Special Deliveries

I Have basically been delivering baby chicks today, they were suppose to hatch yesterday.  I could hear them and was afraid if I didn't they would die.  We had power fluctuations and problems yesterday with all the snow everything kept going on and off clicking and such.  They pipped internally and basically were shrink-wrapped.  I have been working with them on and off all day.  The last one finally kicked the shell off, I opened all of them and moistened the membranes and peeled off enough so they could breath earlier.  Hopefully these five will make it, three of them are Double Laced Blue Barnevelders  and only 3 of the 6 eggs I bought developed.  They are a beautifully feathered chicken that lays a darker brown egg.  I didn't know anything about them until I purchased some mixed rare breed eggs last year.  They are rare in the U.S. But are originally from Holland, I think.  My other eggs in the incubator are on day 10...I candled them and all but one of the Dorking eggs are developing, 7 of the 18 Speckled Sussex did not develop and it is hard to tell on the Barnevelders...but I think they are all developing.  I got my replacement Polish eggs in and Put all but two of the Java eggs in the same incubator yesterday.  Hopefully my correct eggs will arrive tomorrow and then after they sit 24 hours I will reload the incubator that the chicks are currently in....by correct, I mean the person whom I bought them from shipped me the wrong eggs the first time.  The eggs should have been blue and green when they came in...all of them where white!

Ok, maybe I need to explain better.  I am selecting breeds of chickens to raise that are endangered or rare breeds listed on the Livestock Conservancies Heritage Breed List.  I have picked some that are critical, endangered and on the watch list.  I have mostly Heritage Breeds, but a few breeds that are just rare...like Cream Legbars and Barnevelders.  I have been looking for eggs to purchase on eBay and am trying to get breeding stock from all over so that I have different lines that are unrelated.  I bid on and won an auction for Isbar, Cream Legbar and Olive Egger eggs...blue and green eggs are the color of their shells...or should be.  The eggs I received were all a creamy white.  I contacted the seller about them, and she made a mistake and sent me someone else's eggs.  I asked what these were...and found out they are Houdan, Sultan and Bearded Silkie eggs...What I consider Fru Fru chickens.  I am going to incubate them and see if any hatch, but I will probably try and sell them if they do.  I am not really into Fru Fru chickens...but I reserve the right to change my mind.  My husband fell in love with Polish chickens, so he very well might fall in love with these...I may too.

Something funny is our mail lady.  She knows I am hatching eggs and will keep them with her and under the heater in her truck if she knows about them.  The wrong eggs were marked "Fragile Glass" and she put them in the bed of her truck...I am not sure any will hatch.  I talked to the mail lady today and told her about the eggs being marked like that, I am hoping that she will put the correct eggs in her truck cab since I warned her.  She has been pulling half way through the yard to hand deliver packages to me if she sees me in the yard with the chickens too.  We talk sometimes and she told me about some of the predators in the area.  I told her about our predator problem a few weeks ago.  She has had chickens before.