Day 20 - 4 new chickies hatched!

How did I fall behind in writing about our not so newly hatched chickens?  Well, time has a way of getting away from me.  I did write a great post the other night a moments before I was ready to publish it my UPS died.  What a bummer!


Right before I went to sleep Tuesday night I noticed one of the chicks had started to pip through the egg.  I was surprised it was early.  Usually my chicks are late....just like me, I'm never on time going anywhere...LOL  That eggs was not the 1st to hatch though.  Here's a picture of that egg.

Anyway, our chicks actually started hatching a day early this time.  That has never happened to me before and it was a nice surprise.  I woke up early on Wednesday 6-8-11 to a newly hatched chick.  It was a cross between a silky and unknown rooster type.  I am waiting on confirmation about that.  Anyway, here is a picture of that little chick.  We started calling it BJ or Bob Jr.  We know the rooster (Dad's) went by the name of Bob.

During the course of the morning 3 more chickens hatched.  It was great to watch them hatch.  I got a lot of it on video also.  Here's a picture of some of those eggs before they hatched.  You can clearly see the chick's are trying to get out.

Here's a picture of them after they hatched.  They are pooped as you can tell.

Here's a very short video (less then 2 minutes) I made of one of the chicks hatching.  I made three of them this time and I am FINALLY going to get them posted on Youtube.

Good start to our chickens this time.  Check the next post, day 21 to see the rest of the chicks when they hatch.

Day 6 Incubation - Candling Eggs and update on the Silkies

Today at 3:34 started Day 6.  I just couldn't stand the suspense anymore so I candled some eggs.

I first candled the eggs from our chickens since I thought they may/may not be fertile.  Much to my surprise four (4) of the  six (6) eggs from our chickens proved to be fertile and I could clearly see the beginnings of a chick growing.  It was hard for me to get these pictured clearly.  I took one picture earlier and a few more when it was completely dark.  Notice how you can see the "chick" and then veins through the shell.  

I tried candling the darker eggs but they were too dark for me too see what was going on inside.  I took out the 2 eggs that I knew were not fertile and thus not developing.

Also took some new pics of the silkies.  The white one appears to be a silkie and some other breed as it is growing feathers.  Here's the new pics. They sure are cute.  A stinkbug got in their "home" tonight and agitated them.  This stinkbug had their entire attention and it was kinda cute to watch them.

About 2 weeks ago, I was at the library and I got about 3 years worth of "Backyard Chicken" magazine for FREE.  Yeah, I was excited.  We've all been reading them and I have been learning a lot more about chickens.

One question I get from a lot of people is about the chicken eggs.   A lot of people seem to think you need a rooster to get eggs from your hens.  This is simply not true.  Hens will lay eggs with or without a rooster.  However, you do need a rooster to get eggs that are fertile and can be incubated and thus reproduced.  It is perfectly fine to eat infertile or fertile eggs.  I hear that fertile eggs may have a bit more of nutrients but that is nominal.  Honestly, I can't vouch for that 100%.

Can't wait for new chicks! 
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Backyard Chickens update + new Silkie Chicks

Our chickens are continuing to grow and thrive.  The ones we hatched last are doing nicely along with the other hens we had.  We now know that two (2) of them are roosters.  Their crows are weak and uneven, it is kinda pathetic but in a cute kind of way to listen to them.  My hubby said that one of them was trying to get it on with one of our older hens.

Hmm?  Wonder if he was successful?  If he was maybe we have fertile eggs again???  I saved 3 of the eggs yesterday to go with the next batch to incubate. More on that later.

We took my stepdaughter to get 2 silkie chicks last Saturday.  The guy we got them from had about 25-30 of them.  He had a nice coop and was very knowledgeable.  She picked out a black chick and a white chick.  The black one is very calm and the white one is hyper.  Here is a picture of her holding them.

My hubby, ever he awesome handyman that he is buit some new boxes for the chickens to lay eggs.  The chickens however are very unappreciative and have yet to use them.  They kicked out all of the straw.  We need to remove the old ones and make some modifications on the new ones.  Here's a couple of pics of the new boxes.

The best part is we can now collect the eggs from the outside....well if we want too....when they start using the boxes.  Tomato (the chicken shown is above) just hates my hubby.  She seems to hate all men actually, I don't know why.  She is also at the top of the pecking order and the is THE BOSS.  She always tries to attack my hubby when he gets eggs, so I usually get them.  She's fine around me. Here's a view out the outside of the boxes.  Just lift up the lid (secured with a lock so chickens can't escape) and collect the eggs.

The chickens have been enjoying the nice weather lately and so are we.  Here they are roaming around in their run. I'll have to get a better picture next time.  It doesn't look like it but there is a lot of room.  We have a big yard for them to roam around in too.  This was taken on one of the many rain days in between the nice weather.

 Check back soon.  We are going to incubate and hopefully hatch a lot of new little chicks.