Welcome back, Layna! It's good to hear that you have pips - how exciting! I'll be watching throughout the day. Hope everything went good while you were away.
By the way, did you see my two new babies from the feed store? I bought 2 little black silkies to go with my 4 blue silkies. The older chicks (only 2 weeks older) are so nurturing and protective of the babies. It is precious to watch them together. I'm just loving all my babies. We take them out about 2X a day, one at a time to just cuddle and play with them. They are becoming total lap chickens and I'm really considering buying chicken diapers! We also give them playtime in a laundry basket together in front of a sunny window (while I clean the brooder). They are so happy that they jump a few inches in the air and then sprawl out to sunbathe and then peck around in the chick scratch and then fall asleep in the warm sunshine and do it all over again. (These chicks are like puppies that peep!)
Oh-I'll have to tell you about my "chick sexing method" sometime. My son calls it "witchcraft" (it is not), but he cannot deny the results that I get on all of the people and animals in our family. If the "results" are correct, I have 4 hens and 2 roosters! (And their behavior even backs up the results.)
Here is a little eye candy of my 6 silkies enjoying a little Cali-Sun!
By the way, did you see my two new babies from the feed store? I bought 2 little black silkies to go with my 4 blue silkies. The older chicks (only 2 weeks older) are so nurturing and protective of the babies. It is precious to watch them together. I'm just loving all my babies. We take them out about 2X a day, one at a time to just cuddle and play with them. They are becoming total lap chickens and I'm really considering buying chicken diapers! We also give them playtime in a laundry basket together in front of a sunny window (while I clean the brooder). They are so happy that they jump a few inches in the air and then sprawl out to sunbathe and then peck around in the chick scratch and then fall asleep in the warm sunshine and do it all over again. (These chicks are like puppies that peep!)
Oh-I'll have to tell you about my "chick sexing method" sometime. My son calls it "witchcraft" (it is not), but he cannot deny the results that I get on all of the people and animals in our family. If the "results" are correct, I have 4 hens and 2 roosters! (And their behavior even backs up the results.)
Here is a little eye candy of my 6 silkies enjoying a little Cali-Sun!
I had 2 do that to me during my first hatch. One had a hole made that it could have crawled right out of if it had wanted to. It died overnight though. I opened the egg and the chick was perfectly formed. I don't know why it didn't make it. My advice would be, don't help them. I don't know if that's something you have seriously considered or not. I helped one out of the shell. It was deformed and had to be culled it was devastating. A friend of mine had a friend hatch eggs for her and she gave me some of the chicks. A large percentage had to be helped out of the shell. A large percentage, were also deformed. I have had very bad experiences with helping. Unless you don't mind culling them, I wouldn't help. In my humble opinion, in most cases, if they were strong enough to survive, they would be strong enough to hatch.
I hope she decides to come on out soon! This is such an exciting/annoying wait process isn't it!!?
How much do the chicks at 
