Ten chicks overnight, and they're still coming...

I crawled into bed exhausted at around 12:30 a.m this morning, with six chicks under the heat lamp and two newly hatched in the incubator. Gracie had come home from the Glee Cabaret and there was lots of chatting about her evening and crooning over the fluffy black and yellow chicks.

We took the egg turner out of the incubator and lay the eggs on the mesh screen at the bottom, to prevent any of the other chicks getting caught between the wall of the incubator and the turner. It also made it easier for the newly hatched chicks to get around the incubator and to be comfortable as they waited for us to discover them in the morning.

I did a potty run just before 4:00 a.m, and there were 8 hatched chicks. At 6:00 a.m, when Marc got up and I followed to check the chicks again (and yes, for another potty run), there were 10. We were especially delighted to see that one of the blue Americauna eggs had hatched. We had gotten 5 Americauna eggs from a friend of ours, and they were quite a bit smaller than our eggs in the incubator. The little mottled black and yellow chick is also smaller than the others, and she has the most lovely eyes, lined in black, bright and alert. I think only one of the other Americauna eggs have holes pecked in them. I'm hoping we get at least a couple more. Americauna chickens are really pretty, with lovely plumage. We have one Americauna hen, and while she doesn't lay eggs, she is lovely, with gold fringed feathers. They also lay interesting eggs, of various colors. The eggs we have are robin blue, but Americauna eggs can range from lilac and chocolate brown to olive green and turquoise blue. Quite exotic, for chicken eggs.

All 10 chicks have been moved from the incubator to the heat-lit dome, and there is quite a bit of cheeping coming from the other eggs in the incubator. Basically, we had expected to get half the chicks for the eggs that we had put in, so anything over 21 chicks is a bonus. If all the chicks that have poked holes through their egg shells get out, we'll have many more than 21.

The kittens have caught on to the fact that there is something small, noisy and interesting-smelling in the corner of the kitchen. The temporary pen is made of cardboard, and the kittens love to scratch around at the bottom. They can't get in, yet, but we're not taking chances. We put them both in the bathroom last night, and will need to make sure they aren't left alone with the pen when we aren't here. I am also endeavoring to teach them to leave the pen alone, with the judicial application of the flyswatter and ample amounts of kitty treats as rewards for obedience.

Mini likes to look over the top, and is especially interested when the cheeping sounds distressed, as it does whenever we pick one of the chicks up. I think she wants to make sure that they are okay. She's such a great dog.

So, it looks like Hatching Day is going to be Hatching Week-end.

Cool.