Our First Hatch of black australorps and easter eggers

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Hubby and I have only had chickens since we got our day-olds April 29 2010. 5 black australorps and 5 eggers, all supposedly girls. One of the blackies turned out to be a boy and he is a beautiful rooster! Er, cockerel. Huge, protective and wonderful to his girls. We'd seen him mating with the girls, but wanted to make sure he was doing good so thought we'd hatch some of the eggs. We found wonderful Joe (and wife Melinda) through this BYC forum, and gave him 17 eggs on Saturday, January 15. He's incubating them for us!

Out of the original 17 eggs, 8 of them were viable on day 18, before lockdown. The eggs started rocking yesterday. And today, when Joe got home from work, he found a first-pip!

Soooo excited! I feel like an expectant mom, and if we didn't have plans to pick up a new buck (boy goat) tomorrow (Sat), we would totally invade Joe's home and watch and wait with him.

Here's hoping they all hatch and are healthy and strong! I'll post updates as I get them (or Joe, feel free to chime in!).

 

[TigerLilly]

How neat! I want to see that here, but only under a broody!

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Hoping one of our black australorps will go broody soon. Meanwhile, we have silkie chicks coming next week. Woohoo

I'm so excited!

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Two have hatched! Looks like black australorps, full bred. One has huge feet. Woohoo! I'll post pix later.

 

[poultryrox11]

Sweet!!!! post pics!!!!

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Chick Number 1, right after hatching

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Chick Number 2, the process ...

Just starting ...

Come on.. you can do it!

More Progress

It's borned! It's borned!

Whew! Tired!

Time to explore.

That's it for now. Won't be able to post again until late this afternoon since we're getting a new buck (goat) today. Believe me, the more pix I get from Joe, the more I'll post tonight!

Have a great day!

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Chick Number three suddenly hatched, without anybody seeing or hearing pipping, cracking or peeping! We think we're gonna call this one: Sneaky!

Joe's checked on another one and even tho it hasn't moved in a while or pipped or anything, it's got a heartbeat! Come on, babies!

 

[dwegg]

That's so exciting for you! I can't wait to see when they are all fluffed up. Will you brood them at your place then? With the silkies?

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

I can barely wait to see them all fluffed up myself! Yes, we'll brood them at home, but they'll be a week older than the silkies and bantam eggers that are coming next week, so might keep them separate.

We're good at brooding: haven't lost a chick yet

We're just hoping it'll stop snowing so we can make the 2 hour drive to pick up our babies, hopefully tomorrow! We'd gotten 4-5 inches of heavy snow by the time we got back home this evening with our new goat.