Chicks Are Here

That was a long weekend.  Day 21 was on Friday.  After not having any eggs hatch on Friday, I was sure I wasn't going to get any.  I got my first two to hatch on Saturday.  The next five hatched on Sunday.  The last one hatched today (Monday).  Long story short, of the 36 eggs, nine hatched, two died while trying to get out, and one that hatched has since died.  For those that don't want to do the math, I have eight chicks hanging out in the brooder.  One of the eight has what looks like "crooked neck".  It's not as bad as the one in the link, but it gives you an idea of what I am experiencing.  I'm going to give her/him a couple of days to see if it eats/drinks on its own.



First egg with a pip.  The one to the right has one, too.


  

Which one will hatch first?

The first one to hatch was the one on the right.  It had cleanly "zipped" itself.  It was one of my mystery eggs, so I don't even know what kind of chick I got.  In the last pic, its the all yellow one.  Based on some pics in the chicken hatchery catalogs, it is probably a production layer chicken like a Golden Comet.



That was a long day.  Time for a bit of a nap

The one on the left is one of the Australorps.  He ended up "shrink wrapped" in the shell.  This means the membrane around the chicken dried out (low humidity - my fault) and it got stuck.  It eventually made its way out, but ended up all matted and gross looking.  In the days since then, he has fluffed out and is looking much better, but is still kind of small.   Here he is fresh from the egg.

Here's a series of pics that shows the final steps of the hatching process.  This is the Rhode Island Red.

It's all crowded up in here.

One more push



Free at last.



Here's the last one that hatched.  This is one of the Jersey Giants.

December 27, 2010 - 1-2 day old chicks

And here they all are a few hours later in the brooder.  The little yellow one in the foreground is the one that died.