tonilee

okay so it seems you have jinx me :hap: .......I have thrown out 3 nests of eggs this week :angel: . Not sure what is going on.....this is round 2 for one of the hens, I threw all her last lot out exept 1 egg last time coz they were all clear, I am wondering whether she is a box bound hen and hasn't been coming out for him to mate with her. This is a real shame as she has layed 8 eggs in both lots , and the other 2 hens not sure what has gone wrong both have had fertile eggs, 1 hens were all dried up but clearly fertile and the other hen, hers had gone rotten but also had been fertile...........it is sooo frustrating, especially when you know they were fertile but still nothing come of them Arrggghhhhhh :S My Cavaliers would eat my birds in a split second if they had the chance too :sad: Your babies are looking great.....really good photos Thanks Kaz, I have a pretty good camera so it helps.....and I have finally worked out how to dull the flash . My cavaliers are okay if they are on their own but as soon as they get together in a pack they will kill anything even my chooks :sad: the little buggers killed 10 chooks one night. Can you tell what sex any of the 3 chicks are gonna be?

okay so no new eggs have been layed this week so I guess I will just update on hatched babies. I have posted photos below of the 3 babies from my Violet spangle hen and Green Dominant pied cock, they have just started coming out of the nest and eating on their own. 3 chicks out of the Blue spangle hen and Blue spangle dominant pied cock. 2 chicks and 3 eggs (1 is cheeping so I guess it will be 3 chicks soon :angel: ) these are from my Green spangle Hen and Normal Blue Cock. I guess that's it for now, until I have more babies (I hope).

okay so I didn't touch the egg I just shone a light in the nest box and I can now see a small crack in the egg, so by morning I may well already have another chick

It hasn't got any cracks in the shell and there are no black spots so I am guessing it has only just started the hatching process so I will just check it again in the morning, thanks for all the advice.

Well it seems I stuck my head out the back door just in the nick of time. I just found my Cavaliers digging under one of my bird cages Hmmmmmm they have never done it before but I am not taking any chances looks like concrete floors it is!!!!!

okay so I will just keep an eye out for a new hatched chick in the morning

Thanks Kaz, how long can this process take? I didn't expect her to hatch another until tomorrow, could it possibly take until tomorrow for it to hatch?

okay, if you think that is the best thing to do, then that's what I will do. As she is quite a nice hen and I don't really want to sell her. So a holiday it is for her

okay so as you all know this is my first time breeding, I have got a hen with 2 chicks (hatched yesterday) and 4 eggs, one of those eggs is cheeping and I can hear tapping. I have been able to hear this for a few hours now so obviously it is starting the hatching process, my question is how long do they do this before hatching and when should you intervene if nothing is happening?

The hen has been in a cage without a nest for a while now but I am going to leave her a bit longer. She laid one egg after I took the nest out but then has laid no more since so I am assuming the egg laying cycle has been broken. Another week and I will introduce the nest again and see how we go in the next few weeks :rofl: . If she does the same thing again I think she will be moved to the for sale cage.....

:rofl: I am very happy with my 3 chicks. But I have not been lucky at all, out of 10 nests I managed 1 hen hatching 5 chicks which 2 of them died. The rest were either clear or dead in shell. :rofl: But this time round, as you have probably read I have had better luck, I have got fertile eggs everywhere. The first chicks of this round hatched yesterday, and hopefully there will be lots more to come . I have just been out to the nest with the 2 new chicks and I can hear one of the eggs cheeping and tapping so I am hoping we will have another chick very very soon :rofl:

It seems I am getting slack on my updates, but I have been busy :rofl: . So I have thrown out most of the albino hens eggs, she must have put pin holes through most of them with her claws before I transferred them :rofl: , hence I have now cut her claws. Below are new photos of the 3 chicks from my violet hen. My Blue spangle cinnamon wing hen has hatched 2 babies (yesterday) :rofl: , she has got 4 eggs left with the next due to hatch tomorrow . Below I have written how many eggs each pair has: Normal blue hen + Blue dominant pied cock = 7 eggs, due to hatch from yesterday. Green spangle hen + Normal blue male = 5 eggs, due to hatch from 9th October. Normal mauve hen + Blue spangle cock = 6 eggs, due to hatch 10th October. Normal grey hen + Green dominant pied cock = 6 eggs, due to hatch from 12th October. *NEW* Blue spangle hen + Blue spangle male = 3 eggs, due to hatch from 16 October. Blue spangle hen + Normal blue male = 4 eggs, due to hatch from 16th October. Normal blue hen + Normal blue male = 2 eggs, due to hatch from 22nd October. Grey dominant pied hen + Normal grey cock = 2 eggs, due to hatch from 22nd October. Blue spangle hen + Yellow face mauve cock = 1 egg due to hatch from 24th October.

