2 Hatched, 3 Pipped

So far 1 3/4 EE/ 1/4 BA hatched and the CM/EE have hatched. The CM/EE appears to be a girl (her breeding makes her a sex-link)! 3 of the other green eggs have pipped and are doing well so far. I'll try to give an update tomorrow.

Day 19 or Almost There!

Today is day 19 of the hatch, mom is doing well but I've stopped removing her off the nest every day because of how touchy the last few days of hatching are. But here is what the eggs have been up to:

Days 13-17 (Candle on Day 15)-
                  -Scales, claws, and feathers complete
                  -Small intestines taken into the body
                  -Albumen (white) nearly gone
                  - Turns to blunt end of the egg

 
Days 18-19 (Candle on day 19 or 20)-
                  -Growth is complete and preparing to hatch
                  - Shell is full except air cell
                  - Stop turning the eggs after 18 days (with the broody I don't have to worry about this)

and here is what they will be up to the next 2 days:

Day 20-
               -Embryo breaks into the air cell, takes first breath, and becomes a chick
               -Yolk sac completely drawn into body cavity (aka why you don't mess with a chick well hatching)

         
Day 21-
              -Chick hatches
              -Egg tooth visible after hatch
                    -Look at egg tooth at the tip of the beak now because it will fall off within 2 days of hatch

Half Way There!

Today is day 11 of the hatch, meaning we are half way there! Mom is doing well, I moved her off the nest today to eat some watermelon and she also ate some of her regular food. But here is what the eggs have been up to:

Days 7-9 (Candle on Day 9) -Abdomen more defined
              - Feathers (down) start to form
              - Mouth appears to open and close
              - Embryo begins to look like a chick

Days 10-12 -Bones and beak begin to harden
              - Skin pores visible
              - Eyelids cover eye
              - Down feathers visible

Day 8

The nest had began to smell from the egg that broke so this evening while I had the hen off to eat and drink I changed the bedding. I checked the eggs over as I did so (I've given up on candling, the eggs are too dark and the flashlight too weak) and discovered at some point their had been another green egg that had broken and the remains of the shell had gone over the shell of another egg, which had to be peeled off. The other 17 eggs look okay, but we shall see after having two eggs break on them...

Day 6

I have a booklet that I got in 6th grade as part of our class hatch. It covers a lot of the chicken reproduction basics and also gives a day by day summery of what the egg is doing during development with drawn pictures of some days. This book and the class hatch where what started me on the road to getting chickens.

As it summarizes (Days 1-6):
Day 1: -Germinal spot grows and cells begin to split into specific types of cells
Day 2: -Blood Vessels show on the yolk
           - Start of yolk sac
Day 3-Candle this day:
         -Question mark-shaped embryo viable (I have a horrible time seeing this)
         -Blood vessels on yolk sac defined
         - Can see heart beating
         - Amnion is complete
         - Brain and head visible

Day 4- Candle this day:
          -Eye(looks like a black spot) becomes visible
          -Organs formed
Day 5:- Reproductive organs form
          - Sex of embryo known
Day 6- Candle this day
         - All parts are present
         - Amnion evident (clear fluid sac for exercise and protection)
         -Chick rocks and rolls for the first time (voluntary movement)

 Today is day 6 for the eggs, but with the eggs the hen is sitting on their color makes them hard to candle. At the moment she is sitting on 16 of her own eggs (green) and 1 of the CM's eggs (brown). It appears that earlier then or on day 4 she broke the other CM egg. She has been off the nest to poop, drink, and eat. But on the night of day 4 when I disturbed her she had a watery poop on the eggs. Which isn't good for them as it can introduce bacteria and kill the embryos. But we will see how the hatch goes and what kind of mother she is, so fingers crossed!

Day 3

Last Wednesday the BA/EE hen began sitting on her nest of eggs. She has at least 16 of her own eggs and 2 of the cuckoo maran's eggs. I'm really hoping that the CM's eggs hatch and are girls as she is my oldest hen and still laying well.

Today makes today the 3rd of 21 days! the eggs at this point should have veining but not much else viable. At the moment I'm afraid to move the her to candle the eggs or move her to make sure that she poops, drinks, and eats. Last time she set (last year) I reached under her and she abandoned the nest (day one or so) . But she needs to at least poop and drink and there is cases of hens staying on the nest until they die, so I'm going to try getting her off the nest tomorrow. I left water in the area next to her so if she gets up she will have something to drink. But here is to hoping that in 18 days there will be lots of babies!

Just Realized...

..I never posted about Rudolph! Back in June you may remember me posting about a little stray kitten and I started a post about him after that and it never really went anywhere. It is a he and his name is Rudolph (don't ask me why it just popped into my head and stuck). I got all the mats off of him and his coat is growing in nicely. He loves Nick and is slowly warming up to the other cats, Butterscotch is getting better with him but still randomly goes after him. But he loves attention now and has gotten use to the strangeness of the house.

You can see on the side where the mats where cut out, his fur is a little bit longer now.