Yesterday was day 19 ( chickens typically take 20 days to hatch out) so I hoped something would be happening soon and when I went out to open up the hen houses, guess what? I pushed Ruby off the nest to make her get some food and drink, I looked at the eggs and.....one of the eggs had "pipped"! (cracked from the chick pecking at it from the inside)
Can you see the crack? Click on the picture to enlarge it!
I went back again a couple of hours later and ...surprise! a chick was there, sprawled on the nest. The other two eggs had cracked and the chicks were cheeping furiously from inside, but hadn't emerged from the shells yet.
See the little chick peeking out from under Ruby?
I wasn't worried about the other two chicks then, as it can take a few hours for a chick to emerge, but as the day wore on I did begin to be concerned. The chicks were active and struggling to get out of the shells, but examining the shells showed me they were VERY thick eggshell indeed. The worry here is that, the longer the struggle goes on, the drier the shell and membrane inside becomes and the harder it is for a rapidly tiring chick to push it off.... So, by evening I had decided if the chicks hadn't managed to get out under their own steam I would give them a bit of help. I wasn't going to pull the shell off them but I would try to rehydrate the shells with warm water, to help the chicks along a bit..
So I did. I dripped warm water on the shells to help the chicks get out. The extra humidity allowed them to struggle free and they managed to hatch themselves. When both the chicks had made it out of the shell we put them in a box on top of the dehydrator to warm up and then I put them back under Ruby to dry out and fluff up.
I think I have two pullets and a cockerel. Chicks! I love them :-) More piccies to come tomorrow ;-)
Oh my eyes did well up! Well done Ruby & congratulations to you Mother Hen on helping the new arrivals safely into this world! They don't know yet what lucky chicks they are to have found life with you. :-D
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness this is so eggciting!! How wonderful to see them hatching out with your super photographs. I have never seen a chick hatching out before so this is a real treat! Thank you CW, cannot wait for further postings!!!
ReplyDeleteLove Jane xxx
I actually have video footage of hatching out the chicks in the kitchen and I spent 2 hopurs last night trying to get Blogger to upload it grrrrr....
ReplyDeleteAm trying again now and hopefully will get it up on here this time...
but don't worry, more lovely chick pics to come :-)
Those are fantastic photos!!
ReplyDeleteGTM x
Thank you for the compliments (grins)I WAS rather pleased with the photos!
ReplyDeleteI spent no time at all, just pointed the camera one handed under the artificial light in the kitchen and et voila! out they came..
I have a good camera though, a Fuji Finepix 900, I can reccomend it for snapping :-)
I have an SLR ( well several) but they take ages to set up and I never have them to hand, but my little Fuji camera lives with me all day and I just snap away and edit out later....
I find it really useful to have a record of what I have been up to, my memory is so carp nowadays so I use my camera like a pictoral diary :-))
be assured, there will be many pics to come on here ;-)
oh so cute!
ReplyDeleteI miss having chickens :-)
Rose XXX
Lovely! Congrats on your new 'babies'.
ReplyDelete