Steph's Rainbow Egg Boutique

Steph's Rainbow Egg Boutique Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Steph's Rainbow Egg Boutique, Farm, Devon Meadows.

🐥 Learning chick raising, genetics & flock care
📚 Daily real life lessons from my flock
🌈 Breeding Rainbow Egg Layers
🐣 Chicks Available, PM me 📩
📍 SE Melb ONLY - *Australia*

03/09/2026

Well… that “interesting Cream Legbar” from the end of the last video didn't take long to figure out.

Those fuzzy little cheeks gave it away! It’s actually one of my Cream Legbar × Smokeshow babies, making it an Easter Egger.

So why did I think it was a pure Cream Legbar? I’d marked the shell as one... I didn't have my pencil with me while collecting eggs that day, so I marked them when I got home & obviously mixed this one up with the Cream Legbar egg from my Easter Egger pen.

Thankfully when I'm hatching for myself, little mix-ups like this aren't a big deal, especially with those unmistakable Smokeshow cheeks!

You'll also see some of the method behind my breeding projects. Sometimes I hatch particular eggs inside little bags so I know exactly which chick came from which egg.

If an Easter Egger egg has beautiful speckling, I want to grow that chick out & hopefully see what she lays.

They get orange for Easter Egger + green for my speckling project.

If an Easter Egger hatches from a blue egg, it gets orange + blue to identify the blue-egg side of my line.

It probably looks like ridiculous colour coding, but there IS method to my madness.

I'm using Chicken Hill medium rubber leg bands.

They're stretchy, easy to get on & off & generally fit until around 2 weeks depending on how quickly they grow. I check them regularly because those little legs grow FAST.

Meanwhile, chicken hatching apparently means covering every available surface of our house in chick fluff, incubators, hatching bags, leg bands & approximately 400 other pieces of chicken paraphernalia. My poor husband 😂

Two years of this hobby getting completely out of control might be another reason that dream property is sounding pretty good right now…

BUT THEN I spotted something in the incubator.

One of my eggs that travelled over 1,600km through the post has HATCHED!

Olive Egger, homozygous Cream Legbar or Marans?
Place your bets below.

Part 2: the posted eggs + complete Hatch Day Number 5 results! 🐣

03/09/2026

Hatch Day NUMBER 5 is officially underway! 🐣

There were WAY too many fluffy little butts to fit into one video this time, so apparently even Part 1 needs a Part 1.5 😂

We’ve got Cream Legbars, Easter Eggers & plenty of little blue, black & splash Marans making their way out of the incubator.

I have to admit, I’m going to miss seeing as many little Splash Copper Marans popping out. I absolutely love splash colouring, but with Valentino, my new Black Copper Marans rooster, over my Blue Copper girls, I’ll now be expecting roughly a 50/50 split of blue & black chicks rather than the blue, black & splash combinations I was getting previously.

Maybe another Blue Copper rooster will find his way into my breeding plans eventually… 👀

And just when I thought I knew exactly who I was pulling out of the incubator, the last little “Cream Legbar” of the video had me questioning things 😂

To be continued… 🐣

And we’re not even up to the part I’m MOST excited about yet. My posted hatching eggs travelled over 1,600 km to get here, went into the incubator a day later than this lot & 11 of the 12 made it all the way to lockdown 🙌

We’ll find out who actually made it out of those posted eggs in Part 2 👀

To learn more about raising friendly backyard chickens for eggs, pets or breeding. FOLLOW Steph's Rainbow Egg Boutique because I share all my tips, my breeding projects, my chick raising experience and plenty more chicken moments here if that's your kind of thing 🐓

LIKE~SHARE~SAVE🫶

31/08/2026

I accidentally left an ENTIRE tray of developing eggs out of the incubator for 16 HOURS…

With my new cabinet incubator, I’m staggered hatching, which means I can add fresh eggs every week.

I’d loaded a tray of new eggs, then realised I had quite a few more to add the following day. Since they’d only just gone in, I decided to pull them back out and set everything together the next day.

Except… I PULLED OUT THE WRONG TRAY.

Around 16 hours later, I realised the tray sitting outside wasn’t my freshly set eggs. They were already on approximately DAY 10–12 of development.

I genuinely thought I’d just killed an entire tray of developing chicks.

I immediately put them back in and hoped for the best. At lockdown on day 18, I candled them and couldn’t believe it. They were still developing, moving and bouncing around inside their eggs.

Then day 21 came and quite a few weren’t ready.

By day 22, they started making their way out.

Afterwards, I did some research because I wanted to understand HOW they survived.

Interestingly, studies have shown that developing chicken embryos can survive surprisingly long periods of cooling. Lower temperatures can slow their metabolism and development rather than necessarily killing them, and surviving embryos can resume development once returned to normal incubation temperatures.

