Cuteness

The chicks are a week old today! Happy Birthday Chickies! They are all doing well except one. His name is Rex but we call him "Gimpy." He limps on his right leg and seems to be getting better but is still slower than the others. He regularly eats and drinks, so I know he's not in pain. Aside from that, the others are all doing very well. All of them have started sprouting little wing feathers and have I have started to see little teeny tail feathers, too. They are actually quite entertaining to watch because they are such social animals. Here are some pics of what they look like now:

All Eight!

Bird's Eye View

Group Hug!

The Casual Chicken Lifestyle...

FEAST!

Rex "Gimpy"

Dot and Her Sister

To those of you in my 4H Club, I will be bringing my chicks to the next General Meeting!

Octo-mom!

Today even more chicks hatched! They were eggs B, H, E, C, and G. That makes a total of 8 chicks. I even got to see 3 of them hatch today! They are pretty funny-looking when they first hatch because their feathers haven't fluffed up yet. Here's some more pictures and a video:

Triplets!

The first three chicks hatched while I was away tonight! YAY! What better of a surprise than newborn chicks?!? The eggs that hatched today were A, D, and I. I don't know which one is which because I didn't see it one at a time. Here's some pics and a video:

First Pip!

Today I woke up to a very special sound. It was a familiar sound, the sound of a baby chick chirping! I ran out of bed and found that one egg had been cracked! This is called the first pip, when the chick breaks its shell. Later, I found that 2 others had pipped. Now there is a 4th one! I don't have any pictures because I'm not supposed to open the lid during the hatch. Maybe I'll sneak a few pictures later though....

Right now, as I am typing this, I am listening to the miracle of life. I can hear the chicks chirping inside their shells! It is going to take a long time for them to hatch because it requires a lot of strength. When the fisrt one hatches, I will DEFINITELY take pictures and post more info. 

It's Alive!

Today I candled the eggs again. This would be the 15th day of incubation. I took a couple videos but this one was the most exciting. I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen! This little baby chicken-in-progress was jumping up and down! Yes, jumping! It was also moving around and "swimming." I could also see the blood vessels move when it moved. Very, very cool!

I started lettering the eggs so I could keep track of them and their progress. This is egg "H" by the way. I just went around in a circle and lettered them in alphabetical order according to where they were in the incubator and I happened to land on "H" for this guy, but I'd say that "H" stands for happy!

Here is my other record so far:

3/7/09

A: [not candled] 

B: [not candled] 

C: candled today, not much movement

D: [not candled] 

E: [not candled] 

F: [not candled] 

G: [not candled] 

H: candled today, not much movement

I: [not candled] 

2/26/09

A: candled, good signs of development(eye and blood vessels)

B: [not candled] 

C: [not candled] 

D: [not candled] 

E: candled, able to see eye and blood vessels, shows some signs of moisture on shell

F: candled, able to see eye and blood vessels 

G: [not candled] 

H: [not candled] 

I: [not candled] 

About the Parents

I thought you guys would like to know a little about the parents of these chicks while we are waiting.

This is the mom, Ra:

Full Name: Ra Margaret

Nickname: Ra-ra 

Breed and Variety: Female, White-crested Black Polish Bantam

Ra was named "Ra" after the Egyptian sun god. When she was just a chick and her crest(Afro) was growing out it looked like a little sun on her head. We actually thought she was a he. She started to grow differently than her 3 siblings and we figured she was a male and the rest were females. We had it backwards! Oops! In the end, it all worked out. While we thought Ra was a boy, she became my dad's favorite chicken. It's true- we played favorites. I had my favorite and he had his, in the end we switched. He grew closer to Mu as soon as we knew Mu was a rooster. And I grew closer to Ra because she was my lonely little girl. Ra is a very calm and mellow bird, so I decided to use her for showmanship at the fair that year. We worked together daily all summer. I'm sure she hated it, all that flipping upside-down and walking on a table. The practiced paid off, though! We placed 1st in Novice, moved up to Junior, and placed 4th. In show(which is where only the bird is judged), she won Best of Division- Female and 1st Place in her class. Now she lives at Viki's with her partner-in-crime, Mu.

This is the dad, Mu:

Full Name: Mu Einstein

Nickname: Mumu or Mu-berry

Breed and Variety: Male, White-crested Black Polish Bantam

Mu was named "Mu" because of his size. "Mu" is a symbol for micro, meaning small. He may not look small in this picture, but when we first brought him home with his 3 brothers and sisters, he was the smallest by far. He was known as "the runt" before we had named for them. He was my favorite and I spent the most time with him. Then he grew up and got very aggressive and big and strong. He was much harder to work with then, so I stopped handling him so much. He loves his partner, Ra, very much. He hates when any thing or any body tries to pick her up or take her away from him. Although he can loose his temper sometimes, he is still a very friendly and extremely funny chicken. Mu is one of the best looking chickens I have ever seen, honestly. And he flaunts it! He is quite the flirt to just about everyone. In show last year he won Best of Division -Male and 1st place in his class. Now he lives at Viki's ranch with his best friend/girfriend, Ra.

In case you are wondering what happened to the other chickens I keep mentioning...this is my story.

I bought 4 White-crested Polish Chicks from HMB Feed and Fuel. It was a straight run, meaning I had a 50/50 chance of getting boys or girls. We ended up with little luck and got 3 boys and 1 girl. Roosters will fight with each other, so there can only be one in each flock. One by one we had to do something to the extra roosters.

First came Ti. I gave all the chickens 2-letter names to keep it uniform. Ti and Do were called "twins" because they looked so much alike. I named them Do and Ti after the note names because they were the first to respond to sound and develop a sense of hearing. He was the first to become aggressive and he started hurting the other chickens. Anyways, in June 2008, when Ti was only about 3 months old, I gave him away to HMB Feed and Fuel. They can't insure that he would go to a good home, so we had to just hope for the best. To this day I still do not know where he is. We miss you Ti-ni!

Next we had to deal with Do. For a while Do and Mu weren't fighting and they could stay together. Then Do realized he was a rooster and his instinct took over. Do was the most curious chicken. He was never afraid, just wanted to explore everything. He would watch my dad build parts of their coop. The other chicks would run away from the loud power-tools, but he would just stand there and stare. We gave Do away to HMB F&F, just like Ti. Still-- I don't know where he is today, but I still think of him every day. 

Here is a picture of the 4:

  Ra            Ti               Do              Mu