Setting Eggs 12/28 - Hatching Buddies? Hatch-Along

[Sphinx]

This morning, my son woke me out of a dead sleep to tell me he heard chirping. Considering day 21 doesn't even start til tomorrow night, I thought he was imagining things. Well, I checked my incubator and 3 of my eggs have pipped! My eggs are NEVER early. Like ever. They usually start popping out about halfway through day 21. Honestly, I figured they'd all start hatching in the middle of the night Fri- Sat.

I want to get the webcam set up. To make the setup work right, I use a very old, very decrepit laptop to run the webcam- it takes a lot of juice and slows down my (only slightly less geriatric) newish laptop. However, we did a huge overhaul on our wireless network last weekend, and I think some settings on the old laptop need to be changed. This would be challenging under the best of circumstances, but I have a pretty awful cold right now, and am not thinking clearly.

Anyway, hopefully I'll outsmart it soon. If I don't, dh will fix it when he gets home tonight- he's the computer whiz.

 

[hokankai]

Hooray! How exciting. I hope you get the cam up, I need something to distract myself while mine mosey along.

 

[Sphinx]

I outsmarted it! Camera is live! A fourth egg pipped. The fourth egg to pip was an egg that sat in my fridge for at least 8-9 days before I decided to put it in the incubator. So, it's pretty amazing that it's hatching.

 

[DraigAthar]

Yay! Now I want to go home from work early just to check on my eggs, too! Lol! Take lots of pics when they hatch!

 

[eggorthechicken]

I have popping action. A couple started last night but nothing yet. One has pipped on the side but I can hear them chirping away.

 

[DraigAthar]

Aaaaaaah! Just got home from work, and one of my eggs has pipped, too! A whole day early, just like yours did Sphinx! Go little guy, come on out!

 

[hokankai]

One of them's out! Too cute

And he's chirping up a storm just looking at his beak going! I wonder if it's lonely to be the first one hatched, haha.

 

[Sphinx]

SHE (ha ha) is like a cheerleader to get the others going.

I left my house at 3:50 to go show a house (I'm a realtor) and they were all barely pipped. My daughter texted me at 4:30 to announce it had hatched. I was shocked!

A second one is starting to zip. I think it'll be out soon.

I've NEVER had chicks hatch early, and this is crazy early. No idea what I did differently.

Congrats on your pip, DraigAthar!

 

[hokankai]

Hooray, another! Can you tell if they're pure legbars at this point or are they too damp?

 

[Sphinx]

I went to put the hatched chicks in the brooder and discovered a fourth chick had hatched! Wow. At this point, they all look like they're half black copper marans, half legbar. I have to admit I'm a little disappointed; I was really hoping for a couple of pure legbars. Once I separate my laying hens out this spring, I'll definitely try again.

One of the chicks already has a very prominent comb, I wonder if he's a cockerel?

The three remaining eggs are all pipped.