June 2003 hatching:
June is the month we start to slowly end incubating eggs. It's very hot in Florida and by early August, it's getting too hot for chicks to survive in the outdoor brooders, and room is limited in the indoor brooders. However, for June we have a few eggs from our own Silkies and mixed breed ducks and Brahmas to hatch out beginning of the month. Towards mid-month we have 2 batches of White Leghorns to hatch, more mixed ducks and Silkie eggs and a large batch of Guinea fowl (for my mother).

No Ringneck pheasants hatch out. This is the third and final batch and for some reason our incubator environment must not be right for hatching pheasants.

4 mixed ducks hatched out on June 2nd. One was very weak, but with some TLC, recovered within 2 days.

June 5th, out of 19 eggs, 16 healthy Brahmas hatched out, with a good assortment of buff, light and dark.

June 8th, four more mixed ducks hatched, which was a surprise because I had them marked to hatch a week later. 3 Silkie eggs hatched but 2 died.

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*On June 2nd, 20 healthy flying Mallard ducklings arrived from the hatchery

June 3rd, 25 Americana and 25 White Leghorn chicks arrived from the hatchery.

May 2003 hatching:
For May we have 2 dozen assorted duck eggs (Mallards, Pekins, and Runner ducks), a lovely gift of 12 Marans and 2 Langshan eggs from Bev of the Dom_Bird list (which we are both members), a dozen more Blue Cochin eggs, 2 separate batches of 6 pheasant eggs each, our barn yard special from our own ducks (4 eggs) and an assortment of Silkie mixed bantam eggs.

Update: Ducklings hatched out 10 days late, out of the large batch we had 5 ducks hatch. Four Mallard and one odd runner duck.

On May 18 we had a power outage from a storm and lost a majority of our eggs. Maran eggs had just peeped before the power outage and we hatched only 4 eggs, 1 chick later died.

Blue Cochin and duck eggs, as expected, never hatched. However, most of the duck eggs were active during each candling, but they must have been too weak to hatch.

Note: Blue Cochin, and assorted duck eggs were place in a new incubator with temperature regulation problems, temperature soared to 105 degrees one evening, so we are not hopeful on a successful hatch.
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*May 7th, 25 beautiful Partridge Cochin chicks arrived from the hatchery today. These were a gift from my dear husband who knows these Partridge Cochins are my favorite breed of chicken.

April 2003 hatching
In the incubator this month, we have 12 Ring Necked Pheasant eggs, 12 Blue Cochin eggs, 12 White Leghorn eggs, 2 dozen Buff Orpingtons eggs, 12 Black Australorp eggs, and 11 Black Leghorn eggs.

No Ring Necked Pheasant eggs hatched. These were purchased over the Internet and turned out to be infertile.

9 beautiful Blue Cochins hatched out of 12 eggs (April 16th hatch)

April 25th, 8 White Leghorn chicks hatched from 18 eggs. One chick died with deformed legs, another chick needed chick shoes to correct curled toes.

April 30th, 10 Buff Orpington chicks hatched from 24 eggs (many infertile eggs). One late hatching chick was put down after he snagged his abdomen on the sharp corner of the thermometer and lost his internal yoke sack.

April 30th, 12 Black Australorps hatched out of 12 eggs. Great hatch!

May 1st, 1 Black Leghorn chick hatched out of 11 eggs. All other eggs infertile, surviving chick weak.
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*On April 14 my two Silkie hens hatched out 7 darling little chicks of their own. One black hen and one red Silkie hen (the father is white), hatched 2 black chicks, 2 white chicks, 1 dark red, 1 buff, and 1 gray chick.

*25 healthy White Leghorn chicks arrived in the mail on April 20th and are currently bouncing around in the brooder

March 2003 hatching:
In this Month we had 2 dozen Brahma eggs (assorted colors), 1 dozen Rhode Island Red eggs, 1 dozen Black Australorp eggs, and two Silkie eggs.

20 Brahma chicks hatched from 24 eggs (March 6th hatch)

Only 5 RIR chicks hatched from 12 eggs (March 12th and 13th, late hatch).

8 Black Australorp chicks hatched from 12 eggs (March 13th hatch)

Both Silkie eggs hatched (March 14th hatch)