LOLOL, zong, how cute!! I'm thinking it's birthdays tomorrow!!! Please be sure to post some of that if you can, ok? Nothing more adorable than baby chicks.
Yeah, you can hear them before they even pip(pipping is what it's called when they break the shell from inside, and it looks like a little bump on the shell). Usually its only a few hours between the first peeps and when they start to pip. Sometimes it takes 24 hours for them to come out of the shell though. And when they come out, they're exhausted from all that work and just lay there all wet, looking like they're dying.
I LOVE it when eggs start hatching and thechicks're peeping while still inside the shell!
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There are 8 chicks out now, and they're rolling around the other eggs pretty badly. I went out to the shed this morning and got another incubator. I actually got this one ready to give to another HT member a few years ago, but he didn't ever come get it or anything. So, all the active ones go into the one I brought in today, that will stop all that egg rolling and racket. This actually is day 21, so I just checked, looks like 7 more have pipped, so I may reach my hopes of half of them hatching. I have no real idea how those eggs were stored, how long, and how old the hens were that lay them, but I was hoping for 24 or so to hatch. Next time I'll mount an old computer fan for air circulation for more even heat distribution. there seemed to be as much as 4 degrees difference in the temperature at the top of the eggs and the bottom.
Got a decent video of this little guy, the last couple of minutes while he broke out of his shell. This particular chick had been pipping and peeping for 22 hours, and I was about to get a pair of tweezers and help him. But, he finally made it, all by himself.
Zong-for a single guy-you sure do have a lot of irons in the fire-do not know how you keep up with it all~guess what they say is true-"your as busy as ya want to be"~
My problem is i run out of energy to soon~
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30 made it, one pipped but couldn't finish the job, a half of another shell had capped the area where he was working. 17 eggs never pipped, but I'll leave them in one more day, just in case. Since some hatched a full day early, there's a possibility that one or 2 may be late, although it's day 22 right now. I put them in this little brooder I made. After 3 days, I'll set the brooder outside and make sure the lightbulbs are high enough wattage to keep them warm. A lot of spotted heads.
I don't feel like I do a lot, I sit and think of the easiest way to do anything, and do a little instead. This guys have a job already lined up for them. They will end up in the orchard, which is completely fenced in. I will start with interconnected chicken wire "tents" under each fruit tree, so they can roam around, but not get to the fruit, and keep grass and weeds under control, and at the same time, eat the bugs as they emerge from the pupae, and also eat anything that drops from the trees. Eventually I'll reverse the tents to "funnels" and the chickens will have run of the orchard, keeping weeds and grass down, some bug control, and some fertilizing. I will be clipping their wings regularly so they never develop the habit of flying up into the fruit trees. In this way, I'll actually be cutting down on my workload, and they'll earn their keep. Then there is the eggs. And of course, eventually the will be eaten. So, this little time spent here will save a lot of time later.
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