Lower incubation temperatures can also delay hatching. One study found chicks hatched around 14–19 hours later, which correlates surprisingly well with these chicks being almost a FULL DAY behind.

Obviously, I would NEVER intentionally leave developing eggs out for 16 hours. Prolonged cooling can cause embryo loss and this was a complete accident.

But it taught me something valuable.

If your incubator switches off, you lose power or your eggs accidentally get cold, DON’T immediately assume you’ve lost them.

Get your incubator back to temperature, give them time and candle them later before making that call.

Sometimes these tiny developing chicks are a lot tougher than we give them credit for.

And sometimes our biggest stuff-ups accidentally teach us the most.

31/08/2026

Hatch Day NUMBER 4! Let’s see who made it…👀

Another incubator full of fluffy little faces & we had some cracking results this round!

💙 Bunyip Cluckers Cream Legbars
43 eggs set
5 no development → 38 developing (88.4% fertility)
7 quitters
31 hatched (81.6% hatch rate)

💙 Steph’s Rainbow Egg Boutique Cream Legbars
3 eggs set
3 developing (100% fertility)
0 quitters
3 hatched (100% hatch rate)

🌈 My Easter Eggers
25 eggs set
4 no development → 21 developing (84% fertility)
6 quitters
15 hatched (71.4% hatch rate)

🤎 My Marans
7 eggs set
0 no development → 7 developing (100% fertility)
1 quitter
6 hatched (85.7% hatch rate)

I’m particularly happy with those Cream Legbar results. The big batch from Bunyip Cluckers finished with an 81.6% hatch rate, while my own little Cream Legbar line managed a perfect 3/3.

My Marans also made me pretty happy, all 7 showed development & 6 made it all the way out.

I actually filmed this a few days ago & since then every chick from this batch that was available has SOLD & headed off to their new homes!

I genuinely can’t thank everyone enough for the support. Whether you’ve bought chicks, shared a post, followed my breeding projects or left a comment, you’re supporting a small dream that I’m slowly turning into something bigger. Seeing chicks I’ve incubated, hatched & raised head off to become part of someone else’s flock is a pretty cool feeling.

And Hatch Day NUMBER 5 is already underway!

They’re currently in lockdown, so expect more little faces in the next few days.

I’m especially excited about this next lot because quite a few are potential keepers. From Lauren Hinds hatching eggs, all 3 homozygous Cream Legbars, 4 Olive Eggers & 4 Marans have made it to lockdown.

I’ve also got a few of my Easter Eggers & Cream Legbars from my own line coming. I’ll DNA test my Cream Legbar chicks & keep the ones that inherited 2 copies of the blue egg gene to continue building my line.

Hatch Day 4 complete… now bring on NUMBER5! 🐣

31/08/2026

What’s going into the incubator this time?🥚

Run number 7 is officially underway, with 76 eggs set across three breeds & this is a batch I’m VERY excited to follow through!

💙 Cream Legbars - 43 eggs

🤎 Lay Me a Rainbow Welsummers - 12 eggs

🧡 Buff Orpingtons - 21 eggs

The Welsummers are particularly exciting because there are two things I really want to work on within my line i want to create which is those gorgeous heavily speckled eggs AND strong, reliable autosexing traits.

I’ll be paying very close attention when these little guys hatch to see how clearly I can distinguish the males from the females. Welsummer chicks have the cutest little chipmunk stripes, similar to the markings you see on female Cream Legbar chicks at hatch.

Welsummers are easily one of my favourite breeds. I absolutely love their rich autumn colours, their personalities & of course those beautiful terracotta eggs, especially when they're covered in speckles 😍

Then we have 21 Buff Orpingtons!

Orange is my favourite colour, so naturally I have a massive soft spot for these big fluffy golden birds. They're gorgeous, big, docile chickens & they're also well known for going broody and making wonderful mothers which is something a lot of backyard keepers really love in a breed. No need for an incubator if you have Buff Orpingtons 😅

And finally, 43 Cream Legbar eggs from Bunyip Cluckers. After the great fertility I saw from the last big batch of these, I'm excited to see how this next lot develops.

76 eggs are in.

🔦 Day 10 candling is next.
🐣 Hatch Day: September 18.

And of course I'll be taking you along for the whole thing, from candling right through to seeing who actually makes it out of those shells.

If you're interested in adding Cream Legbars, Welsummers or Buff Orpingtons to your own flock, send me a message 💙

To learn more about raising friendly backyard chickens for eggs, pets or breeding. FOLLOW Steph's Rainbow Egg Boutique because I share all my tips, my breeding projects, my chick raising experience and plenty more chicken moments here if that's your kind of thing 🐓

LIKE~SHARE~SAVE🫶

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