It’s exactly three weeks since we set 24 of our chicken eggs in the new incubator. Right on schedule, the little ones have begun hatching.
Several have “pipped” – beaks poking out through the shells. You can hear an occasional chirp, too. One brown egg has even started “zipping” – the next step in the process. The chick “zips” the shell (cracks it all the way around) to get out.
It’s truly awe-inspiring to look back on these eggs and remember when they were the daily (breakfast) eggs we collected from our much-larger flock at that time. We lost our only remaining Partridge Rock, Cuckoo Marans, and Brown Leghorn hens about a week after we set these eggs. It’s fitting that they live on in their progeny – we have 3 of the Cuckoo Marans eggs and 3 (pure) Brown Leghorns and who knows how many Partridge Rock eggs.
Update: the brown egg that zipped has hatched! The chick is gorgeous, active, and chirping away. He or she must be encouraging the others to come out because several more have pipped, including a dark brown egg. It’s going to be an exciting night!
