Chicks!

We have new babies today! The borrowed Styrofoam incubator really can hatch chicks. We did not place much faith in it, but knew that if it worked, the chicks would start appearing tomorrow. Imagine our surprise upon coming home from work to the sound of little peeping. It took me a second to register that it was the sound of chicks in our living room. We rushed over to the incubator and saw two chicks stumbling about and other eggs in various stages of holes poked through the shell. A couple had a hole with a beak just hanging out. We quickly discovered that we were not prepared for this at all. After the first instinct to grab the camera, we ran around in circles until we got our heads on straight. We scurried to find a box for the newborns and the heating lamp and supplies from the last flock we raised. Last summer we started with day-old chicks and successfully raised all 25 of them to pullets, but this was a different story, coming straight out of the shell. We moved the three new ones to the box but then read that they should stay in the incubator for at least 12 hours until they are dry and fluffy and that we should move them all at once instead of one at a time. So, back into the incubator they went. So far we have 6 that have made their grand entrance into the world, 5 of which are dark with a white spot on their head and 1 that is lighter brown in color. We have two roosters, one Barred Rock and one Rhode Island Red, and hens of each also, so we were not sure how the chicks would turn out. Tomorrow we will move them out of the incubator to a brooder, show them how to drink water, and feed them. But for now, we go to bed to the sounds of chirping and hope for more successes.