Well havn't been on for a few days as I have been flat out preparing ponies for showing. So have had an up and down week this week, 2 of my chicks died...they seemed to have full crops all the time but they just never seemed to grow and they went a dark red color the day before they before they died . On the upper hand I have eggs coming out my ears and from what I can tell lots of them are fertile . They are due to start hatching in a few days. So just for an update I will once again write who has what Violet spangle hen has 3 chicks. Blue cinnamon wing spangle has 10 eggs all look fertile (might have to do some moving around once hatching starts) Normal blue hen has 7 eggs (one fostered, 5 def fertile 2 maybe) Green spangle hen has 4 eggs (all fertile) Normal mauve hen has 4 eggs. (still laying) Normal grey hen has 4 eggs. (still laying) Blue spangle hen has 1 egg. (started laying yesterday) Blue spangle hen has 1 egg. (also started today) I have posted pics of my chicks to see if anyone can tell their color yet.... 1st chick 2nd chick 3rd chick........only got his tail not sure why I didnt take anymore guess I just wasn't thinking

Thanks Kaz, I will do that. I have had her for 3 months now and she has been paired up with this partner for the same amount of time so not sure what her prob is. She is just in a aviary with her and her partner, so do you recommend I take her from her partner or just remove the nest?

Yes, my mum informed me this morning that he was a Grey wing. Out of all my pairs this is mums favourite. :)OMG......I forgot to mention before.I have always read about how if you candle the eggs at the right time you can actually see the little heart beating. I have never been able to candle and see this but today I used a smaller torch and Oh how exiting I could see the heart beating :ohmygod: okay so maybe not that exiting for anyone else but for me it was :boogie:

Not sure if she is a first time mum or not she came with one of the cages, I have tried everything. She laid an egg this afternoon but I wasn't taking the chance I took it from her as soon as I found it and placed it under another hen :ohmygod:

Update time, Violet spangle hen is rearing 5 chicks Blue spangle cinnamon wing is now on 10 eggs :happy-dancing: . Normal Blue hen is on 5 eggs Green spangle hen on 2 eggs *New* Normal Mauve hen on 2 eggs Normal Grey hen on 1 egg Blue and white pied laid another egg but I placed it under my normal blue hen :ohmygod:

What makes you think that is a dominant pied cock ? More photos please ? He has got white on his underbelly, not shown in the photo above, I have posted another photo of him which shows the white band across his belly.

Well clearly this hen just doesn't want to follow the rules as I went out today and found the egg on the ground smashed ....so not sure what to do she is in by herself so I didn't think I would have a problem now but clearly that's not the case. If she lays like she is meant to tomorrow I am going to take the egg from her and place under another hen. What do I do???? I have tried everything but it just doesn't help at all!!! PLEASE someone

okay so my blue spangle cinnamon wing is now on 9 eggs hope she copes, I candled them all and they are looking very fertile. Normal blue hen is now on 4 eggs.....hopefully with more to come over the next week. Blue dominant pied hen smashed her egg again ...she is due to lay tomorrow, when she lays I might put it under another hen. That's all for today hopefully have more to report tomorrow

Thanks Kaz.....Hopefully now that she is on her own and has actually laid an egg in the nest she will keep laying and keep sitting on them and not let them go cold this time *touch wood*

If I have any of the colors wrong, which I will, please feel free to correct me. And also if you wanna have a stab at what colors babies will be do so.

okay so went out just after lunch today and I have got 2 more hens that have started laying, so here is what I have so far. Violet spangle hen x Green Recessive pied cock = 5 chicks This is the pair who have eggs under my blue spangle hen= Blue spangle cinnamon wing hen x Blue dominant pied cock ?? = 8 eggs (5 fostered from Albino hen) Normal blue hen x Blue and white dominant pied cock = 3 eggs ( 1 fostered from yellow faced mauve hen) This is a picture of the YF mauve hen who's egg has been fostered to the normal blue hen and pied cock. Blue dominant pied hen x green recessive pied cock = 1 egg Green spangle hen x Normal blue cock = 1 egg I was going to upload pictures of all my pairs but I will upload pictures of them as they lay their eggs.

okay so today I go out and finally we have an egg in the nest *fingers crossed* that it stays there now that I have moved the other hen!!

I have got 1 hen who I started in a breeding cage. I found 1 egg on the floor of the breeding cage, I thought maybe she had gotten it stuck to her feathers so I placed it in the nest. Went in later and it was smashed. 2 days later I went in and she had laid another egg on the floor of the cage so this time I left it where it was, she laid 1 more then started to sit on them but then left them 3 days later and they went cold so I placed them under another hen and 1 did hatch the other dead in shell. So now I have placed her in an outside aviary and she has been in and out of a log nest. I noticed 2 days ago that their was a smashed egg on the floor but as there were other birds in there I wasn't sure who had laid it. This morning I noticed both hens were showing interest in the same nest (but not fighting) so I removed the other pair to another cage......and then when I went back out just before dark she had an egg smashed on the ground so I am guessing she was just laying them of the perch...but why??? she has been really keen on the nests but just wont lay in any nest whether it is in an aviary or a breeding cage.......what do I do about it??