Just another day

   Today was a busy day. My Evelyn Belle turned 10 months old, I put together our first grow box, we setup the chicken brooder, and Gandalf the Grey came for a visit!

He is doing so well with school lately and can spell and write his name on his own and is learning to blend consonants and vowels.

The brooder is setup! Thank you recliner box =)

Our first grow box. We planted tomatoes and I am aware I will have to transfer some once they grow bigger.

This little bean climbed up here all on her own and turned 10 months old today!!!!! I cant believe it!

This is what my video feed looks like. Good thing I didn't put my embroidery thread on the thread holder yet!

Last but not least, Gandalf the Grey came for a visit! haha. At least she looks like a pretty young girl version who is also holding a football.

Chicken Hatch Live Video Stream

If for whatever reason the videos below dont work you can go to these links:
Easter Eggers
EE, Delawares, Buckeyes, Black Star, Mystery Egg
The login ID and Password are the same: chickenhatch

Update: 3-23-2014
I removed the camera from the incubator and just have the one on the brooder.  I have 2 birds drying off in the incubator and 2 eggs left to hatch. Its a unsightly scene in there and smells as awful as it looks.

Sunday Update

   My 2 week update is a little late but here it is! On Sunday I took a video and I could see what I think is chicken claws! Its pretty cool to see. They are taking up most the egg and are not moving as much because of it.

   On Monday night we had a bad rain storm. Our power went out around 4am. I waited hoping the power would turn back on but once I woke up for the morning and realized it may be a while more I wrapped the incubator in some heavy fleece blankets. I loaded the kids up and went to walmart to get an inverter so I could plug the incubator in. Of course once we got home the power was back on.  The incubator was off for 6 hours but never dropped below 80 degrees. It looks like most if not all survived but its hard to tell since they don't move as much anymore.

   Today is Day 18 and I removed the eggs from the egg turner. I thought I had a new sponge I could soak and put in there but I didn't so hopefully the humidity level is okay.  I am trying to get a live stream of the eggs so you all can watch them hatch with me. Hopefully I can figure it out tonight if not tomorrow night. They should be hatching Saturday/Sunday =)

Beautiful Day

   Today we drove up to Ponce Inlet to see the Nina and Pinta replica ships. It was interesting to see 1) a ship and 2) something so close to what Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean on.  The Replica was slightly bigger and even that is still small! I would definitely feel claustrophobic once the sight of land was lost.  I do wish there was a little more to the tour like maybe someone talking telling us about the ships. There were a couple plaques throughout the ships with some words of what something was but at the price they charged there should have been more to the tour.  All in all it was neat to see and I would take the kids again in a few years once they are older and have learned about Christopher Columbus.

   After the ships we had lunch at Denny's in Port Orange where we had terrible service! And after lunch we went to the beach for a little bit. It was sunny and warm, the water was a little bit cool but that didn't stop the kids from going in. Today was E's first time in the sand and water. She loved it and was crawling all over the place.

   On our way home we stopped at Tractor Supply and got what we need for the chicken eggs to hatch next weekend! We are all pretty excited!  Once home I finished what I started yesterday, cutting the hedges out from in front of the house. It has been driving me crazy not being able to see completely out my front window. I could have trimmed it but they really needed to be cut back because they are so overgrown underneath. I didn't take a before picture but here is what it looked like when I was done cutting them back. I still need to clean the rest out. I don't care if it grows back or not so I'm not too concerned.  We plan on putting a patio there in the future any ways.  I'll update on the eggs tomorrow in another post. Time for bed!

Quick Update

   Just a quick update! I was able to see all 24 baby chicks last night!! I took a quick video of one of my Delawares today. If you look at my previous video you can notice how much lower the baby is now in the egg. I believe it's body absorbs the yolk but don't take my word for it. I also noticed the chicks sway back and forth instead of random movements. 

http://youtu.be/CPxawu9nMzY

They grow so fast

They may drive me crazy most days but I wish they didn't have to grow up so fast :( my baby is almost a year old and the number of times she sleeps in my arms is starting to dwindle to zero.  Most days it's hard to remember to cherish every second, especially when they are whining or crying or asking a million questions but at the end of the day I reflect on the good and pray they don't grow too much while they sleep..

