Hatching Chicks in the Incubator

This week has been an exciting week around the Beechick Barnyard!  We have had eggs in our incubator for 3 weeks and Tuesday, April 3rd was going to be day 21 day - also known as HATCH DAY!  According to the instructions on the incubator, we were to take the eggs off of the egg turner 3 days prior to Hatch Day and lay them on the wire screen to give the chicks enough space to hatch.  On Sunday morning, I followed the instructions and took out the egg turner and put the eggs on the wire.  Funny thing was that I heard chirps coming from the eggs!  I was so excited.  I wasn't really sure if the eggs were fertilized or if they would even hatch.

 This is the incubator and here's a close-up of the egg turner inside the incubator.  It rotates the eggs back and forth all day every day.


By late Sunday night, we were hearing lots of chirps.  We were all constantly crowded around the window of the incubator so we could take a peek.

We decided that the window really needs to be bigger so that all five of us could watch as the eggs hatch.  We were constantly telling each other to move!

The younger girls decided to sleep in the same room as the incubator so they could take pictures or hear if the chicks were hatching.  That night, they started to hatch and here's the first picture of the chicken as it hatched!  So cool!!

 

 Almost out!!

Finally made it out!!  It's amazing that something so big could come out of such a tiny little egg.  They are definitely wrapped up in there tightly.  Usually when the chicks start pecking their way out of the shell, it only takes about 30 minutes to an hour for them to hatch.  However, about 1:30 a.m. I heard chirping coming from the incubator so I got up to check on the progress.  Needless to say, this is what I found.  Poor thing!!

I went back to bed because there was no other progress going on at the time.  By the time I got up the next morning, the chick was still in the same position!  Everything that I had read said that you should not open the incubator or try to help the chicks hatch out.  So I waited most of the morning and couldn't stand it any longer - I had to intervene.  I quickly opened the incubator and "helped" finish cracking the eggshell open.  

This cute little thing finally came out.  It was definitely a tiny chick.  No wonder it was having a hard time breaking free!

Almost all day on Monday, we were able to watch eggs hatch.  What an awesome experience and a cool homeschool day!  

This is what our chicks looked like when they finally were hatched.  We couldn't remove them until they were completely dried out.

 

We only had one more chick to hatch during the night on Monday night.  We had sixteen eggs in the incubator all together.  Eight were eggs from our chickens and eight were from a friend's chickens.  Only two of ours hatched so far.  My friend had five chicks that hatched.  All day Tuesday, we have heard random chirping coming from the incubator and some movement from the eggs.  So, we are planning on leaving the rest of the eggs in the incubator for a few more days and hopefully we'll have some more chicks to hatch soon.  I'll keep you updated!