Took some photos of the Cuckoo Maran pullets today to post them for sale and this picture was just crying out for a caption.  :0)

They're So Fluffy!!!

 

Isa Brown Two Day Old Chick

Bearded White Silkie Two Day Old Chick

I took these photos today of some newly hatched peeps.   Thought you would enjoy. :0)

All photos copyright 2012 Buc~A~Buc Farm.

Something new today, folks.  I’m going to call it,

Cindy Lou’s Product Review

 And what might I be reviewing?   EGGIES. 

 Ah, yes.  Went to Wal-Mart the other day and in a fit of what could have only been insanity, bought a box of “Eggies.”  Can you say impulse buy? How about target audience?  Well, really.  I mean… they were called “EGGIES.”  What was I to do?  They were crying out to me. 

Anyway, "What are Eggies?"   Well, on the box it enthusiastically proclaims the following:

 “Eggies!  Hard Boil Eggs Without the Shell!  No more messy peeling!  Season Eggs before cooking!”  And then the side panel has three little illustrative cartoon pictures with the words:  Crack, Boil, Twist!   

“Gosh,” I thought. “That sounds way better than standing at my sink peeling eggs ‘til the end o’ time!”  Needless to say, we eat a lot of eggs around here.  And Ben, Gregg and Rebekah all love hard boiled eggs.  Unfortunately I’m the one that gets to peel them.  Plus, since all our eggs are fresh, they are extra hard to peel. Enter EGGIES!  Gosh.  This sounds GREAT!  Crack, boil, twist!  SO I bought a box and brought them home. 

 As it turns out there’s a few more steps than crack, boil, twist to Eggies.  I’m guessing about nine hundred and eight.  This product brought to mind old (and bad) memories of that Wal-Mart pool we bought several summers ago, “Snap, Fill, Swim!”   I’m CERTAIN Eggies are from the same company. 

So here’s what you ACTUALLY have to do.  Now remember.  I bought these things because they were going to save me a bunch of time: Crack, Boil, Twist! 

Here we go:  There are four pieces to every Eggie: the lid, the “collar", the bottom half, and the top half. 

First you have to wash and dry all the little pieces.  Fair enough, I’ll give them that one.  But then, and there’s a big BUT THEN.  After you wash and thoroughly dry all the pieces you must coat the inside of all the pieces with oil.  You can’t just spray them with cooking spray, mind you.  Nope.  It specifically says DON’T do this.  Instead, you are supposed to apply the oil by hand with a paper towel to each individual piece, making sure you coat all pieces thoroughly. 

Then with your grease covered fingers (because the paper towel disintegrated) you carefully position the grease coated top half onto the grease coated bottom half and secure it with the grease coated “collar” around both the grease coated pieces.  

Then you crack an egg into your Eggie (after several attempts at just trying to lift it from the carton, cause, you know... there's grease everywhere). 

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Side note here:  cracking an egg into an Eggie is harder than you think if your egg is oh... normal size.  Mine barely sloshed through the opening, and in one case, it broke the yolk going in.  Apparently in the illustration they were using parakeet eggs.  Who knew?

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Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, then you carefully twist the grease coated top on.  Except between the greasy fingers and the threads that I’m completely positive never even lined up in the factory, you spend a good five minutes attempting to actually screw the lid on.  You finally give up and force it closed, declaring it ‘good enough.’ This means it’s on half sideways but it’s on and nobody better point out otherwise if they want to reach their next birthday. 

Repeat.  Six times. 

Then you place your egg filled Eggies in a saucepan filled with warm water and ensure that they are all floating. They reminded me a lot of the Pick Up Ducks at a carnival, bob bob bobbing about.  Finally you turn on the burner and bring the water to a boil, following the cooking times on the chart provided.  I watched, transfixed as the Eggies began bopping about in the boiling water and the raw eggs seeped through the half on lids, turning the water a murky white.  Finally they were done, and I removed them from the water. 

