New Layer

When Doug brought the eggs in from the barn today, he instructed me to check out what he found.  

It appears we have a new hen laying!  See the small brown egg on the bottom right?  A new layer will produce small eggs at first, and over the course of a week or two she will gradually lay larger ones.  What makes it even more cool is that this new girl is one that we hatched this winter!

Until next time...

Growing Up

We moved our chickens outside, and they love the new space.  

They have really been growing and changing!

Julianne loves to go see the "chic-chic"

This is one of the new bantams Doug bought, we love the feathering on its legs.

Until next time...

Movin' on Up

We decided that the chicks were big enough to move out of the basement and into the garage.  They were starting to change the aroma in the basement, and we have a few more eggs yet to hatch; therefore, we needed the space.

Dallas was more than willing to load the chicks into a box, carry them to the garage, and place them in their new home.  Doug and I are so thankful that he loves to help!

Until next time...

More of the Baby Chicks

Our first round of chicks are done hatching!  They are so incredibly cute and fluffy the first week or so.  I tried taking up-close pictures of each one, so I can maybe later compare how much different they look once their adult feathers come in...

Our one bantie chick that survived is in the center.

Sugar loves to go over to the tub and admire the babies

These two chicks were hatched from green eggs.

And the older two love getting them out playing with them, too.

Until next time...

Bath Time

Doug and I have decided we wouldn't last long in a large hatchery operation.  We worry too much about the little ones causing us to check on them constantly.

For instance, we thought a couple of the chicks were taking too long to completely hatch out their shells, so we assisted them.  We found part of the problem was the humidity was not high enough, and the membranes of the eggs were drying causing the chick to get stuck.  (The low humidity might have been because we were constantly opening the incubator to look at them...) 

Because the chicks were stuck, part of the egg shell and yolk sac were matted to their feathers.  We decided they needed baths in order for them to fluff up.

Luckily, we had a couple little people very willing to help bathe the babies!

Until next time...

The Baby Chicks are Hatching

Yesterday, I went to the basement to change laundry, and I heard chirping noises!  I rushed over to the incubator, but there were no chicks.  I did see 3 eggs with pip holes!  I grabbed my phone and got a video so you could hear the chicks

I then excitedly called Doug to let him know what I had discovered.  The kiddos and I kept checking on them through the afternoon and evening, but none hatched.  Doug then checked on them after the rest of us were in bed, and this is what he found...

Our 1st chick to hatch!

Doug was so excited to show the kiddos the next morning, and well, they were pretty excited too! 

Check out how much they dried off through the night, and look closely, two more had hatched during the night.

Until next time...

New Adventures

Not sure if you remember my post from early December about the green egg layer we bought.  Anywho, in that post I mentioned how we also got an incubator and egg turner in the deal.  Well, we have been saving eggs for a few days now, and we finally have enough to try our hand at hatching chicks!  Dallas and Reba helped Daddy put the first "round" of eggs in this evening.

Yes, Dallas is excited about all of this...he just chooses to do the opposite of what I ask/want for pictures.

Reba was more than willing to put the bantam eggs in first!

Dallas requested to put the green eggs in the turner.

The turner holds 41 eggs.  We didn't quite fill it tonight, but we do plan on saving some more in the next few days and adding them later.

Wish us luck!

Until next time...