James & Carolanne

As you may know, we have been homeschooling our kids. This year, as part of their learning experience, we are hatching chicks! Carolanne had found a good deal on a 2'nd hand incubator a few years ago, and this year we have some fuzzy little additions to our family. (at least for a little while... we have no plans to actually keep chickens)

[caption id="attachment_2745" align="alignnone" width="400"] This is the first chick that hatched. Cute little guy. Quite inquisitive. I suggested we call him "Nugget" but the kids wouldn't let me. :)[/caption]

This first chick hatched 24 hours before the others started to show up. And he was fast! We noticed that he had started "pipping" (pecking a hole in the egg) in the evening, and then within about an hour, he was out and moving around.

[caption id="attachment_2746" align="alignnone" width="400"] Chick number two[/caption]

This second chick felt a bit overwhelmed by the first and decided to move (fall) downstairs to the bottom level of the incubator shortly after we took his picture. Seems to be ok though. And you can see his sibling just peeking out of the third shell.

[caption id="attachment_2747" align="alignnone" width="400"] Three chicks in a bucket[/caption]

Last night, once the first three had somewhat dried off, and we didn't see any further immediate activity with the other eggs, we scooped them out of the incubator and moved them to their new home in a large bucket with water and a heat lamp.

So far, they seem to like their new residence. There has been no further activity yet with the other 4 eggs we incubated. These guys were just early! I will likely update this page with further developments as time goes on.