After waiting the instructed 7 minutes you then twist open the lids, spraining your thumb in the effort, and further strip what is left of the already messed up threads.  Then you unscrew the middle collar and remove the top half to expose the egg.  Except what egg that hasn’t boiled out of the half screwed on top is now stuck to the plastic despite the - did I mention - OIL you slathered in, on, and around the Eggie and everything else in your kitchen. Then, assuming you actually get the top part off, you then hold the bottom half upside down, squeeze “gently” (until your arms shake... and there goes the other thumb) and the egg is supposed to release.  It says if the egg is not releasing you should work out more.  No, actually it says to use a utensil to loosen the egg around the edges.  I don’t know.  Hurling it into the sink seemed to work okay. 

In the end it took me at least twenty five minutes to just get the eggs INTO the pot, and then at least another fifteen to remove them from the plastic Eggie shell.   I have never in my life spent so much time cooking and peeling six eggs.  The mutilated remains are still in my icebox. They do not resemble eggs in any form.

Do I recommend this product?  Yes.  Heartily.  To the Peoples Republic of China.

We had another adventurous day with Grammie last week.  First we took her to the dermatologist... which was an adventure in itself.  My sister, who took her the last time, spoke of earning “Heaven Points.”  While I don’t agree with the concept I understand completely what she meant.  Apparently Grammie has “barnacles.”  Yes, that’s what I said.  Barnacles.  And she’s not ashamed to show them to you, either, so don’t ask. 

After the dermatologist we headed over to Safeway.  Mostly because Grammie heard Brittany say she was stopping there to buy some milk… so… essentially we were there to stalk Brittany.  As it turns out, Brit had wisely already left the building.  Anyway, as I pulled the car up to the entrance, one of the employees was pushing a long row of grocery carts back into the store.  I recognized him as the special needs fellow we’ve often seen working there.  I’ll call him Bob.

Rebekah got out of the car and headed in to get Grammie her scootie chair.  This is routine now. We’ve done it a hundred times.  Rebekah found a scootie immediately, hopped on, and began to head out the door.  And that’s when the excitement began.  As she started out the door, she caught Bob’s attention, and apparently, as it turns out, Bob considers all things scootie his job.  He immediately abandoned the carts he was pushing (which btw, were now completely blocking traffic) and ran, and I do mean RAN towards Rebekah who took one look and froze mid doorway.    Bob orders her off the scootie, but since Rebekah is much like Bob, this does not compute.  She wasn’t budging and remained frozen in place, giant blue eyes a poppin’.

And then things really began to spiral.  Flinging the car door open Grammie got in on the act.  Waving her cane in the air, she ordered Bob to leave Rebekah alone and let her bring the cart.

But Bob was having none of it. He was determined.   Abandoning the idea of absconding with Rebekah’s cart, he now jumped on the one behind her.  Speeding out the “in” door, he eventually got it pointed toward Grammie, only to park it several feet from her.   

Grammie is fussing at him, “Bring it closer!  I can’t walk over there!  What are you doing?!” 

So, Bob backs it up… and drives it in several large circles but still gets no closer. He does this at least three or four times and with each loop Grammie is getting more and more agitated.  She’s now gotten half out of the car and is waving her cane at him.  Bob takes one look and bolts w/ the scootie.

Grammie is now practically cross eyed. “You bring that cart back here!” she yells, still waving her cane. 

And Bob turns.  And begins toward her.  And he’s going fast.  And he’s not slowing down.  Now, Grammie is waving her cane and shouting STOP in every form of the word she can think of.  And I have joined her.  But Bob is not stopping.  Nor is he slowing down.  In fact he is gaining speed.  Ramming speed.  WHAMO!!!  He slams right into the side of my car door.  It bounced but fortunately didn’t hurt Grammie.  Who by the way is now so mad she doesn’t know which end is up.  “Look what you did!  You ran into our car!”  Bob now freaks completely, backs up and zooms away. 

Okay.  Just a side note here.  I guarantee you the folks at Safeway will be sitting around for years to come viewing the security tapes of this fiasco.  I know I’d pay for a copy. 

