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!

My First time Making Cheese

I am in the process of making cheese for the first time with  my mom. We are making Ricotta cheese. I hope it turns out good. First we have to get 1gallon of goat milk and put it on the stove and get the temperature to be at 195. It is taking forever! You have to constantly stir it or it will boil and have a bad taste.   After it gets to 195 you have to pour in 1/4 a cup of Apple cider vinegar (by the way that stuff smells horrible). Once you pour that stuff in you stir it slowly and it will form curds. Then you take the curds out and that's the ricotta. Then you add  1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda and  1/4 a tablespoon of melted butter and that gives it flavor. You stir that well and keep it in the frig for over a week and there you have it Ricotta Cheese. It weighs 2 pounds or it is suppose to!

10 baby chicks

My mom came home from Tractor Supply with some little baby chicks the other day.  They are so cute!  We have some eggs in our incubator but they have not hatched yet.  They're all black right now and they are Barred Rocks.  I haven't picked the one I want yet because I don't want mine to grow up and be ugly looking. Right now we are keeping them in a big long box with all their food and water. When they get older we are going to let them be free in the fence with all the other chickens. We could have put them with a mama chicken to raise but the rooster might have been mean to the babies. Well enough talk - here are some pics.

My First Time in the Bees

My first time in the bees, I wasn't that scared because I knew my mom would be by my side the whole time. I was really excited. So I got all suited up and ready for what came next. My main job was to take pictures and to learn as much as I could.  I did learn 2 things that day.  The first is if you step on bees on accident the other bees smell that one just got killed and they start swarming (I learned that from experience).  I ended up backing away after that.  Second is that bees have pockets on there leg and when they go to get pollen they put the pollen in there pockets.  I thought it was pretty cool and couldn't wait till I could go in again. Here some pics of the bees close up:)

Our Honey Bees

Our story begins when I decided that I would like to take some classes on beekeeping.  I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to be a beekeeper but I was very interested in learning more about honey bees.  I took a series of classes at a nearby farm.  Needless to say, I was very excited!  I started reading every book that I could find at the library on beekeeping.  One of my favorite books was The Backyard Beekeeper which gave me a lot of insight on things that they had gone over in class.  So many people told me how crazy I was to even want to do this because I have always been allergic to yellow jackets.  What if I were allergic to honey bees too?  Well, I would NOT let this stop me!!  There are plenty of things out there to keep me safe while working with the honey bees and allow me to be a beekeeper.  So, I continued on my journey.  I went ahead and ordered 2 nucs of bees so that they would be available for pick up in April 2011. The girls helped me put together my beehives and then they painted them for me.  Here's a few pictures of the finished beehives. 

This is what the new beehives look like in our bee yard.  I was so proud and the girls did such a great job painting them for me.  We wanted them to look differently.  I've been told that the honeybees can tell which hive is theirs even without the different paint jobs.  Who knows?!

Now we were ready to get our bees!  So, the day finally came for me to pick up my honeybees.  It was a long day for me.  I had class that day from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then I went to the bee yard to pick up my bees.  The only problem was that there were about 50 hives where we would collect the nucs and 10 people in line in front of me getting their bees first.  I had to have some patience that day.  It was fun though!  Needless to say, around 4:30, I finally had my bees and was on my way home.  When I got home with them, my hubby suited up and we got the bees put back into the bee yard. 

The bees seemed to really like their new homes.  I was told to bring them home and then check them in a few days to see how they were doing.  Here I am suited up in my beekeepers outfit.  I definitely do not want to get stung!