And now there are five…

Phew! It was a kind of busy weekend on the hatching front. We had our first Light Sussex chick hatch on Friday morning (see below), followed by a Pekin chick (from Pekin egg 8 ) on Saturday morning (one day early). On Saturday evening we than had our second Light Sussex chick hatch.  

Our first Light Sussex chick (Friday 14th May)

Pekin egg 9 pipped on Saturday evening, but still hadn’t hatched by Sunday evening, so I gave it a helping hand (ok, I had to dismantle the egg around it). In fact, the chick was so weak that it could barely twitch once out the shell, it just lay there barely breathing. However, as of today (Tuesday) , after staying in the incubator for almost 48 hours, this chick is still with us, and is now eating and drinking, and walking; I’m now pretty sure I did right in saving it, but I guess only time will tell for sure. I’m just not great at letting nature run its course without interference, I guess!  

I also had to discard Pekin egg 10 on Sunday – it ‘quit’ around day 10, I think…not sure why.  

Anyhow, I now have four very healthy chicks (2 Pekin & 2 Light Sussex) running around under my heat lamp, plus one Pekin chick that’s not quite running just yet. Next up will be five more Pekin eggs due to hatch a week today (25^th May) – so they’ll be transferred into by ‘finishing’ incubator on Friday. 

Pekin Egg No.	Result
8	Hatched – chick doing well.
9	Hatched – chick need much help, but now doing ok.
10	Quit at around 12(?) days.

  

Outside, it’s raining heavily for the first time in about a month. I’m thrilled. The ground has been like concrete for the last week or so, and I’ve had to have the hose out every night. I really need to get a few water butts setup, because our water is so soft (limey) that I’m afraid too much tap water could affect the pH of my soil. Mind you, at around €50 per butt in our local B&Q, I won’t be buying more than one at a time…Anyhow, once the rain stops, I’m aiming to tackle the flower bed that I’ve been promising my wife – you’d have needed a pneumatic drill to do any digging last weekend, so hard was the ground.