Sunday, May 5, 2013

Hatching day (round 3) part 2

Things got really busy here early this morning around 3am.  As I turned in last night around 10pm, we had three chicks drying in the incubator and the other eggs looked pretty still.  Around 3am, the party started.  One chick after another, came tumbling out.  Currently there are nine with a few eggs pecked with little bills protruding.


Let me once again apologize for the quality of the photo.  After learning my harsh lesson about opening the incubator too soon, these pictures were taken through the viewing portal.  I'll post better ones in another day or two once the babies are moved into their brooding box.  Happy Birthday!

**By noon, we have eleven chicks and two more eggs have portals poked out.  I wish I knew how to correctly sex chicks.  The only sure fire way I know to sex chicks is to separate the chicks into two groups.   Within each group, the ones that grow up to be roosters are boys.  The ones that don't are most likely girls.  Among Americanas, I have been told that the stronger the 'stripey-ness' is of their down, the more likely they are to be boys.  If this is true, I may have three boys on team chicky.

3 comments:

Sue Daurio said...

How exciting! I think the pictures are just wonderful. Congrats on your little grand chicks :)

Sarah Lynn said...

I'm so glad you're having a successful hatch this time around! Hope you have several more little chickies soon.

Nancy said...

years ago I had an Americanas and after 2-3 broods I was able to tell (with a few errors) within a couple of weeks which ones would grow up to be pullets and which ones would be rosters. I believe it was how the tail feathers would grow. More upright for the baby boys and more rounded for the little girls.