We're setting again

This year was supposed to be the year I raised chicks for the freezer from eggs we hatched instead of buying chicks. The last batch I got a decent hatch. 32 eggs set, 19 hatched. I think I lost two right at the start. One had it's insides on it's outsides when it hatched. One just up and died. I had one chick with spraddle leg that didn't thrive and died. 16 chicks made it over to Heather's once they were feathered enough to leave the brooder.


The damned skunk over at Heather's put a end to the first batch of chicks. Sixteen chicks it killed in one night. I found eight carcasses stuffed under the front of the old shack. I still haven't killed the bastard. I did kill the one over here that took out the ducks and the goose. I shot two more juveniles out along the irrigation pipe out back on Dave's property.

I started another set of  thirty seven, July 6th. I just candled them tonight. Two banty eggs I knew weren't going to give me anything were duds. I threw out nine more on top of those two. Three had a red blood ring in them, so they had started to grow something. Six more were complete duds. Nothing but yolk in them. One week and two days till I get any results.

The first couple times I set only green eggs, white or cream eggs, and just a few browns. The chicks that ended up barred were almost twice the size of the EE cross chicks that hatched from the green eggs. This time I set everything I could get my hands on. The brown eggs are going to be either Australorp/White Rock crosses or Sagitta/White Rock cross, and should be pretty decent sized birds for roasting or breasts. The rest will be just big enough to make a good pot of chicken soup, but they will all probably be freezer birds unless something hatches with a super neat feather coloring that I just have to keep.