Anyone hatching on July 25, please join me! **PICS ADDED 7/26!**

[americana-chick]

Tommorow is day 21!! they arent rolling around or anything today yet.. but i am hoping for SOMETHING tonight or thru 27th-28th wich is when they are due.

 

[Freebie]

I have one lonely egg due to hatch today. The poor little bantam hen had 3 standard eggs under her. Two of them just came up missing. The last one, I thought was dead because I found her not sitting and it was cold. Not just one time but two times. I left it with her anyway. Today, I picked up the egg and held it to my ear and heard a loud PEEP PEEP. scared the %$*( right out of me. Then I just laughed and put it back. So, if all goes well, it will still hatch out, maybe a day or two late since she let it get cold twice. I sure hope it is ok.

All your pics are soooo nice. I will get one of the new little one if all goes well. congrats everyone.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

I have had 12 Marans hatch and 2 still trying and lost one while hatching.

 

[suzpyoung]

They are all beautiful, especially that reddish one in the middle. What do you call that color?

 

[Freebie]

Yeah, my little one hatched today too!! I will try to get a picture, though with grouchy mama it may prove to be quite a chore.

Beautiful babies!!!

 

[americana-chick]

Well i can finally start to hear chirping from the incubator.. but no pipping yet..! And a storm is coming in.. hope it doesnt hurt them..

 

[6littlechickies]

Wow, such cute little babies everyone!

We ended up losing one on Sunday that had hatched on Saturday. It looked like it had some sort of swelling or bleeding near it's vent area. At frist it seemed ok, was walking around and getting fluffy, then it took a dive. I felt bad as it was the first chick we've lost but I know these things happen and we've been very lucky so far to have such healthy chicks.

We had to help one last night, it was really stuck in the shell. not only did it pip more towards the middle of the shell, but the membrane ended up getting cemented to it so it could not even attempt to zip out. I don't think that one is going to make it either. It is still alive right now but was helped out last night and still hasn't fluffed up. It is breathing and has changed positions a few times so i guess anything is possible but i'm not holding out hope.

THEN yesterday we had one straggler pip! it was one of the two green eggs left. When we opened the bator to assist the other one I did a really quick candle of the remaining 4 eggs in there. one was infertile, one is behind (going back under mama soon), one of the green ones looks to have died in the shell (the air cell is off placement and a LOT larger than it should be) and the last green egg I could see movement in. I put it back with minimal expectations. That one last little green egg pipped last night!

This morning the green egg has a small opening it in and I can see the chick moving around, well the beak anyway. I am a bit worried the membranes are drying to it like the other one but the humidity is still way up there at 68%, having trouble this time keeping it more towards the 60% range. i guess we'll see what happens.

Otherwise, the other 22 that hatched out are looking great. The one tiny egg hatched a little one that is soooo cute! it's smaller than the others but can hold it's own. it's shell was so tiny it fit right inside the shell of it's hatch mates! I'm trying to convince DH to let me keep that one as I had very little hope it would even hatch!
here's a pic of the egg in comparison to the others, I'll post some pics of the chicks a bit later today.

I did hatch all these to sell, as of now interest hasn't been super great (maybe I should put a post up in the BYC BST section?) so I may end up keeping them all! uh-oh! I hope that doesn't happen--not that I don't just love the little ones I just don't have a big enough coop--yet!

 

[americana-chick]

So far 1 chick has hatched out and is healthy from what i can tell.
This little chickie looks almost like a black sex link but i cant quite tell yet because i only have a little peep hole to look through on the incubator..

It only took him 6 hours to go from pip, zip, and then popped out!!!
I sure hope its a girl.. sence it is half sex link i am going to try and wing sex em'

I cant tell if the others have started hatching yet.. but i sure hope so i dont want a lonely chick!

 

[6littlechickies]

here's a couple pics of the babies. Boy do they move fast when you try to take a pic! LOL
not a great pic, but if you look at the one little chick on the upper right side in the back (black chick just to the left of the brownish one) that's the little tiny one. kinda hard to see. I'll have to take some pics with just that one and one other for size comparison. I wonder if it will always be smaller or will eventually be the same as everyone else?

one more pic of them all relaxing...

I'm going to transfer them to the brooder we have as soon as I can, the box they are in now is too small. I have it all setup but I put mama chicken (sitting on 6 eggs ready to hatch in a few days) in there to give her some privacy.

Is it ok to put the babies in there with her or will that disrupt her? I don't want to do anything to upset or hurt her or the chicks but I hate to keep them in such a confined area. Moving mama to the brooder was a bit of a sudden decision and I didn't think about the chicks when i did it. I've been trying to think of other options for the chicks, i guess I could split them into EE and brown layers and put them in two of the giant rubbermaid tubs I have. maybe I'll do that, it would make me feel safer knowing i'm not messing with mama or the chicks. I'm open to any suggestions!

 

[suzpyoung]

Oh my goodness - I'm talking about a "10" on the cute-ometer! Which are from the green eggs?

How long does it take them to dry out and be all fluffy right after hatching?