So cute!

All of the chicks are so cute! I have to get a good picture to post. Hopefully this afternoon I will. 

I have been watching over those chicks so closely that it is weird to be at work today! Last night was sad. We lost a another one. She was the last hatch so far. She was tiny and we called her Lil' Runt. She must have hatched before she was ready and used up all of her energy running around. We loved you Lil' Runt. I had big hopes for you. Now you can run around in chicky heaven.

Wuella is hanging in there. She is one tough chick! We started force feeding her yesterday. She seems to take it well. I fed her before coming to work today and will go home to feed her again at lunch. She amazes me. As long as she doesn't give up, we won't give up on her. She pulls her legs under her now and can walk a little better. It takes a whole lot of effort though. We are rooting for you little Wuella.

I'll have to get some video of the other chicks running around and eating and drinking. They are so cute! It is amazing the instinct that they have to do all of that. I am so glad for this experience. 

I will say that Wuella is teaching me a lesson. I need to get myself back into the Word of God. I have been slacking. If I don't feed myself, I will not be sustained. We all have issues that keep us from doing this, be it "tired legs", busyness, sickness. Wuella is reminding me of this. If I didn't feed her right now, she wouldn't have a chance. Thank you God for sustaining me and feeding me. Thank you for giving me a chance. I love you Wuella. Hand in there chicky girl. I'll be home to feed you soon! Thank you God for allowing me to take care of Wuella.

Thanks to all for reading and for praying. Keep praying for Wuella! I still have 5 eggs in the incubator. We'll give them one more day to see if they hatch. 

Stay tuned...

We've lost one

I am not sure which one, thankfully not Wuella. I am attached to her now, rooting for her like crazy! I took a peek into the incubator through the window and saw a couple of chicks piled on top of another one. I knew it was gone. She could have been trampled, or just might not have made it. Anyway, surely she is in chicken heaven , where the grass is green and having a good time. We gently and quickly removed her. Dave buried her in a special spot. Hopefully that is the only one that will go down. I guess the sad comes with the joy too. It is still worth it to see all of theses happy little peeps. I think that we will move them to the brooder tonight. I can't take them being in there tomorrow while I am at work. Granted, one could get trampled in there just as easily. God protect my chicky babies!

Stay tuned...

Bock Bocks Everywhere!

Okay, so they aren't everywhere. But currently so many in the incubator that I can't count them through the fogged up windows. The first five are Wuella, Xena, Trace, Atta Girl, and Edith. I lost count and names there after. There are at least 10 counting Wuella.They hatched all day yesterday and all night last night. I was one tired mama hen!

I can't get a picture. The windows are fogged clear over. Believe me, I wish that I could get some. I want to see the little buggers!

Keep praying for our first, Wuella. She is still hanging in there. Her legs haven't corrected yet. I keep telling her that it is okay to have braces because her mommy, myself, did when I was a little baby. She has drank a bit and I think that she ate some accidentally. She doesn't seem to have the energy to peck at food. I want her to make it, so I have been rotating chicks from the incubator into the brooder with her to keep her company(no baby likes to be alone) and to show her how to drink and peck. It is about time to put another one in and switch the current one out. It becomes apparent how little she is and how strong they are after a while. She must take after her namesake Manuel.He is a persistent guy. I couldn't name her Manuel, so Wuella it was. Wuella is tough and hanging in there. I am not going to force feed her. She has to learn to peck.

The others should come out of the incubator in a day or two. I want Wuella to be strong so that she doesn't get trampled on. I might have to make a partition in the incubator for her. We'll see. The constant peeping and raucous sounds that come from the incubator are cute, funny, calming and exciting all at the same time. I can't wait to take them out! 

Stay tuned....

Number Two and Three

Owen stopped by today to Meet Wuella. He enjoyed hearing her peep and try to walk around.

Here is little Wuella all fluffy in the brooder. She is still struggling to walk. She hasn't drank or eaten very much either. We changed her splint from a band-aid to a pipe cleaner. It is more sturdy. If you are the praying type, please pray that she will start walking upright and eating and drinking. She peeps SO loud. I am so glad that she is all fluffy now. Now meet little Wuella.

While Owen was visiting we had a surprise appearance. I had been hearing some chirping and saw a few little beak holes through the incubator windows. We were all checking intermittently. I went in to take a look and there was a chick! Owen named her. We had a couple of suggestions of course. Out of them he chose Xena. We thought it fitting as she just seemed to pop out! Here she is through the window in the incubator. World, meet Xena! She is a blue laced red wyandotte. You can tell that her feathers and beak are lighter that Wuella's.

Shortly after Xena arrived number 3 hatched. Here they both are. It is a little fuzzy but you can see her. She is a blue cuckoo maran. I haven't picked a name for her yet.

Number four is trying to hatch and Xena and number 3 are huddled around her. I am calling them all girls for now. I can only hope! Many others are rolling around and starting to hatch. It is all so exciting. I am getting worn out! We still have a ways to go.

Here is Lleulu checking out Wuella. She is curious about the chicks, but doesn't seem to be hunting them. She has been curled up near the incubator and checking the peeping sounds out. Maybe she will be a good mother hen. 

