Feathers and Fun: New members in the flock family...

Well, here we go again...

So, I received a Brinsea Mini Advance incubator for Christmas. It was certainly the perfect gift for me! And I'm sure my husband knew what he was doing when he chose an incubator that would only hatch 7 eggs at a time. That way, the most we could possibly add to our flock is 7 chicks every 21 days, right?

Well, you know the first thing I did was call one of my chicken chick pals and ask for some fertile hatching eggs. I met up with her when she made a trip to the feed store and she had a variety box for me. I filled up the incubator and started the journey.

I candled at 7 days and purged any that weren't developing. I left a couple that I was iffy about since I had the room. I stared at the incubator for the remaining 14 days. On day 22, I saw it... the first pip. I sat up half the night watching the eggs. I found it ironic that I was eating left over chicken while watching them.

I watched. They cheeped. They peeped. They pipped. I peered. I cheered. And they hatched.

First was a splash barred rock. (How cool is that?) She (yes, SHE!) climbed all over all the other eggs, pecking at the pips, letting the other chicks know that she had arrived and was waiting for them. Next was the first Marans, then a Sapphire, then the second Marans. We had two that didn't survive the hatching process. One that seems to have died the day before and one that pipped and then gave up. The seventh egg never developed at all; probably wasn't fertile. It was one that I was iffy about.

Since the chicks were all due to hatch on my sister's birthday, I gave her naming rights. She chose a Dr. Seuss theme.

Our Marans are Sneetch and Yertle.
The Rock is Thing 1.
The Sapphire is Blue Fish.

I will probably never give her naming rights again. Who names a chicken "Thing 1" & "Blue Fish"?

So, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand words worth of images!