Chicks are 5 weeks old!!!

Our 7 chicks are growing fast and quick. They are consuming their food quickly and has taken a LOVE to bread.

We also had a few busybody chicks, always wanting to know what's out there!

Craig had put in a new perch for them and the chickies are showing their gratitude quick!

You can see Stripy standing up and Little sitting down. Little couldn't sit on the perch because of its feet.

Presenting some of the noisy buggers!

 One white with black feathers with no comb

This might be a part bantam. it has feathers on its feet. It has the best hairstyle among the 7 of them and I called it Elvis.

Stripy is now bigger as well and its watermelon body is over taken by its feathers. You can still see the stripe on its eye.

Little was the one born 2 days little, at week 3 we discover it's feet is deformed. Little can't sit on a perch so it's always sleeping alone, laying down. 

Today, we bought saw dust for the chicks because they keep eating their own poo and it stinks! They loved the saw dust once we put it in. It's soft on their feet and 2 white chicks start dusting themselves madly!

dusting themselves

Chick Hatch Day- Day 2 18May

Surprise Surprise! One more egg hatched today! Poor little fellow was alone in the incubator with no friends.

Chick Number 7

colour: brownish

Time of Birth: 3.10pm

Chicks hatch day- The day after

And the fluffiness begins!

At one day old, they are cute, still wobbling around and sleeps alot! They also get distracted at the slightest sound... The most interesting sight is seeing them nod themselves to sleep and wake up suddenly when they hear a sound. 2seconds later, they are nodding themselves to sleep again!

all huddling together....

having a nibble

and off to snooze again.....

2 pale yellow chicks...probably 1st and 2nd Chick

one (only) stripey one having a snooze...

Hatch Day 16May 2010....more hatching to come

Number One asking the rest to Line up! Attention!

Name: 2nd Chick
Time of birth: 1:39pm
Color: Yellowish

Name: 3rd Chick
Time of birth: 2.44pm
Color: Black-brown

2nd & 3rd Chick

Name: 4th Chick

Time of birth: 

Color: black-brown

3rd & 4th Chick

Name: 5th Chick

Time of birth: 7.45pm

Color: black-brown

Name: 6th Chick

Time of birth: 8.39pm

Color: yellow-brown

nearly there!

Free at last!

struggling with itself...

5th&6th Chick

Hatch Day 16May 2010

Today is hatch day...it's also Priscilla's birthday!

Woke up at 8.15am and I can hear chirping sound...Off I went to check on the eggs and surprise surprise, there's a new born!

Let's trace back what time this chick is born.....

3.50am

8.20am

this chick is still wet and need to get dried before we can remove it from the incubator.

wobble wobble and off to sleep again....this chick was sleeping and waking up almost every 30seconds....

And while we are eager about the new born....we have not neglected the oldies...Craig got some hay and wheat for the 3girls and boy are they excited!

Chicks "Peeking" Begins.....

One more day to hatch day....and we can start to see piping from one egg...

Three or Four chicks?

We should have done the candling last week to check on the eggs but we only them yesterday. It was an amazing experience witnessing the little movements happening inside the eggs. There should be 3 or 4 possible chicks and we are not sure about the rest. Papa Hen decided to keep all the eggs in the incubator until this Thursday, hoping for some miracles......

This Thursday we will stop rotating the eggs and increase the humidity in the incubator, making it ready for the chicks to hatch. We will be counting down to Sunday, hopefully we can witness the hatching process, where the little newborns will peek their way into Mother Earth....

Stay tuned chook fans!

Papa Hen

A new toy had arrived and it's Craig's new incubator. Off to Oakford to get some fertiled eggs today. I've only got 12 eggs and we placed them into the incubator. Chicks will hatched in 21days if they are successful. There is alot of work involved being a Papa Hen. Craig had to wash his hens...opps hands each time before he rotates the eggs. Mother hens will do it naturally but Papa Hen has to do it manually each morning and evening. The temperature of the incubator has to be well maintained at 37degrees as well.

After the 1st week, we can candle the eggs and see if the chicks are forming or not. Unsuccessful eggs should be removed to avoid "affecting" other healthy eggs.

It will be really interesting to see what breeds we get from these 12 eggs and how many will be successfully. The lady who sold us the eggs has serveral breeds and she has no idea which are the breeds we got.

Stay tuned to our hatching story....