Anyway, the story is not over.  Nope.  Not even close.   I am still behind the wheel of the car with my jaw hanging open and Rebekah is still on the scootie chair stuck between the opening and closing doors.  Grammie has still yet to get her scootie, and the long row of grocery carts Bob was originally pushing are still stretched from the parking lot to the store, traffic having now made a new path up and around. 

Rebekah finally achieves forward momentum and drives the scootie up to Grammie who finally gets on and they proceed to go into the store.  I close my mouth and park the car but by the time I get inside, Grammie and Rebekah are nowhere to be seen.  However, I do see Bob.  He is seated on his scootie chair beside some folks in shirts and ties, obviously managers.  He is looking desperately unhappy not to mention wigged out.   So, I go over and say, look, everything is okay.  Don’t worry about it.  I explain my daughter and Bob are similar and I understand how these things happen. 

As I’m talking, these folks are just staring at me, saying nothing.  So I go on to say to them Bob should probably have a little more supervision.  Things could have been much worse had he actually run into Grammie and not just the car (leaving three marks on the door, btw).  Everyone continues to just stare, still saying nothing.  I’m a bit taken aback that no one is responding but finally leave them with, “Okay, well, I really think you folks need to get some help outside for Bob.”  And I go off in search of Grammie and Rebekah. 

But as I’m looking for them, I’m beginning to get a bit steamed.  I mean… really.  Not even an apology?  I’ve three dings in my door, a freaked out daughter, and a grumpy Grammie to deal with for the rest of the day and they can’t even summon a response?  So.  I finally find Grammie and Rebekah.  They are okay.  I leave them and I walk up to the front of the store.  By now I’m indignant.  I’m going to send in one of those little cards!  Ha!  So I go up to the counter and I notice the folks behind the customer service counter aren’t dressed the same as the folks I talked to when I came in.  That’s because the folks I talked to WEREN’T SAFEWAY EMPLOYEES!  Nope.  Apparently just some random strangers, possibly bank employees or something.

Oy.  So, I’m now talking to the actual manager who is very kind.  We talk about Bob and his possessiveness re the scootie chairs and, yes, perhaps someone needs to keep more of an eye on him. We continue to talk while meanwhile another employee has come up to us and obviously wants to cut in on the conversation.  He is practically dancing, so, we stop talking and turn to him.  And he says, and I’m not making this up, “WE GOTTA SHUT THE PUMPS DOWN!!!  NOW!!!”  Both the manager and I are equally stunned.  So, I look back at him and say, “Well… I’ll leave you to it then!”  And they both RUN.  Yes, RUN towards…. I guess the gas pump shut off switch.  I go get Grammie and Rebekah and hustle them out of the store and parking lot, expecting a mushroom cloud at any moment.   

I have officially decided our time spent at the Safeway is now and forever over.

Egg Candling - Day By Day

I received a couple of e-mails today w/ egg questions. At this point, I get these type questions fairly often...  sometimes daily depending on the time of year.   What?  You don't get egg e-mails? :0) 

Anyway, the two I got today... I can't even remember them being my customers.  This is fine, glad to help.  But it got me thinking maybe I'd start blogging about the whole incubation process.  I also thought I'd take some pictures, especially of the eggs, to show the growth of the embryo since candling seems to be a stumbling block for some at times, and photography is a stumbling block for me at times so... win win!  (Do people say that anymore?  Win Win?  I don't know.  I'm always behind.) 

Anyway, we'll see how far I get with this.  I'm not sure I can take pictures every single day.  In fact I know I'll miss a few.  Even so, I'll still be able to answer questions as they might come up, so fire away!  Hopefully I'll eventually be able to fill in any missed pictures from other egg settings.  By the time we're finished my hope is to have all the days documented and a video of a chick hatching.  I also thought I'd talk about incubators, temps, thermometers, quantum physics (jussst kidding), hygrometers or wet bulb thermometers, problem hatches and their causes, and any and all other things that come to mind. And we can talk about quantum physics, too, if you want but... somebody else is gonna have to lead the conversation and I'm gonna need some aspirin.   Anyway, if you have any incubation questions, or chicken questions in general, post them.  I'll do my best to answer.  In fact, I've thought of compiling some of the e-mails I've gotten.  Or not.  LOL! There's a lot. 

