I took the girls out to Eagle River to tour the farm, see the baby and adult chickens that live there and pick up the eggs, incubator and brooding box, etc. We got to hold chicks, feed the chickens and help collect eggs while we were there. We loaded up all our supplies, made a pit stop on the way home to feed the ducks and geese at the Eagle River duck pond, and grabbed some lunch to munch on the drive home.
When we got home, we got the incubator set up, stabilized the temperature added water and got the humidity to the right level and put our eggs in on the automatic turner. Baring any complications we should have little peeps hatching in 21 days.
Sycely and I worked to make a countdown calendar to help us keep track of hatching timeline. We labeled each of the 21 days with a number and marked the days we needed to candle the eggs, take them off the turner and our expected window of hatching days. Each night the girls crossed off the day on the calendar.
On day 7 we did the first candling. During candling, you use a light to look into the egg and see the developing embryo. We cut a small hole in a shoe box, set up a tv tray and a strong light in the girls' bathroom and set about checking all our eggs to see if there were embryos developing inside. At 7 days the you are able to tell which eggs are fertile and developing. Those light passes uniformly through those that are not developing. If the egg is developing the embryo appears as a cloudy or "full" spot inside the egg, usually filling up about 1/3- 1/2 the eggs at this stage. The girls were so excited to see that there were babies growing and that all our attentiveness to regulating our incubator was paying off.
We candled a second time on day 14. During second candling the developing embryo not only fills the egg pretty much entirely, but you are also able to see blood vessels, the heart beating and even the baby moving around back and forth inside the egg. We set up our second candling in our closet where it was plenty dark and the girls got a kick out of being able to see the chicks looking alot more like baby living things and not a "cloudy mass." ;) Sycely, particularly wanted to see each one moving and identify the blood vessels and other parts of the embryos.
On day 18, we took the eggs of the turner so that the chicks could start positioning themselves to hatch. We also increased the humidity in the incubator to ensure there was plenty of moisture to keep the membranes wet as the chicks hatched so that they were able to hatch successfully without drying out. It also helps the chicks warm up and dry out and fluff up after hatching. Then we waited...the whole family was anxious for our chicks' arrival. Even Charlie helped keep an eye out for any developments ;)
At about 3am on day 20/21 I spotted the first tiny little hole in one of the eggs. First, the chicks peck a tiny hole in the shell. This is called "pipping." Once they pip a teeny hole, barely big enough for their little beak, they rest for up to 8 hours. During this time you can see their little beak open as they breathe and occasionally they will peep.
When they've finished their post-pip rest, they begin to peck at the pipped hole and make it larger. They peck at the hole thousands of times, gradually making it bigger and bigger. There is often rolling around and more peeping during this phase. It can take several hours for the chicks to peck the hole big enough that it forms a crack around the circumference of the egg. The girls got to see lots of this process as our chicks worked their way into the world.
Once they get a crack around the egg, they are able to push with their head or feet and open up one end of the egg and then they kind of toss around until they are able to work their bodies out through the open end. This is probably the most exciting part of the process. We'd all gather around the incubator and peer in as the little guys made their way into the world. Once one hatched the peeping increased as they ones already hatched encouraged those fighting their way out of the eggs. It got pretty noisy in there!
One night we had one new hatchling and one imminent arrival and several that had pipped. By 3:30am there were 5 hatched and by 7:30am there were 7 new babies flopping around in the incubator. That was a riot! We had 15 successful hatchlings. Several other pipped but never made further hatching progress.
Once the chicks cleared their eggs they stayed in the incubator until they were completely dry and their downy feathers fluffed up. Then we transported them into the brooder. The brooder is just a big bin with bedding in the bottom, food and water and mesh wire panels in the lid for water and to put a heat lamp. Sycely helped transition the chicks and get them settled in their temporary home. They were so super cute all huddled together in a little pile of peeps. Anytime we'd walk by or come up to the brooder they'll all stand up and tall as they could possibly be, peeping and reaching the little heads up to us.
Like all litters, ours had a runt. David, as we named him, (in honor of the Biblical David who, despite being the smallest of all his father's sons, was destined for great things, including being king) took almost 14 hours to get out of his egg, so long that the membranes began to dry out after being exposed to the air for so long. Pieces of the shell began to stick to his little skin, especially around his wing area. He eventually made his way out, but several days later still wore the tiny scraps of shell and measured only about 2/3 the size of his siblings.
We kept our little flock for a few days, spending lots of time holding the chicks. Sycely also enjoyed doing some "supervised playtime" with them. This involved blocking off both entrances to the kitchen and allowing them free rein to skitter about. The night before we left for Hawaii, Miss Anita came by the house and collected our chicks and all the hatching equipment. We bid our little flock farewell. I think the anticipation of flying out the next morning made that alot easier on all of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment