I now have 8 new chicks! They are a week old today. I ended up with 6 Faverolles and 2 Silkies. Two of the Silkie eggs did not hatch. After opening them up, it looks like they drowned in the shell from too much humidity so next time around I am going to incubate with the plug out of the incubator vent hole and stabilize things around 45-48% humidity. This last hatch was around 56% humidity the entire time and I guess that was just too much for them... though it is weird that the Faverolles eggs did not have any trouble. I'm almost wondering if the Silkie eggs are more sensitive to humidity because they're smaller or something.
Bad news is that a raccoon got into the barn last night and killed Penny, my Faverolles hen. The remaining chickens, Derp (Faverolles Roo) and Lucky (Ameraucana Pullet) have been moved back to their outside pens and the pens now have a 3-strand hotwire perimeter. We'll see how that does for them. Hopefully I'll be able to save up for a nice, secure chicken coop once I start selling the chicks I hatch.
Speaking of which- the Silkie breeder who sold me the last batch of Silkie eggs sent me 16 replacement eggs! And I just ordered 12+ from ebay that are by Glen See. I should have around 30 to hatch this time around and I will only be keeping a select few BBS ones.
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