them into their brooder where they'll stay for the next five or six weeks.

    ReplyDelete

Hi, I love reading comments, so thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me a message :)
Due to a huge increase in spam, I've disabled anonymous comments. Apologies if this effects any real life readers!