Baby Chicks Galore

It's been quite the month at our house as we've waited, and waited, AND WAITED for these baby chicks to hatch.  

Evie has been dying to hatch baby chicks again.  And, honestly, so has her father.  So, he did a massive amount of research and found an incubator that would do the trick.

Beau hand selected the eggs and then he and Evie set up the incubator and filled it with 10 eggs.  At that point, it was a heartbreaker when Evie was told that they wouldn't hatch RIGHT AWAY and that she was going to have to wait 21 days.  21 days is a LONG wait for a 3-year-old little girl.

Beau and Evie checked on those eggs every single day.  Evie told everyone she came in contact with (even strangers) that she was going to hatch baby chicks.  She was so adorable.  

I missed getting a picture of my most favorite part of this whole experiment and that was when we got to "candle" the eggs.  On day 8 Beau took them out of the incubator, put a bright light under each egg which then illuminated the egg, and we could actually see a baby chick developing in there.  It was like ultra-sounding each egg.  And, I tell you . . . you could actually see the shape of each baby chick as it moved around in the egg.  Extremely fascinating.

And then, right on schedule, the night of Day 20, Beau discovered two eggs with tiny peck holes in them. 

We could actually hear them "peeping" inside their egg (which is what Evie is listening to in the picture above).  Oh, this was exciting.  It can take most chicks anywhere from 6-20 hours to eventually make their way out of their eggs so we wondered when they would appear.  

We discovered them at about 6am the following morning.  And, throughout the day we continued to watch egg after egg hatch.

If you're interested . . . here's a time-lapse video of our fourth baby chick hatching.

By end of day, we transferred the hatched chicks to a box with a light in it.  This would allow their feathers to dry out while keeping warm.  We also provided food and water.  This was when the girls FINALLY had the chance to touch/hold them.  BOTH were thrilled, but there is no denying the fact that Evie was MUCH more excited about this than Addie.  Evie couldn't keep from smiling.  Addie would just touch the chicks (quickly) and then giggle.  

This all happened a week ago.  Eight of the ten eggs hatched, two of the chicks didn't make it.  The two  eggs that didn't hatch never developed.

So, we've been busy holding and playing with six baby chicks (four black ones, a brown one, and a brown one with stripes).  Addie still has no interest in "holding" one, but loves to touch them and watch them.  Evie, on the other hand, will hold them, watch TV with them, let them climb on her shoulder, etc.

So, there you have it!  We are in baby chick heaven over here!  It's been fun watching these chicks from day 1!

Wanna come play with us?