WE HAVE CHICKS!!

[cherokeechick33]

okay on saturday we went on a mini vacation and we had 3 pips when we left. and when we got back i opened the front door to a bamboosel of Peeps and when I lifted the lid of the incubator there was 17 chicks! 4 Barred rocks and 13 RIR. there was also one chick that had a hole about half the size of a dime that my mother had to help out because the membrane dried and stuck to him. or her.. there was also a very small chick that we think came out of a very small egg and its insides i think were outside instead of inside. so we took it away and put it back in the bator and sadly it died early this morning. but we had 36 eggs and 18 have hatched so whats that 50% hatch rate. so I have some questions. how long can i wait to throw the eggs that don't hatch out? and is there a way to tell if RIR are boys or girls? like by color or something?
Thanks
taylor

 

[gumpsgirl]

Congrats on the success of your hatch! That's so exciting! I am sorry, however, that you have lost one along the way.

I would leave your bator plugged in until day 23 or 24, just incase you might have a late hatcher or two in the bunch.

As far as being able to tell the sex of the RIR's, there is no fool proof way really. You will just have to be patient and let them reach 4 to 6 wks. old before you will be able to tell for certain.