VERY FIRST HATCH

Keeping chickens is always an adventure and this Spring brought in a whole new twist - homegrown baby chicks!

One day, two of my Ameraucana hens decided to go broody. Uh Oh!!  I never wanted to deal with this but, hey, I've been through enough bad stuff with my girls, this is a good thing and I decided I would let one hen sit.  I was down three chickens anyway so this would be a neat way to add to the flock.

I gave my Splash Ameraucana, Luna, three eggs: two Ameraucana eggs and one Marans (I'm nearly 100% positive) - the father is also an Ameraucana.

Chickens take 21 days to hatch.  At some point, early on, one of the blue eggs "disappeared"!  The only thing I can think is that
another chicken stole it, hid it, ate it, I don't know.  All I know is I didn't collect it because there's only one other girl that lays blue eggs in that coop, so it's easy to know.  Totally baffled me.  Anyhoo.....I was down to two eggs for hatching.  That was fine.

Would they hatch or wouldn't they?  Were they even fertilized??  On day 8 I candled the eggs.  Fertilized and growing!  I couldn't believe I was seeing blood vessels through an egg shell - so incredible.  It was relatively easy to see inside the blue egg, but the dark brown egg was nearly impossible.  

On day 21 for the blue egg (it was a couple days older than the brown), it had not hatched.  I was a little bummed and figured the brown one wouldn't either, but it still had a couple days to go.  I left the blue egg under the hen, hoping that maybe it was just taking a little longer - I could see that something had definitely grown, and I know earlier in the process I had seen movement.  The blue egg never hatched.  On about day 20 for the brown, I tried real hard to see through that shell and.....I definitely saw movement!  On day 21 for the brown egg......surprise!!!  Little yellow chickie :)  If I'm right, "she" should be a cross between the Blue Copper Marans hen and the Blue Splash Ameraucana rooster.

I went to Meyer Hatchery that very day and picked up some organic chick feed AND a baby sister for the new little yellow baby.  She had to have a sister, couldn't be by herself.  I think the hatchery chick is likely a Light Brown Leghorn - maybe a Welsummer. but I really don't think so.

YES - I would let the hens hatch eggs again but there's one problem...will they be girls or BOYS???  Since I don't eat my chickens, and would be very sad to give any away, winding up with more roosters than the two I already have would be a problem.  Let's worry about that another day and enjoy these babies today :).