Okay! Here we go!

Not much happening yet! But don't worry, it will! The egg I'm using here is a blue Ameraucana egg.   (I know it looks yellow in this light.) It consists of the yolk, the albumen, the shell membrane, and the shell. You'll also notice about a dime sized air cell at the top, or fat end, of the egg. If this is a FERTILE egg, and it is, there is a small white spot on the yolk. All yolks have this "white spot" but in a fertile eggs it's larger... about twice the size than in non fertile eggs. You can only see this spot if you crack open the egg... so... just take my word for it here. :0)

Fat End Up

If you are just getting started, you have likely read or been told, "Set your eggs Fat End Up."  This is what we're talking about.   When you set your eggs in an egg turner, this is the end that should be UP. Always set your eggs fat end up.  Otherwise when it comes time for your chicks to hatch, they will pip on the wrong end of the egg and drown in the fluids. 

If you don't have an egg turner lay your eggs on their sides.  If you're only setting a small number of eggs, and you have the time and patience, TRY to lay the egg in such a way to have the fat end slightly higher.  Don't obsess.  We're not talking about standing your eggs on end or constructing little lounge chairs for them.  Just, if you can, have the fat end slightly elevated.  I can tell you, I set way too many eggs to take the time to worry about 'fat end slightly higher' when I'm not using a turner.  However, every little thing DOES help.  So, if you have the time and inclination, try to have the fat end a tad higher than the pointy end.

After one day, the white spot on the yolk is larger and has gone from several hundred to several thousand cells.  Candling still shows nothing other than the air cell at the top of the egg is a bit larger.   The air cell gets larger during incubation as moisture evaporates from the egg.   Keeping an eye on the size of the air cell can help you decide if you should increase or decrease your humidity.

Believe it or not after two days the white spot has already changed and the cells are forming the chick.  The spot is now an embryo.  By the third day the embryo looks like a backwards question mark and the heart is beating!

Can you see the blood vessels?  If you look carefully you can see what looks like faint spidery like veins.  But these are just the ones you can see by candling.  If you cracked open the egg you'd see blood vessels all over the yolk.  The heart is pumping blood through the vessels and back to the embryo, essentially feeding the chick by bringing food and water from the yolk.  How cool is that?! 

And, btw, you'd also be able to see the eye... just a dark round spot at this point... but... that's the eye!

Also, by the end of Day 4 an amniotic sac is now surrounding the embryo, protecting the chick as it develops.

You might notice the egg is different.  I switched to a lighter egg to get a better picture.  Trying to hold a flashlight JUST SO with one hand and a big camera in the other and actually get a picture is harder than you think!  :0)  I've now switched to a lighter colored egg which made things a bit easier for me to photograph. 

So.. What's going on in there with Junior today?  Well, you might notice there are more blood vessels!  Woo hoo!  The embryo is growing and needs more food from the yolk! The chick is floating in the amniotic sac, and if you cracked open the egg (and I don't want to KNOW if you do) you'd see little nubbies where wings and legs will eventually be!

Okay.  This is a picture of another DAY FIVE egg.  This egg is not alive.  It is a "quitter."  It began to develop but for some reason the embryo died.  It has formed what is called a BLOOD RING.  Blood rings can go all the way around or just be like what you see in this picture.  But, it is very distinctive and a sure sign the embryo has died.  If you candle your eggs and see any like this, remove them from your incubator and discard.

EGGIE BABY DAY SIX.  This is the first day I encourage my customers to candle their eggs.   Day six and day ten are the best (easiest for beginners) candling days.

What is candling and HOW do you do it? 
Candling is simply shining a light into the egg to see the contents.  The "Day__" photos you see here are candled eggs. 
What you need:  A candler or a small (but strong) flashlight and an egg that has been incubating for six days.

