Joining the ranks (Hatch finished, Pictures on pg 4 - Dial-Up Beware!)

[Cuban Longtails]

Okay, so nothing on the morning of day 20. I went to work, had to stay late to take a mid-term online, didn't get home until 9pm. The humidity had gone down but I had pips and one chick about to hatch out!

Pips were:
Test egg #5 (mine)
Test egg #3 (mine)
Test egg #4 (mine)
Test egg #1 (mine)
Ginger (speckledhen)
3 of Sunny's (speckledhen)
Charlotte (speckledhen)
Mandy (speckled hen)

By 10pm, Test egg#5 had hatched and I got to watch it!

I had to go get some sleep as 1am rolled around and no one else was doing much. Morning rolls around and I check the 'bator, Charlotte's baby had hatched while I was sleeping and Mandy's baby was on it's way out! I watched Mandy's baby hatch and then noticed I had more pips!

Pips for day 21 (morning):
Test egg #2 (mine)
2 more of Sunny's (speckledhen)
Velvet (speckledhen) c'mon little blue orp!!!
Lexie (speckledhen)

Oh but wait, another hatch! Ginger's baby came out to play!

Four babies hatched and about half of the eggs have pipped the shell so far!

I'm going to take an extended lunch so I can go home and check on everyone. My humidity doesn't want to stay up above 60% so I keep trying to add water through a tube (not easy!).

Pics to follow....

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Pictures!

Ginger's baby is the one with the buff colored face. The smallest black looking chick is one of my mixed breeds (ancona x, I think). Charlotte's baby is a lighter color (blue maybe?) and larger than my black chick. Mandy's baby has a yellow headspot and is darker than Charlotte's.

 

[speckledhen]

Wow, they're popping like popcorn, Tara! This is so great. Thank you! Ive only just started hatching Sunny and Ginger's eggs and now I know they're very strong babies. Awesome! You'll be able to tell the Barred Rocks from the black Ameraucanas, if you get black rather than blue, because every BR will have a spot on the head, large and splotchy or smaller and more defined (those would be the girls usually). And of course, the Ameraucanas should have poufy cheeks when they fluff out.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

I ended up taking a 2 hour lunch!

I was greeted with three more babies and one just about done zipping.

Two of Sunny's babies and my test egg #4 (barred rock, maybe) have popped out to play. Another of Sunny's was on it's way out when I had to get back to work.

More pips too:
Ginger (speckledhen)
Cubalaya #1 (mine, cuba x OEGB I think)
Mandy (speckledhen)
2 of Lexie's (speckledhen)

Charlotte's baby was panting (too hot maybe? none of the others were doing it) and after fretting about it for a few minutes I went ahead and quickly removed her from the 'bator. She's such a pretty thing!

I swear she's blue. I swear she's a girl too. She's already cuddly like her mama. I sooo did not want to come back to work. I wanted to stay there with her and hold her for the rest of the day!

 

[speckledhen]

You will love Charlotte's baby, I bet. I have one of her daughter's right now. She's black, very petite and super sweet and friendly. I hope the baby is blue! That'd be cool to have a blue barred baby. I'm going to pop a couple of hers in with my Big Hatch in April, I swear.

 

[speckledhen]

So, Tara, what's the final report? Is the hatch over?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Hatch total:

20 shipped eggs from SpeckledHen - 14 hatched, lost 6 to suffocation (humidity problems)
My 7 eggs added in - 7 hatched

Velvet's baby made it out and thrives! I has a Suede baby!!!

Charlotte's baby is definitely Hawkeye's! Big poufy cheeks and a big ole' yellow headspot on her head.

All of Sunny's babies hatched, lost one of Ginger's but the rest hatched.

Lost Ivy's, Mandy's & Lexie's hatched (but lost some too).

77% hatch rate for my very first try and with shipped eggs!

Buff Orp/BR - this one is spunky & probably a roo. lol The first to come see you when you walk up to the brooder.

Blue Orp is pigging out right next to the BR chick looking at the camera.

 

[speckledhen]

Tara, they're gorgeous!!!!

This convinced me-I'm going to put a couple of Charlotte's eggs into the bator on my next hatch. Good job!

 

[mangled]

Oh, so sweet!!

I have 33 chicks that are 4 weeks, and you guys with all these chick pics have me wanting more!!

Congrats on the great hatch!

Em

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
I'll post some updated individual pictures in the raising baby chicks forum after this weekend.

I can not say thank you enough, Cyn!