I will keep you posted as the hatching continues. What a great Memorial Day weekend! Stay tuned...

And the Hatching Begins!

Our first egg started hatching at school on Thursday. We were thrilled to see this little crack in the shell upon arriving at school.

It took the chick a whole day to get to this point, broken half way around the shell. A couple of things to point out. First, we wrote on the shell in marker. Bad idea. The shell is porous and it could have poisoned the chick. Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother this one. Write in pencil on a shell if you have to.  Second, I am not sure what I think about this little incubator. You can't control the temperature or humidity. The humidity is essential to their hatching. I think that this guy was suffering from low humidity.

At the end of the day on Friday we moved the entire incubator holding two unhatched eggs and one hatching egg to my house, their new home. I placed them in my big incubator to join their new brothers and sisters. 

When the chick still hadn't hatched I got worried. It had been many hours, over a a full day. I was afraid of it drying out and running out of energy. Thankfully I heard from a fellow chicken lover and experienced keeper of chickens. He told me that it was time to help it break free. I set up my chicken operating room and got busy. I had to carefully moisten the inside of the shell. Then I had to break away the shell, going around in a circle, just like the chick would have. Here is Dave inspecting the chick and my work.

Here is a close up of the chick still curled up inside. It was the first time that it saw me. "Are you my mother?" This baby chick is a black austrolorp. That is why it has a dark beak and feathers. Many actually hatch dark and grow light feathers later on.

Lleulu was watching the whole time. She didn't seem to mind what was going on.

Finally it came out of the shell. The poor thing was stuck to the membrane. 

I spent the next while slowly moistening and picking off bits of membrane and shell.

I think that I was picking off some shell here. The little peep was exhausted!

Here she is! Still wet, but ready to go. I put her back into the incubator to dry off and peep a lot. Hopefully she will get the other eggs hatching. 

She ended up with the name Wuella, after a student at school that was so thrilled about a baby chick hatching! Now she is dried off and in the brooder. I have to get a photo of her all fluffy. She has been peeping loudly, apparently to a peeping chick inside of a shell, inside of the incubator! We should have more hatching soon. I keep checking and no shells are broken yet.

Little Wuella has another hurdle to cross. She has splayed legs or spraddled legs. This is when a chicken looks like it is doing a split. She wasn't that bad, but couldn't stand on her own and walked like a drunkchicken, like I have ever seen a drunk chicken. We found this web site, followed the instructions and are awaiting the results. She already can sit up better. She should be standing tomorrow! Poor little Wuella. What a tough beginning to life! You'll have some siblings soon enough. Hang in there. 

I will have more to report soon. Stay tuned.... 

The Meetup

The Atlanta Pet Chicken Owners meetup was great! I love meeting fellow chicken lovers and owners. Everyone was so encouraging and helpful. I can't wait to have chickens out of their shells to talk about. 

A meeting is going to be scheduled near Marietta/Smyrna for next month. You know that you want to come meet some chicken loving folks. I am hooked. For sure. I know, you knew that already. I can't stop learning about chickens and talking about them.

I might buy an incubator to rent out to classrooms and home schoolers. Please let me know if you or anyone you know would be interested. I am trying to put out feelers to see if it would be worth it. I think it would be. The miracle of life is amazing to behold.

Yes. Yes, indeed. I will be a proud mama hen. 

Stay tuned....

The Incubator

Here is the incubator that I am using. It is a Hova-Bator. This model is fairly old. The newer ones look kind of like space capsules and most have a bigger viewing window.

I forgot to take a picture of the eggs before I put in the automatic turner. So here are the eggs in the automatic turner inside of the incubator. I love all of the colors! To the side is my hygrometer. The egg turner makes a full rotation in four hours. It is quiet and slow. It was so strange to wake up this morning and not have to turn the eggs! I didn't know that I would miss that ritual so quickly!

The countdown is on! Only two weeks until baby chicks should be hatching! 

Incubation...

I am learning a lot about my eggs! First, I don't mind turning them. I thought that I would, but it makes me check on them. I am borrowing an automatic egg turner for the rest of the incubation. It will definitely make things easier. Think of it! Three turns a day, times forty eggs, times 18 days. That is a lot of turns! The automatic egg turner turns them more frequently. Also, it takes 21 days to hatch but you don't turn them the last 3 days. 

I have had a problem getting my temperatures right too. The incubator is supposed to be 99 degrees. It seemed to be hovering around 97 on my standard thermometers. Then I got a hygrometer. It measures humidity and temperature. Humidity is important during incubation and hatching. The hygrometer measured temps at 95. I finally got them to go up to 97. Today I will try to raise it to 99, before I put the automatic egg turner in place. Whew! I have been stressing like a mother hen! I still have to get the humidity right. It is a little high. It should be 40-50% during incubation and 100% during hatch time. 

I have so much to learn! I will take some pictures of the incubator with and without the egg turner so that you get a good idea. I can't believe that it has almost been one week. The time is flying. I will have baby chicks in no time!

Stay tuned....