Rob's First Incubation Attempt - Questions and Journal

[jkpnelly]

I hope my hatch goes well. What a miricle watching these little ones hatch. Thanks for sharing.

 

[the1much]

great work guys !! and just think,, it dont get any easier no matter how many ya hatch

and having "tall" chicks is 1 reason i went and got a big bator,, almost all my chicks could touch the heating element

that saysa has a pretty color

 

[hinkjc]

How cute..I'm glad she's doing well. I see a nice pea comb.

 

[NiftyChick]

Thank you all so much for your excitement, advice, & encouragement! It made our incubating/hatching experience so much better!

Unfortunately, our #5 chick didn't make it. She was pretty listless in the brooder last night. We replaced her into the incubator hoping that would help, but by 11:30pm she was gone.

As for our last 2 eggs, Nifty (my husband) had a good point that since they were the same type eggs as chicks that had already hatched, it made sense that they would have hatched by now as well. We decided to end our incubation and take these eggs out and open them up....well, have ME open them up - Nifty-Chicken's stomach doesn't handle this type of thing so well.

The small blue egg appears to have quit in the very beginning. Nothing but yolk and a little greyish blob.

The brown/green egg had what seemed to be a fully formed chick, minus absorbing its yolk. Note: Skip the next sentance if you're squeemish
Its belly cavity was still wide open with the yolk attached by a very thin string.


I took lots of pictures, but I'm thinking most people probably wouldn't want to see them??

Here's a picture that I know will be welcome of our 4 healthy chicks. Love them!

"Starlight" "Sparkles"(in the front) "Lilly" "Ginger"

We had to put boxes around the cage after Ginger escaped a couple times. She is still our loudest chick....does that mean she might be a boy? She is SUPER loud and then quiets down the second one of us comes over to the cage. Kind of cute. You can't see it in the picture, but their wing feathers have already started coming in. I guess I'd forgotten how quickly they grow!

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Adorable! That is all I have got to say. Adorable!! I love their colors.

 

[horsejody]

Adorable.

 

[wegotchickens]

How did the kids deal with Saysha's loss?
Are they okay with it?

Sometimes kids handle this stuff better than the adults.
Sometimes they don't...

 

[NiftyChick]

I actually thought they'd be more broken up about it. They were a little worried during her hatch, but I guess at this point they'd seen losing the chick as a possibility for a while. Alana wanted to see the chick after I told her this morning, but she was surprisingly even-tempered about it.

The girls have had some exposure to things dying by now, so I guess it's not as traumatizing as it could have been otherwise.

 

[Suellyn]

Congrats on your bee-oo-tee-ful babies, bet your girls are beside themselves with excitement.

I'm sorry about those that didn't make it, but were probably "genetically doomed" from the onset

. As far as pix go, some people may be interested, not to be morbid or anything but it is a learning experience... maybe a link for those who want to see? (I am NOT computer savvy like you guys, so don't know what options are).

Oh, and for the record, I had to do the "eggtopsy" here, too.. While my 6 foot tall State Trooper DH hid his eyes until I told him it was "safe" to look.. LOL

And I still think Ginger is just a "people chickie", knows you guys... Am not experienced enough with chickens to know if loud = boy, hopeully someone else will know.

Again, congrats and ENJOY!!!!

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Quote:
Sorry to hear you lost the one. It is amazing how resilent children can be.

The others look gorgeous!