This is what I use.  I think I paid about $20 for it.  It works wonderfully for candling... and chasing fox barefoot through the back yard at two a.m.

I'll see if I can figure a way to take a picture of me candling.  There will, however, be no pictures of me windsprinting after the fox.  You're welcome.

Mooooving on....  Candling.  What you're trying to do is hold the egg in such a way that you can put the flashlight against the egg (fat end up) and see the contents.   So.  grab your six day old egg and a small flashlight and head for a windowless bathroom or closet.  Someplace where there is no light  Turn the flashlight ON and the closet light OFF and hold your flashlight right against the shell of your egg.  The trick is to shine the light THROUGH the egg, not ON the egg.

In later years I have often wondered what my then small children must have thought Mama was DOING. 

Child #1:  "Where's Mama?" 
Child #2:  "She's locked herself in the dark with a flashlight and a bunch of eggs again..." 
Child #1:  "Oh." (Dials Oprah.)

Anyway....

Can you see it?  Looks sort of like a SPIDER, doesn't it?   You will often hear "spider like" when you read about candling eggs.  This is what they mean.

By day six another sac is now growing called an allantois membrane.  The allantois  membrane is full of blood vessels that get oxygen from the air, carries it to the embryo, and then carries carbon dioxide away.  The embryo breathes even though it's surrounded by fluid!  Such Intelligent Design! :0)

More later.  Trying to fit this in as I have time.  :0) 

Folks, please don't copy/paste this elsewhere w/out giving me credit and linking back to here.     Thanks!

EGGIE BABY DAY SEVEN.    Welllll... there seems to have been a bit of a GAP between my last candling post and now!  Woops!  It's difficult to take the time to photograph and upload each and every day.  I'll try to do better.  In any event, scroll down, I have a treat.  I managed to video the chick moving around in the egg on day seven. YAY!

Photo of an egg at day seven of incubation. Notice a little more veining than on Day 6.

And here's the video.  You can really see the fetus moving around! That's right!  The embryo is now called a FETUS.  It has all of its "parts" or at least the beginnings of them. Everything is starting to form and develop.

As you can see in the video, the fetus floats around inside the amniotic sac, attached to the yolk by blood vessels which are growing around the yolk.  The clear part of the egg is the albumen.


EGGIE BABY DAY EIGHT.  Hey!  I managed to post TWO WHOLE DAYS IN A ROW!  Woot!!!   This could have something to do with this is the weeeeeeeeeeee kend!  That and I figured out the video camera! YAY ME!

Anyway, here we are with Junior on Day Eight.  He's still swimming around briskly in his little eggy space ship.  Pictures and video below!

So Junior has continued to grow in the last twenty four hours.  If you were to crack open the egg (reminder number TWO that I don't want to know, I don't want to know...) you'd especially notice growth in his wings and legs.  Remember, he only has 21 days from start to finish!  Things have to happen FAST in that little eggy house of his!    Also, you can't see it in the picture/video but the air cell at the fat end of the egg is getting bigger.  At the end of incubation Junior will poke through to that air cell and take his first breath!


EGGIE BABY DAY NINE.  At nine days incubation, Junior is really beginning to look like a baby chick.  His beak is clearly formed and his wings now actually look like chicken wings!  He sports a cute little nubby tail and he has very large eyes.  Pictures and video below!  Enjoy!

EGGIE BABY DAY TEN!  Not a lot more to report for day ten other than the chick continues to grow and fill out.  Here's another picture and video!

EGGIE BABY DAY ELEVEN! 

By day eleven Junior sports eyelids, can open and close his beak, and has little bumps on his skin that are the start of feathers!

EGGIE BABY DAY FIFTEEN!  

Whoops!  Yes, it appears I've missed a few days in between.  I will try to fill them in from the next batch.  In the mean time we'll continue on from here.  

Junior now has feathers and claws and is much bigger than just a few days ago!  

If you are enjoying these clips, please be so kind to "like" and "share" my videos.  Thanks!