Chicks Are Here!!!

If you didn't know, we were planning on hatching another batch of chicks. First off, I want to say, if you want to have your own chickens for eggs, I highly recommend hatching them yourself. It is very much a learning experience and each time you only get better. But the process is so rewarding. 

So to start we managed to get 40 eggs from a friend of ours. Now that sounds like a lot, but really there is a reason for that many. When you start with 40 eggs you have to anticipate that up to 25% are not fertilized. Then out of the rest some may not make it through the first stage and some may not make it through hatching (it is a very tricky situation with humidity, I will explain later). And out of the ones that do make it, a whopping almost 60% tend to be Roosters. And if you are trying to lay eggs, there is no way you can keep the Roosters.

So to get back to my point. We started with 40 eggs from a friend. They knew where one of their favorite roosters ended up and the family was willing to give us the eggs if we would be willing to give them a hen if there are enough. So we agreed. How could we not, they had the chickens that would lay the colored eggs that we wanted. Yes, people buy certain chickens to get a certain color egg. I don't mind all the different colors of eggs. I love the look of each chicken as they grow. All the different breeds are so fascinating. 

I mean there are literally breeds of chickens that are all black, down to even their tongue. They are called Ayam Cemani. Look it up you will thank me. That is my dream chicken. I would love to have some on my homestead someday. There are also breeds called Silkies, which are super fluffy and gorgeous. I mean picture me like the little girl from Despicable Me and the Unicorn. "IT'S SO FLUFFY". Seriously, again another one I would love to have. Oh and I have to mention the Frizzle. Their feathers curl at the end, it is some genetic anomaly where they are missing the dominant gene. So many breeds and so little time.

And all of them have such unique personalities and they definitely are lovers. Ours follow us around constantly. They know we will give them treats and they know we love them. Our current girls are definitely barnyard mixes, just like our babies. But they have a mix of Leghorn and Brahma in there somewhere. They are gorgeous and they lay almost every day.

But back to our gorgeous babies. After about five days in the incubator, we will do a check. Just to see how the eggs are moving along and to remove the unfertilized ones. Well on day 5 we found that about 20 were unfertilized. So half our eggs. No big deal, we still had 20 more right? Well out of the 20 left, we found that 2 didn't make it past the first stage. We saw the blood ring, but they had "died". Then just before we went into "lockdown" (you do not open that incubator for anything during lockdowns), we found that 3 more had died. We saw some development but that infamous blood ring. A blood ring is not a good sign, which is how we knew they were gone. So, at lockdown, we had 15 left.

15 of the original 40 were on track and ready to go. We were excited. The children were even more excited. And at the end of day 20 (average of 21 days from incubation till hatch), we got our first baby. We thought the squeaks were the tv at first, but nope, alas we had our first. By the next morning at 5a, we had another one. And while I was finishing my workout, another one came. Within about 24 hours we managed to get up to 11.

We still had 4 more, and to be honest. They didn't make it. We aren't sure if it was because of the humidity levels or just they couldn't do it. But we still lost those four. Now in regards to humidity, several things can happen and we can only control it to an extent. Once the chicks start hatching humidity levels start to rise and it is very difficult to get it back down. If it is too dry in your incubator, once the chicks pip (break through the shell) the inner lining will begin to shrink wrap around them. And then they can't move and they pretty much suffocate. We did not have that problem. And on the opposite spectrum, if it is too humid and they break through the shell, then they could drown with the amount of moisture that will build up. So you have to find that happy medium of the perfect humidity level.

The four that were left never pipped, so we don't think that was the cause either. We think they just were not strong enough, in general, and couldn't break through the shell. But they were no less loved and we were extremely saddened by the loss, however, that is life. And our children are learning that. Plus we have 11 that are here and need our attention.

We do not know, yet, if these 11 are male or female. But as they grow they start showing signs and we are hoping for a hen heavy batch. We want our flock to keep growing. So meet our babies, no names yet. Not until we learn their personalities. 

And here are our original flock. The girls that started it all for us. We currently only have 4, as some went to other homes or escaped and lost their lives to predators (purely by chance they escaped, we take those escapes very seriously and do everything we can to not let that happen as we love our chickens very much). 

On to the next adventure. What will it be!!!!