- Thread starter
- #21
- Aug 9, 2012
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We woke up dark and early this morning to LOUD, energetic peeping. TWO of the babies hatched during the night, in what has to be the most perfect chicken births EVER! This is our second hatch and none of our chicks pipped or hatched at the same time last go-round. This time, looks like they are all on the same time-line. Number three looks to be a few hours behind her sisters, but we're looking forward to actually watching her zip the shell! [Fingers crossed] If she zips a perfect little line like her siblings, we'll consider this to be a massive success! 
This little one was the first to hatch by the looks of her fluffiness (that's the correct scientific term).
This is #2, and she ran laps around the incubator for about five minutes before settling down for a nap wedged between a couple of the eggs scheduled to hatch in four more days. (Yay! Baby sisters!)
I wanted to show this to all of you, because this is the first thing I saw when I looked through the incubator windows. In previous hatches, all of our chicks tore their eggs to shreds struggling to bust out of them, usually leaving a pile of egg shell where an egg used to be. This time around, both chicks to hatch so far made perfect little zip lines around the large end of their eggs and look to have slipped right out! No problem at all!
I'm not sure I can chalk it up to great incubator design and construction...
but surely this one:
is better than this one:
(My first effort at designing and building an incubator had a 25% hatch rate, and turned out to be impossible to clean up afterward, in addition to having a major problem with hot and cold spots! I lost half my eggs in the first couple days because one end of my incubator was TEN degrees hotter than the end where I had my thermometer!)
This little one was the first to hatch by the looks of her fluffiness (that's the correct scientific term).
This is #2, and she ran laps around the incubator for about five minutes before settling down for a nap wedged between a couple of the eggs scheduled to hatch in four more days. (Yay! Baby sisters!)
I wanted to show this to all of you, because this is the first thing I saw when I looked through the incubator windows. In previous hatches, all of our chicks tore their eggs to shreds struggling to bust out of them, usually leaving a pile of egg shell where an egg used to be. This time around, both chicks to hatch so far made perfect little zip lines around the large end of their eggs and look to have slipped right out! No problem at all!
I'm not sure I can chalk it up to great incubator design and construction...
but surely this one:
is better than this one:
(My first effort at designing and building an incubator had a 25% hatch rate, and turned out to be impossible to clean up afterward, in addition to having a major problem with hot and cold spots! I lost half my eggs in the first couple days because one end of my incubator was TEN degrees hotter than the end where I had my thermometer!)
