Egg Candling

Last night I sat on floor with the lights off and began candling and numbering the eggs in my incubator!

The Cayuga eggs are too new for me to know, I am a novice candler after all. The Maran eggs are at day 7 now so are fairly obvious. I noticed two definates, one maybe and 3 that I think are infertile.

The Pheasants are more tricky. The eggs are small and thick shelled. They were definately fertile but it looks like they were found too late. They don't appear to be any further on than they were when I first looked. They do have obvious signs of development, but I think it was my tired eyes that told me they moved. I can also see what I think is the start of blood rings, which I believe usually appear when the embryo dies. So it doesn't look good for the pheasant eggs, but I'll leave them a bit longer and candle them again. Not too long though, I don't want anything exploding in the incubator!

What's Cooking?

I love this photo of the incubator so much I thought I'd share!!

Top: Large Grey Eggs - Cayuga Duck

Middle: Brown Eggs - Black Copper Maran Hens

Bottom: Small Greenish/Blue Eggs - Pheasant

All tucked up safe in the auto turning incubator. Phew!

(You can see the Xs and Os from hand turning.)

Poultry Matters and a Missing Cat

Well I picked up the new quail hens last night. All didn't go exactly to plan. Dude was moved to his new hutch with the established females. Sanchez was given the new hens. At first he thought it was wonderful, being male he introduced himself just how a virile male should! Wonderful, I thought, he's pleased with his pressie. Funnily enough Dude did the same thing with his girls, and I'd not seen either of them do it before!! It must be all to do with new territory and new blood.

Anyway ten minutes later and Sanchez was pecking the hell out of the new hens! My cousin had told me how violent they can be but I didn't expect him to be like that with his girlfriends! So Sanchez spent a night in solitary in the shed, partly to give the girls time to settle in and partly so he can think about what he has done!

This morning I have clipped his beak just a little bit and popped him back in. Things seem to be much calmer today, he is chasing them around a bit but doesn't seem to be trying to peck their heads off!

My new Cayuga duck eggs are now in the incubator, a nice Brinsea 20 borrowed from a friend. At least I don't have to turn the eggs. My other incubator currently holding 6 Maran and 7 Pheasant eggs is manual and that's quite a chore to remember to turn them all 3 times a day! And we are only on day 5! Now all that's bothering me is that 28 days is so long!!

At least my Indian Runners are nearly cooked. They are due this weekend, so expect some wonderfully over the top posting from me in a few days! I have had a few panics about them hatching. I bought them from Ebay and was ecstatic to find all six were fertile and developing well. Trouble is when they are under a broody you can't monitor the hatch very well, and I am worried that they will not have been moist enough. I really don't want to lose them at the last minute! Ducks is new to me so it's all trial and error.

On a different note, the family is sad, we have lost one of our dear Bengal cats. He has been missing for over a month now. Just went off one day and didn't come back! A Bengal was found a couple of weeks ago in a village not far from here but was sadly not ours. He had been missing from elsewhere for 3 months though. It does give us a bit of hope that he will stroll back in one day or that someone will find him and check him for a microchip. All we can do is wait.....