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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Passings of Chicken Little & Spartacus

It's been a while since I last wrote.  How much can I write our chickens?  Not much.  I could write about any chickens or do a while chicken education type thing but that is not likely to happen. 

Have some sad news.  Chicken Little has passed on to that great big chicken coop in the sky.  Blame it on the other chickens, that is all I have to say on the matter. 

We are also down another one, specifically the Rooster, Spartacus.  We had always planned on using him for food.  It was time.  He was crowing all hours of the day and night.  God Bless out neighbors for being so tolerant.  We didn't really hear him crowing until the weather got nice and we were able to keep our windows open for air.  RIP Spartacus.

All of the baby chicks I wrote about previously are integrated out in the coop and doing nicely.  At first the older hens ignored them except for Pilot.  Here's a pic of that, taken at night time.  They were all crowded together. 

Now they all seem to be acclimated to each other. Here's some pics I took a couple of days ago.

They are also enjoying the warmer weather.  We let them roam around freely when we are outside to keep an eye on them.  We spend a lot of time outdoors during the nice weather doing gardening and spending time with the kids.

Check back soon, we are going to incubate some more egss and hopefully get a lot of chicks hatched.