[tosca100]

Eight hatched, one died. They are so cute though and having them next to the 'seniors' makes you realise how much they grow in three weeks!




Blue teenage boy getting a bit stroppy with his sisters.

[ANHBUC]

That is a good result at this time of the year.  Can you sex them at day old or do you have to wait and see/hear?

[tosca100]

That is a good result at this time of the year.  Can you sex them at day old or do you have to wait and see/hear?

The cock comb is more noticeable at hatching. OH reckons there are three males in this bunch. We have a couple of people interested in having some but one only wants hens so we have not said yes to anyone till next year, a lot can happen between now and then.

[ANHBUC]

You are better hanging on to them with them being a rare breed.  You should also be able to get a better price for them when they are older.

[tosca100]

That is a good result at this time of the year.  Can you sex them at day old or do you have to wait and see/hear?

Annoyingly it seems all the eggs were fertile and another three were well formed, so only three died early. We really must get a proper incubator sorted for next year. The one we brought out with us, all singing all dancing, was a waste of good money, couldn't even cope with the first batch off eggs. So we then moved to an ancient one someone gave us at the last minute before we left, which was supposed to act as hairdrier. A manky looking polystyrene one. But to be fair it has done the job better than we hoped.

We are planning on keeping the first male chick as he is unlikely to be Sevi's, though being blue we can't be sure. Also the three females. OH says only two of the bumblebees look like males (I didn't look, just cooed) so lets hope he is right.

All we have to do is get them through the cold Bulgarian winter. The doom and gloom merchants have said we will be getting temperatures down to -35, but we will wait and see. Plenty of room for all of us in the house!!!

[ANHBUC]

I did the same and bought the best inci I could afford, it has its own humidity pump so it is all automatic.  I have had mixed results from it and none of the 5 meat bird eggs I put in hatched.  Four did form fully but died in the shell, this could have been down to the humidity needing to be higher for hatching though (the eggs were large and really strong shells).  I had set it at the normal as I had bantam and quail eggs in at the same time, both of which I got a good hatch rate.  I will be trying it out again but getting plenty of advice from the egg supplier next time.

Lets hope it doesn't get cold enough that you need to move the livestock indoors to keep you both warm.   

[splash101]

fabulous pictures, glad you had a good hatch

[nerdle]

Wonderful!

[Mum2mj]

Sooo lovely! 

[tosca100]

They sre so amazingly cute and being seven of them they are very active. One is showing itself to be a bully already. Here is a little vid, I find the instinct to scratch about at such an early age fascinating. Here they are with the big class' dust bath. (Not normally in the wrong pen!)


The chap who gave us the house hens has reserved the first cockerel to go to a new home in Spring, great news! I've grown him some rhubarb too so it will be worth the trip over the mountains.

[tosca100]

Only just over three weeks old and looking rather un-lovely, little boy chick has decided he wants to join the bolshy teenagers and roost at night. He is the little blob at the back. Bless, so little.



They have all sorts of perches between them but no, they want to be on the partitions.  ::)They always fly down to their respective sides in the morning, though Solo with the twisted toes sometimes misses as she loses her balance, but waits for me to put her on the right side. She is a happy and active soul though.