Hatching Chicks

I have always wanted to hatch chicks in an incubator. It just sounds so cool. So, last year, when we decided to sell all our animals and build a house I thought the following spring just might be the perfect year to do it.......and it was. My 8 and 9 year old nieces live in my same appt complex. They have been having a rough couple of years moving often and this was no exception being in the new appt. Sadie (the older one) in particular loves animals and so I thought it would be great to hatch some chicks with them. They could read up on how to do it, have the incubator at their house and turn them 3 times a day for 3 weeks and after they hatch take care of them until their mom was tired of chicks in their appt. So 4 weeks ago we started the project. They did a great job monitoring the temperature and humidity and turning them. Well Last monday they hatched! It was sooooo cool! we had 29 eggs and we got 18 chicks. The ones who didn't make it were basically just egg yokes, with the exception of 2 who died while trying to hatch. You see, it was about 24 hrs between when the first egg hatched to the last and the already hatched chicks were running around in the incubator rolling the eggs that were trying to hatch all around. I think that might have been why 2 did make it, but I don't really know. The sad thing was the day they hatched I had to work a 12 hr shift. I kept calling my sister to see how many had hatched like every other hour. I wasn't jealous that I was missing it all until the 8th one hatched. There had been streams of family and friends who had been able to come over to see these chicks hatch and there I was working. I started to feel grumpy when my patients alarm when off. I went in to see the problem and then I realized the contrast almost immediately. Here I was grumpy I didn't get to see chicks hatch, while I was taking care of this 30 yr old woman who contracted H1N1 in October and throughout her horrible case of this, received brain injuries such that she will never walk or talk or eat by her mouth again. I hate immediate guilt trips.

The last chick hatching. I will post better hatching chick pics with a video later.

Soren is kissing the chick, but instead it looks like a hick mustache!