Tomorrows the day....

Tomorrow we attempt to candle our eggs for the first time to see if they are fertile or not.

If they are, we should see this...

If not, then this!

Will let you know.

Al

Boys or Girls?

All good in the incubator! Turning rota going well and temperature seems to be staying really stable!

Had a discussion again with the children about the fact that none of the eggs might hatch and that if they do and they are cockerels, then they will have to go back to 'the farm'!

(Actually do know a man , who goes by the name of 'Chicken Doug', who will take any unwanted birds to his smallholding. He is like the chickens answer to the Dogs Trust in that he never puts a healthy bird down!)

Having said that - I really don't want the children to get too attached to their chick and then find it has to go. So, today's research has been into how you can sex a chick and how early.

There seem to be a number of methods out there as well as people who are trained chick sexers!

One involved squeezing the poo out of the chicks with your hand and trying to spot their 'parts' after the contents of their bowel has been ejected! The risks with that are that a) you squirt yourself with poo or b) you kill the chick by squeezing it too hard!

Plus, the essential bits are only as big as a pin head so the chances of spotting them once you have got over the trauma of flying feces are small.

Another involves holding the chick up in the air just above its wings. If it pulls its legs up it is a cockerel. If it lets them hang loose it is a hen - Can this really be true?

I have found another method that you can do at a day old which involves looking at wing feathers. The theory is that if the chick has long feathers at the end of the wing - it's a girl. Short, it's a boy!

Again I find myself being sceptical about this but it seems very popular amongst back yard chicken keepers on the net!

If you know of another way - please let me know.

Off to eat chocolate...

Al

Surveys and Comments..

Morning!

Woken up this morning by an 'eager' egg turner! Can't wait until the novelty of this wears off!

Have changed the settings on Clegg's Eggs so it should now allow you to post a comment if you would like to.

You can also have a vote on the potential names for our chickens - if they hatch and don't turn out to be cockerels!

For an extra 'how well do you know us' element, see if you can guess who suggested which name!

Believe it or not - Kylie wasn't mine!

Al

Careful!!!!

After we put our names on I helped dady to put them into the incubtor ...CERFULEE!

Kendal is going to turn the eggs ferst. This is her egg chart.

Geordie

Into the incubator!

Now the eggs have rested for twenty four hours we put our names on one side of the egg and a little signature picture on the other. This is to help us remember whos is whos and to help us with turning the eggs.

From ALFRADO!

Getting Ready

Yesterday we set up the incubator , to make sure the temperature was write it has to be between 97 and 102 degrees. Today the eggs arrived they have to rest for 24 hours so tomorrow we will put them in the incubator . The eggs have to be turned 3 times a day so I have made a chart for the eggs so when we can keep track on who has turned the eggs and how many times , but you don't turn them after 18 days because they put themselves in to a position where they are ready to crack the egg.



Kendal x

The eggs have arrived!

Today the eggs came at 8 o'clock. Mummy opened the box very gently. We got 6 eggs, none were broken! They are Buff (me), white (daddy), black (mummy), lavender (Kendal), lemon splash (Alfie) and blue (Geordie).

We are going to rest them for 24 hours, before we put them in the incubator.

Kenzie