The chicks started hatching yesterday, and oh what an event it has been! They were a suprise in many ways as we did not know what exactly they might look like! They are just adorable of course, mostly buff looking with little wild stripes here and there. Today we watched 2 of them race to see who would be first out of their shells! The incubator is full of vigorous chicks and I couldn’t be happier about it. On the downside, I candled again all the eggs in the other incubator, and all but 2 of my GLO Family 1 were infertile. Such a disappointment really as I understand that to be my best chance really. But.. 2 is better than none, and it’s too late for me to pair them up again, well.. not too late, but I’m too lazy! Seriously, he’s already been moved in with new girls and those girls have a new man! I’ll just see what happens here and perhaps it can be enough somehow to move forward to the next step anyway. As i understand it the first generation after the cross are basically identical within one family.. so it matters not that I have a quantity of them. But.. is it too much to ask for 1 boy and 1 girl? Oh please??? That would at least be some sort of savior to the project in a small small way! I do have the BlueX cockerel still, and just barely I might add! I made the mistake of leaving him in a new pen with his siblings who haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, only while I cleaned his run out. Well.. needless to say, he’s now in a hospital crate with healing wounds. They managed to pluck most of one of his wings!!!! It’s awful.. and I feel so bad for walking away when I did. Never again, live and learn. He managed to hide his head pretty well and most of his body.. but one side took the brunt of the picking. He’ll get better, poor sweetie pie that he is… we’ll make sure of it.
Today, I’m rearranging, cleaning out and getting ready to move in the next clutch of chicks to the outside brooders. I’ll keep them in the house a couple of days until they are surely sturdy and fluffy and eating, then outside on the back porch they go. I’ve got to split the hen house in half and move all the white orps that are staying out there, move Bob into the isolette in the buff pen so he can get used to seeing his new ladies (he’s moving next weekend with them) and then move the bigger hen house birds into Bob’s old place as they are now up For Sale and I don’t expect them to stay long. Then there is one last little GLW hen I picked up from Don Chandler a couple of weeks ago.. she got injured during transport so she’s been staying alone recovering. She just started laying and I am moving her to a more shady spot on new ground. She’s hopping around pretty well and I hope she’ll make a full recovery, but her fate here is yet undetermined.