If you are following our first hatch of chicks, the CHICKS ARE HERE!  Actually, one hatched on 12/28 and the other two on 12/29.

Click here for the first hatching post.

Two of the chicks I had to help out of their shell, rather, I had to hatch them.  Their air cells were very large and when they pipped, it was way down in the middle of the egg, instead of around the top of the large end where they know how to pip then zip themselves out. 

The first to pip, Tuff, pipped then for 12 hours was very active and very responsive to voice when I talked to her through the incubator.  But, at about 12 hours, she stopped moving and trying to get out and was almost completely unresponsive anymore.  She came right out after I broke away her shell and did fine.

The second to pip, Gabriel (was Gabby until we realized we’re pretty sure she’s a HE).  At 10 hours he zipped himself right out!  The zip line was right around the top of the large end of the egg, just as it should be.

The third to pip, Kota (short for Dakota), ended up in the same situation as Tuff.  I finally realized what the problem was, though, because I noticed the pip hole so far down in the egg instead of close to the large end.  So, after about 8 hours with her, I went ahead and broke away her shell.  As soon as I got a large piece off, she stuck her leg out and grabbed my finger with her toes.  She came out screaming and is still, by far, the loudest one of the trio.

Many people will disagree with me assisting the hatch of my two chicks.  I would rather help them and they not make it than sit back and watch them die because I didn’t attempt to help.

All three are doing awesome!  These chicks are Frizzle Cochin Bantams.  Frizzle means that their feathers stick out, as in grow opposite of the way they should.  These chicks all carry the frizzle gene, though it looks as Tuff is the only one with frizzled feathers.  All three have their feathers growing in rapidly on their wings.  I will be posting photos tomorrow or Thursday of current photos.

Here are photos of their births and shortly after:

Tuff fresh out of the shell (Gabriel has large hole in egg and Kota small pip in egg)

Newborn Tuff

Gabriel hatching

Newborn Gabriel

Kota hatching

Newborn Kota

All three newborns

All three in brooder 12/30/08

Here’s why we changed Gabby’s name to Gabriel….he keeps trying to crow!

Felicity and her chick, Gabriel

We have more eggs from the same person due to hatch Friday or Saturday!  We can’t wait!!! I’ll try to do better with posting about them when they hatch. 

I am a Snapdragon   What Flower Are You?

The Apronista is having a January giveaway!!  Jump on over there and comment so you can be entered to win a free apron from The Hip Hostess.

It’s super easy to enter so go check it out HERE.  Deadline to enter is January 11.

 Enjoy!

One of my most favorite places on the web made the news, big news, on January 2!!!

USA Today

 SF Bay area ABC station

Now, if you aren’t already a member over there on the forum, click below and join now!  We’re over 20,000 members and growing rapidly!

See ya there!

71 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. After a few way too long nights of finishing up handmade Christmas gifts, my mental health took a nose-dive.  I had a few days that I just felt blah and didn’t want to do anything but “nothing”.  I’m rested again and back on track again.

We had an AWESOME Christmas!  Katie was here with us the entire days/nights of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  That’s the first time since Christmas 2001 when Felicity was a baby.  She even helped out on the making of gifts, too!

Christmas Eve, we had our friends, Mike, Dorey and their dd, Stephanie over.  Katie’s guy-friend (not boy friend), Jessie and his 17mo old son, Coleman came over and I made homemade Vegetable soup and Muffeletta.  Everyone ate until they were stuffed!  Mike, Dorey and Stephanie opened their gifts from us.  Coleman did as well.  It’s pretty fun having a baby around to make Christmas gifts for. We enjoyed catching up with Mike, as he is a OTR truck driver and we don’t get to see him much. 

Christmas Day, we opened gifts, then went to Mike & Dorey’s for Christmas breakfast.  We opened gifts from them.  Then, since we were up so early to go eat breakfast, and were to bed so late on Christmas Eve, we went home and everyone except Felicity took a 3-5 hour nap.  I fixed dinner around seven o’clock, cleaned up the kitchen and our day was done.

I’ll add some Christmas photos to this post later today.

Hope all our readers had a fantastic Christmas!!!

We’re down to five Frizzle eggs and one of the Silkie feathered green-egg layer eggs.  Had another blood ring yesterday we had to toss out.

I do have more eggs coming from the same lady, DipsyDoodleDoo on BackyardChickens . They should arrive Friday/Saturday.

We are all getting excited about these babies hatching!  It’s so amazing to see them moving around within their shell when I candle them!  My friend, Dorey, said I was creating my own baby ultrasound

We are in the last five hours of day 12.  Click the link below to see a developing chick on each day.

Day by Day Unborn Chick Development

We’ve been really busy getting ready for Christmas!  I’ve still got a few gifts yet to make for the kids, but I am confident I will get them done without stressing.

We bought new furniture for the family room yesterday!!!  The first new furniture we’ve ever bought for the family room.  We are all excited!  I’ll post photos in a few days after it is delivered and the room presentable.

 Take Care!

It took me nearly 4 days to get the temps stable in my incubator.  It would stabilize, then go crazy again.  Now, it’s stable for the third time and has been stable since Wednesday night.

I just got done candling all 12 remaining eggs (after one was dropped the other day).

The 1 Silkie feathered green egg layer…the shell has gotten so dense I can’t tell anything except where the air sac is now.  So I’m going to keep it in the bator full term.  Does the dense/thick/opaque shell mean anything I should know about?

The 11 Frizzle eggs:
2 blood circles (dated 11/30 and 12/2). Blood circles means that a chick was developing and “quit” for unknown reasons.
3 clear (dated 11/29 and two from 11/30) I’m sure they were too old by the time I got my temps stable(for the 3rd and final time)  Clear means the eggs were not fertile or nothing ever began to develop.

The other 6 are FANTASTIC!!!!  Get this, one of the 11/29 ones, we’re even thinking it might have 2 chicks in it!!!   Either it’s two or if it’s one, it’s pretty big and HATES the light.  There was lots of swimming around when I was candling it. I’ll look at it again tomorrow or Wednesday night to see if I can tell better for sure.

Mike even watched me candle the eggs and he’s the one that first noticed I might have an egg with twins in it even before I did.

I have marked down the prices on all of the handmade Christmas ornaments in our etsy store, since it’s getting closer and closer to Christmas.

I  had my 2nd sale last night.  The customer is from my hometown of Leesville, Louisiana.  SMALL town, so to have someone there make a purchase from me on etsy…very neat!

Here’s the hat she bought!

What breed of horse are you? Find out!