We had chicks start hatching on Saturday as we expected, but so far, we only have 4 out of 12 eggs. :-( I was really hoping for a better hatch. However, we haven't given up all hope just yet! I have been advised that, with the kind of incubator we have (still air), there could be hot and cool spots that will cause some to hatch early or late. Under ideal conditions, chicks should hatch on the 21st day, but with temperature fluctuations, some could hatch as late as Day 24 or 25. We definitely plan to wait until, at the least, Day 24. So keep your fingers crossed for us that we will have a couple more hatch soon!
Here are a couple pics of the chicks that have hatched so far.
Above you can still see the egg tooth (the white dot on the tip of the chick's beak) which is used to break the egg shell when hatching.
These chicks are Ameraucana chicks. When they mature and start laying eggs, their eggs will be blue to blue-green in color. We plan to breed these with some Marans chickens we will be hatching next. The Marans lay a very dark brown egg. When we cross-breed these two chickens, the off-springs' eggs should be a beautiful olive color! That is our chicken breeding goal right now--which will give us 5 different egg colors from our laying hens.
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