Baby Chick's hatch and first day!

I don't know about you but I still think it's amazing how you can hatch a baby chicken in just 21 days!! It's been an exciting adventure and I'm sure it will only get better! :) Here I have attached the pictures and videos I have from the hatch day! I hope you enjoy!

My sister holding the egg right as it cracked even more.

I had to bring the entire incubator with me to my Aunt and Uncle's house where we were celebrating Christmas on my dad's side. I knew if I didn't bring it...I would miss the entire thing. And I was right. This picture was taken right after we got to their house! You could see it's beak!

This is when it got exciting cuz it was almost out but had to finish "scissoring" it the rest of the way around the egg. Video of the same view below.

First real view of the baby chick and it breathing

First view of the baby chicks wing.

Chick hatched at about 2 pm, December 26th! I tried to upload the video, but it isn't working. I'll try again very soon!

Now that the baby is hatched, here are some pictures as the chick starts to dry and look cute!

Wet, wet baby chick!

Just the view from atop. Comparing the size. Those bowls are just regular cereal bowl sizes. It's a small baby in a big world.

Starting to warm up, dry up and become a FLUFFY little chicky.

This picture was taken at about 11 o' clock that night! Almost al the way dry, but super tiny!

Well, that's all of the hatch day fun! More to come soon!

HATCHING DAY IS HERE!!!

Well...it's finally HATCHING DAY!!!! My Rhode Island Red chick decided to make a small hole in it's shell overnight!! Finally I will have some baby chicks......only two days late! I can't believe in 21 days you can go from just the smallest dot of a baby...to a full grown chick ready to hatch!

Once again the light bulb went out Christmas morning, but we were home, so we got the problem fixed as soon as we noticed! Although the temperature did drop quickly to 70..YIKES! But it didn't seem to bother the chicks because they are getting so big I doubt they would be able to fit in their shells much longer!

I only have a few pictures for now but will be posting more as more happens!

These two pictures were from last night before it started pokig a hole through the shell. It got into the air space and started chirping! It was so cool to hear it even though it was still in the shell!

Dad took this photo through the plexi-glass so the humidity caused it to be completely blurry! But this was right after it poked it's first hole...which you can't see! haha!

Taken about two hours ago...definitely a much bigger portion of the egg being poked off! Getting excited!!

Well that's all for now, more pictures to come as more happens! Hope y'all have a great day and had a wonderful Christmas@!

Two Tough Cookies!!!

So the chicks have been growing, I've been turning the eggs, candeling them, and making sure there is water in the dish for humidity. This week a new job came up.....making sure the light bulb isn't burnt out.

Yep, you guessed it. The light bulb went out and the temperature inside the incubator got down to a frigid 65 degrees. You might not think that is very cold, but for chicks, that's 40 degrees less than they are suppose to be in. The humidity was below 20, which it's suppose to be over 55, so that the egg shell thins so the chicks can poke through.

I candled them as soon I was home and noticed the light hadn't turned on for a while. (It usually is turning on and off every minute or seconds.) I saw no movement, the eggs were cold, and I figured my senior project would end like that. My dad said to not put them back in the inncubator because there was no way of them surviving. Well, my stubborn red-headedness (yes, thats a word! :p) decided to disobey dad, get a new lightbulb, and put the eggs back in the incubator. I had gotten this far, I wasn't stopping like that. This happened on Thursday.

Friday morning came and before I left for school I decided to candle the eggs, and sure enough, to my ultimate surprise, the chicks were..........ALIVE! They were moving, their hearts were beating, and you could even see the beginning of their beaks and feet!!

So today I am here to tell you that the baby chicks are still alive, and kicking (quite literally actually)! And believe it or not, the four day hatching period starts in TWO DAYS!!! And ends on Christmas Eve! I wouldn't be surprised if they hatched towards the end due to the temperature mishap....but only time will tell! I will be updating the blog on a daily basis till my chicks are hatched. SO...be sure to check in!! To tie you over to tomorrow, here is a video I took today while candeling them. This is of the White Leghorn Egg!

A little this and a little that!

Today was another day of candleing. Today was a day of surprise. I didn't really know what I would see, but I'm not too surprised about what I didn't see either. As far as I know, two are much farther along than the other two. Meaning the two lacking in development are probably dead. But don't think I killed them. Remember, I got this batch of eggs not knowing if the eggs would even be fertile or not, so that by itself is its own experiment! So now for some pictures; they aren't the greatest because its kind of hard catching the slight vision of veins. The Rhode Island Reds are especially hard to photograph because the shell is a brown speckled. But I got what I could.

Egg 1: White Leghorn

Status: No change

Egg 2: White Leghorn

Status: Definite change. You can see veins! It definitely looks better in person then in photos.

The air sac is located at the wider end of the egg.

You can see the air sac up top here and veins under it!

Egg 3: Rhode Island Red

Status: Dark area larger and veins are visible!

Egg 3 again. No picture of the second Rhode Island Red Egg 4,

but there's no change from the last. So I think it may not really

have been as fertile as I thought.

Secondly I kind of think I should post picture of the dad, and moms!! We have no idea which mom it came from but...it's got to be one of them!

The whole flock I believe. Rooster in the middle. Hens surrounding. The white ones are White Leghorns, the brown ones are Rhode Island Reds. There may be some Brown Americauna hens but not sure.

Closer up of the Americauna Rooster!

Well that's all for now folks! I hope y'all have had a great week!

Hopefully some baby chicks are in the close future!

Baby chicks just in time for Christmas!

Well, day 3 is here which means I can candle the eggs and actually see inside the egg! I didn't think all four would be fertile, but believe it or not, I will have baby chicks by Christmas! Now that I know baby chicks are actually growing in those shells, I'm so excited for the next 18 days! Below are pictures of incubator building process and the eggs so far!

Cutting the wood to make legs for the incubator

Nailing the legs onto the box

Styrofoam all in place

Hot water heater thermostat to turn the light on and off depending on the temperature.

Incubator warming up to proper temperature. It can only be in a small range of 98-102 degrees F.

Eggs, thermometers and water dish (for humidity)

Turning the eggs on day 2

Red area = chick embryo of White Leghorn

Example of what a non-fertile White Leghorn egg looks like.

Dark area = chick embryo of Rhode Island Red

Example of what a non-fertile Rhode Island Red egg look like.

Well that's all for now! I will be candeling the eggs again in a couple of days. And I might have another batch in the incubator, we shall see!

How it all got started:

Senior year rolled around and I had absolutely no idea what I would do for my Senior Culminating Project. I was going to do something boring, but why not add some excitement to my already busy life as a student and athlete, and hatch some chickens!

So from this blog you will find updates about my baby chicks in their eggs, incubating in my homemade incubator! I picked them up on Saturday afternoon and they were placed in the incubator at 11:30 (yes I was up late) on Saturday night! Day 1 is here and so far the temperature and humidity is under control which is the part we've had the most trouble with. By we, I mean my dad and I because I definitely couldn't have built the incubator by myself!

Picture of the whole set-up will probably be up in the next few days. But so far I have two White Leghorn eggs and two Rhode Island Red eggs. I may be adding more, but that's for later.

The whole catch with this batch of eggs is I don't really know if they are actually fertile! I will know in two days, by candling the eggs, if I will have baby chicks hatching on Christmas....hence the name of my blog. If you have any tips or advice, I would love them and also if you have any questions just ask!

Thanks for reading!