Been busy, absent, nothing much more that I can really say to stick up for myself, hee, hee. Just plain and simply, BUSY.....
The pre-Christmas hatch occurred. Lockdown was Thursday last, and it was. We went away for the weekend on Friday, returning on Sunday, yesterday. The chicks were to begin to hatch on Saturday, just leaving them to fend for themselves, as there was no choice, we had plans to be at our childrens' houses to celebrate Christmas, as we won't be together then.
My Husband built a great auto water device to provide humidity, thanks to the advice of Labman. It is a cool thing, always fresh water coming in, and....to make it even better, my Husband hooked up the water to our waterline, using the type of tubing that is used for bringing water to our ice maker fridge, think it is like 1/4 inch tube or something. Anyways, it works, but I can't get the humidity any higher than about 35%. That percentage of humidity works 100% fine. The hatch was 17 eggs out of 21, not bad. The babies are a combination of black cochins, blue cochins and light brahmas. I put an egg from the silver laced wyandotte that lives with our light brahma rooster, so the chick is a cross of these two, the others are purebreed. It is hard to tell what colours are going to be what with the cochins yet, I think there is a few black, a few blue and a few splash. a few more days into their growth will tell me more. I was surprised to see how many of the chicks hatched. Fifteen were hatched when we came home and two more hatched this morning, there are 3 eggs not hatched yet and doubt if they will. I have left the two that hatched today in the incubator and will move them to be with the others in the morning. Oh, isn't hatching such a fun and rewarding event, gotta love it. I have 47 more eggs that are due to hatch the day after boxing day, lockdown is Friday. Can't wait for that hatch, gonna have some nice chickies coming. Have that wonderful day, Cindi.
The view when I first looked in the incubator when we returned
The first of the two to hatch this morning
The two of the two to hatch this morning and afternoon
The move to the brooding area of the 15 first hatched chicks
Another shot of the first 15 hatched chicks
Another angle
We let the four older chicks (4 weeks old now) out to see their new pals, separated for a couple of weeks until they really get a little stronger. Then they will be in the same brooding area. The older chicks sure did have a good time seeing what all the peeping was about