8 days in

   I'm very impatient and have been checking the eggs everyday to see if they are growing. It was hard to tell in the beginning but by day 5 I could see a little blob in the egg. By day 6 I got a video of the baby bird moving!! It's amazing to watch! If you've had kids you know how exciting it is to have an ultrasound and see your little bean moving in there. I feel like watching these chicks grow inside the eggs is almost as equally exciting and I'm just as anxious for them to hatch.

   Like I stated earlier I bought an automatic egg turner for the eggs so I wouldn't be handling them and possibly getting my skin oils onto the shells. So for candling I bought a mini led flashlight from Walmart for $7.97. It's very bright and all I have to do is put it on the egg and it illuminates the inside. 

Here is a picture of an Easter Egger at 8 days old. I'm not sure what the black spot is, maybe it's eye? This baby shows the biggest out of all the eggs. You can't see it in this picture but there is another area of it's body equally as big as the part seen here. I'm pretty sure it is it's body unless there are two chicks! That would be something to see!

   I candled all the eggs yesterday and I for sure have all 14 Easter Eggers, 4 Buckeyes, at least 2 Delawares, 1 Black Star (that's all I bought) and I'm not sure about the Mystery egg. The Delawares, Mystery and Black star are dark eggs so it's hard to see inside clearly like the Easter Eggers. 

   Here is a video I took of one of my Easter Eggers at 6 days old. 

http://youtu.be/QqVv3uSttyM

72 hours

   It has been 72 hours since the incubation process began.  You can candle eggs between 3-4 days for light colored eggs so I fugured why not do it tonight! All of my Easter Eggers looked good, I could see the veins inside of them. It was hard to tell with my Delawares, Buckeyes, Black star and mystery eggs. I'm pretty sure all of my buckeye eggs are good and at least 2 Delawares,I don't know about the other ones though. I read that for darker eggs to wait to check until day 7 to be able to tell so hopefully on Saturday I will be able to clearly see something! I would like to get a tiny flashlight to candle them, I'm sure it would be so much easier. Tonight I used the flashlight app on my iPhone, I had to position it just right to be able to see anything and I'm still seeing stars from it not aligning right and blinding myself. I could take the eggs out to look at them but I read that the oils from your skin can clog the pores of the egg.

  Speaking of which, I did buy the Little Giant egg turner Monday morning. After waking up to rotate the eggs by hand Sunday night I decided that wasn't for me. I've been sleep deprived by my husbands work schedule and a 9 month old who doesn't like sleep so there is no way I could wake up 2x a night just to rotate eggs! Plus, it's better to use the egg turner so the incubator isn't being opened multiple times a day and letting the warm humid air out. 

   I am pretty excited about the growing chickees!! It's amazing to see that life already growing inside of the egg. I think I read that their heart starts beating just 48 hours after incubation begins.  The gift of life is an amazing thing whether it be a human or an animal, it's even more amazing being able to observe a life growing right before my eyes and seeing it being formed inside the shell. It's an amazing experience and if you ever get the chance I highly recommend incubating some eggs whether it's chicken or another type of bird.  Just be sure you have well thought out plans on what and how you will be raising them afterwards so they don't become neglected or abandoned. 

Incubation Day 1

   Evelyn and I woke up bright and early at 7am today.  We needed an egg carton for our eggs we were picking up later so we made a quick trip to Winn Dixie and also got some donuts for breakfast. Junior had his horse show in Cocoa this afternoon. He was excited that he got to ride Hurley again. He participated in tot lead line and received a trophy at the end. He's excited about his trophy collection he is starting and having a horse on it makes it even better.

   After the horse show we drove down to Malibar to pick up our eggs. The family had a nice little project farm with about 100 chickens and quite a few goats.  There were Easter eggers, black star,  buckeyes, Delawares, and a few other breeds I can't think of their names right now. The son and daughter were in charge of the chickens, they were very nice kids. Upon arriving and seeing them I immediately knew they were homeschooled. I asked the girl halfway through the tour she was giving us and she said yes, I said I was also and that I was homeschooling my son, junior, who was in pre-k this year. She didn't really need to know that but sometimes when your a kid it's nice to know there are adults who went through the same thing as you are. I know there were times I didn't like being homeschooled and I didn't have a choice in the matter but I mostly enjoyed it since I got to spend all day with my mom and that was pretty fun. 

   Back to the chickens. They are labeled and in the incubator. The countdown begins, t minus +-21 days! I am not suffering from empty womb syndrome by any means, but it's nice to have something else to take care of besides my current 3 monsters and very large dinosaur <3