Incubation Saga

I'd like to tell you the saga of my first hatch!

We came home from helping a friend with his horse (a whole different saga!) at about 5 pm on Saturday the 10th. This is what I saw!
20 eggs had made it this far.

There were 5 pips. We were invited to a friend's house for dinner and hanging out. Do I go? Stay? I knew it could take a while for the hatching process, but I wanted to park myself over the 'bator and watch. Mikey convinced me to go.

We got home at 2 am (!!!) and the first thing I did was run over the 'bator and peek in.

There was one already hatched! And one working on it.

These were my first two babies.

"What the heck just happened?"

And then a gold colored chick joined them.

They were really kicking around the other eggs, making hard to count who had pipped and who was zipping and getting closer to hatching.

So I warmed up this little tub and paper towel and put them in it, so they could dry up with out playing bumper cars with the other eggs.

It didn't last long. They jumped out and continued staggering around, getting their "sea legs".

I finally went to bed at 5 am, only to wake up at 7 to let the dogs out to potty. And then I was up for good at 8:30. There ended up being 12 out of 20, so a 60% hatch rate for my first hatch. A 50% rate is considered good for a newbie, so I am overjoyed!

I moved them to the brooder box in the kitchen to finish drying and fluffing out.

I love how they sleep, flat out, exhausted! That's how I felt too.

We ended up with gold ones, reddish ones, and "chipmunk" one, with stripes down their backs.

This little dude is our favorite, and will most likely have a 4-H future ahead of him (or her). Shawn is almost 9, the age for joining 4-H, and a chicken project only makes sense.

I started saving eggs once the Roo bird disappeared. I read that hens can stay fertile for up to 2 or 3 weeks without a rooster in the flock. There are now 9 eggs in the incubator for a try at round 2. Mikey thinks I've lost my marbles!

Do you think he would notice if I ordered some Turkey eggs to hatch? :)