Final Outcome

23 of 27 hatched! Thats pretty good odds. All are healthy and happy and Im getting ready to do it again! This time Im only using eggs from my Rhode Island Red girls because they are prolific layers of large, dark brown, yummy eggs! Enjoy the pics!

WOOT! 6 chicks and counting!

Whew! It has been a day! So this morning temp and humidity was holding within an aceptable range and I had several pips. Then in a matter of an hour I had two chicks out of their eggs!

Almost there!

Its hard to take pics through the bator window.

So I left for work and I worried all day....about those two chicks that had hatched and about all the others. If you live in Oklahoma you know it got HOT today. I rushed home after work expecting maybe a couple more babies. I had 4 more for a total of 6!!!! BUT the bator humidity had risen from an acceptable 70% to a completely unacceptable 99 due to our weather! There was water dripping from the bator windows and the babys were sopping wet. I went to my friends at www.backyardchickens.com for advice. Normally you do not take the lid off the bator until all your eggs have hatched because the drop in humidity can cause "shrinkage" which means the membrane surrounding the chicks adheres to their face and body resulting in death....

DEATH IS NOT AN OPTION WITH ME! So I quickly took the lid off, removed a sopping wet sponge, grabbed the babies out, wiped the condensation off the windows, checked each pipped egg for life...each one was still chirping-very good news! Lid replaced, babies in the brooder, humidity back to normal and we are back in business! Theres lots of noise coming from the bator and several are zipping around their eggs. Should have more babies tonight :)

On the way to the brooder.....still a little damp.

Drying nicely and looking oh so sweet!!!!

Eggs are in LOCKDOWN!

Its day 18 and the eggs are on lockdown which simply means they wont be turned anymore and the lid stays put. The eggs are placed small end down in the egg cartons because that keeps the air cell at the top and thats where the chick will break through. Large end down would mean a drowned chick and we dont want that :o ! The humidity must be raised to about 70% and that what the sponges are for. There are channels in the bottom of the incubator that hold water also. See that rather large egg by the green sponge? Thats the double-yolker (twins). It has to remain laying down or the chick on bottom would must certainly drown. This egg will be quite an experiment...if the chicks survive I will have to help the one on bottom out. Thats a delicate job...if I help it out too early it will bleed to death, too late and I have a dead chick. So much could go wrong with that one that Im trying not to be overly hopeful. So between tonight and Sunday, there should be babies if all went well :) Cross your fingers! I will post progress pics and any new developments.

Check out the two bantam babies I bought a few weeks ago! So cute and they have tons of feathers on there feet