Well, my first hatch certainly had it's ups and downs! I had a broody silky and her silky roo who I was sure had bred. I had no intention of hatching eggs but she seemed so desperate to be on those eggs that I relented and on Mar. 23rd gave her 3 of her eggs and let her sit on them. It got very crazy because the other hens would sit on her eggs and add some other infertile eggs to the pile so I decided to move her to a separate nest and coop with her own water and food. In the meantime, I am trying to learn to candle eggs with a flashlite and the candling development chart that i printed from this site. I must say the by the time I was through, I was candling with good results. I spent a lot of time in the corner of the closet where the light seemed to be just perfect. I was very excited because I saw something moving in all 3 eggs. Now I am 2 days away from hatch and I see a little hole in one egg but something about the hole bothered. The shell around the hole was pushed in and not out as I would have expected. Next day I picked her up to see what was happening and the whole side of the shell was pushed in and there was quite a bit of blood. I took it out and opened it the rest of the way and there was a perfectly formed chick except the yolk was not all used up. It was opening it's mouth trying to breathe so I tried putting it back under the mother (stupid to think it could live but too upset to throw it away). Anyway, next day it was dead and off to the side in the nest so I disposed of it. Finally, on hatch day, one chick hatched and by the next morning the second chick had hatched. Nice clean hatches. I put the chick food and a small waterer in with them and it appeared that they had eaten and I also dipped their beaks in the water. I got 8 baby chicks from MPC the same day and put them in the brooder. I had my silkie in a coop protected from rain, wind, etc. with her nest box. All went well for a couple of days and then I was checking her and the babies and I only saw one baby under her wing. I looked all over and sure enough, at the back of the coop, next to the nest box, the chick was lying there dead. I do not know what happened but I really thought the mother would round up her chicks and keep them warm, etc. I know they were able to get in and out of the nest because I saw them do it. It was the larger of the 2 chicks and appeared very healthy. No signs of anything done to the chick..........just dead. I really thought I had covered all my bases as I was very excited about having my first hatch. I took the remaining chick and put it in with the 8 chicks I got a few days before. She has fit right in and eats and drinks and sleeps with all the others but boy, she (notice I've made her female already) is the tiniest little thing ever. I have 3 silkies in with her but they are much bigger. Anyway my first hatch went less than stellar! Any thoughts or suggestions to improve my next hatch would be most welcome.