Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A wonderful sight in the incubator this morning: one Copper Maran and two Indian Game chicks - one of whom is pictured left. Not a great hatch rate from this set mind you: we set 24 eggs in total to hatch (12 of each breed) and only 10 in total were fertile (a fertile egg is one that has the potential to grow into a chick because the chicken who laid it has been mated with by a cockerel). Of these 10 fertile eggs, just seven grew (so four more to hatch we hope). These were posted eggs (i.e. sent through the post) but even so, a lower success rate than usual. The very fact that eggs 'can' be posted and then hatched out is amazing though!!
When a cockerel mates with a chicken and the chicken then lays an egg, the egg itself should be fertile BUT it will only hatch into a chick if the egg is warmed to the right temperature. This warming can be done by either the hen itself or in our case with these chicks, by an incubator. Posted eggs obviously are jostled round a fair bit which can result in some damage to the white and yolk inside which in turn may mean a chick won't grow even if the egg was fertile in the first place. It was disappointing that less than half of these eggs were fertile. We will see tomorrow if any of the remaining four have hatched: fingers crossed.
Our 11 young turkeys are all doing really well, enjoying the sunshine today and looking suitably prehistoric. They are fabulous birds and one is destined to be the new Napoleon (our amazing stag [male turkey]) who we lost last month to heart failure after the fox came visiting.
And finally we are hoping for lots of eggs today: judging by the colour of this hen's comb, she should be in perfect laying mode!! Healthy, happy chickens have bright red combs (in most cases) and healthy, happy chickens lay lots of eggs!!