Eggwatch ***Updated***

Our chicken eggs are due to hatch today, tomorrow and Thursday. When the boys got home from school just now they checked the incubator to find that three or four have already pecked little holes in their shells. I'll take pictures and keep you posted!

5:49 P.M.-

We took the eggs out of the automatic egg turner and put them on the floor of the incubator so they won't get tangled in the little cups when they hatch. We can hear them cheeping!  Here is what they look like at the moment:

7:19 P.M.-

Chick #1 has hatched!  The boys named him Underdog, because he was the smallest egg and the first to hatch:

7:52 P.M.-

Chick #2 (named Superman/Supergirl) hatched...he/she looks similar to Underdog, only bigger.  Underdog is getting stronger and fluffier by the minute.  They are stumbling around with the remains of their yolks attached to their bums!

5:44 A.M.-

I've been awake for about an hour and a half now.  There is something making weird noises underneath our bedroom window and I could not shake the bizarre feeling that it was one of the chicks.  Finally I got up and they are all (four of them now) fluffy and warm inside the incubator.  I'm a little worried that no more hatched overnight.  Two of the remaining eggs are "pipped", or have little holes in them.  Guess we just have to be patient and wait and see.

12:47 P.M.-

M and I just got home from a friend's house to find that we still only have four chicks.  The two pipped eggs (don't you love that word!) have made very slight progress.  One of them is poking around a little with his beak but he seems very weak.  If he makes it I'm going to name him Pipper.  I'm worried about the rest of them, though I don't know if I should be.  The eggs weren't technically supposed to hatch until tomorrow, but doesn't it seem like if four of them hatched early then the rest should too?  I guess I'll just have to watch and wait and trust in their chikenly wisdom.  I found out what the strange noise was last night.  A cricket.  Not a chicken death-song.  The things we convince ourselves of at 4 in the morning.

2:33 P.M.-

I've been trying to clean my bathroom for the past hour, but haven't gotten very far because I keep stopping to watch the chicks.  Pipper just hatched- he's little, and at first I thought his feet were all balled up (this happened to one of Eric's class' chicks last year and he died after a few days), but I think they're actually okay.  The other chicks are stepping all over him- hopefully that's okay.  And he is gray as all the other ones are!  How will we ever tell them apart?!

8:06 P.M.-

Nine chicks and counting!  One was named Houdini because he escaped from his shell without cracking it all the way in half.  Two others are named Jenna and Rachel, after our triplet friends who came over tonight just in time to see them hatch (while their brother Jared was at Scouts- of course we'll name one after him too).  We have 23 eggs in all.  The hatch rate for chicks is usually 50-75%, from what we hear, but we may get even more than that.  Anyone need a chicken or two?  

8:28 A.M.-

Nineteen chicks and counting....I was serious about that offer.

11:45 A.M-

All but three of the eggs have hatched now, and one more looks like it might hatch today.  They seem to like to hatch in the afternoon and evening.  I'll have to start thinking now about what we're going to do with all of them.  The box we were going to keep them in until they can be outside isn't big enough for this many, but I don't want to give any away until we can tell which ones are hens.  This afternoon we'll take them out of the incubator and start giving them food and water.  I've given up hope of telling them apart, as they're all grey and not a mix of colors like we had last time.  I think I know which one is Underdog, since he has a white bum and two white-tipped wings.