Chickens 2008

The Adventure of Hatching

This year's big adventure in Chicken? Hatching chickens from eggs, in an incubator. Everything went fine, including maintaining temperature to a half of a degree and turning the eggs twice a day. Of course, being a typical Murtari adventure, not all could possibly go smoothly.

Humidity is a big issue in hatching eggs, due to the fact that if it is not humid enough, the egg shell will be too hard for the chick to be able to crack out of, and if it is too humid, the chick inside can drown. To ease the chicks hatching, the humidity must also be raised during the last three days of the 21 day incubating period.

The hovabator we were using had two channels for water, one which should be kept full for as long as there were eggs in the incubator, and another which should be filled three days before hatching. We filled the channel on time, cuing the humidity around our area to go up by about 20%. We tried opening the vents in the incubator to let the humidity out, but it was most likely too late. During the post-mortem, we discovered a large number of eggs that had a full grown embryo, which probably drowned in the increased humidity.

Meet the Chickens

On a happier note, let's get on to the finer points of the five "little fellas" we are raising this year

Baldy: Our most friendly chicken. Enjoys being around Curly, another one of our chickens of the same breed. Has rather feathery legs and a very high peep.
Named to keep the tradition of naming the nicest chicken of the batch Baldy

Blackie: Seems to spend the whole day next to or in the food bowl, usually managing to flip it over. Has a throaty peep, almost indistinguishable from Spotty.
Named for (brace yourselves...) his black color

Blondie: Has a leg that appears to be on solid piece of bone all the way down from birth. Doesn't seem to be suffering, so we have left him alone. Manages to get around by hopping (how else?) Hardly ever peeps, but when he does, is very loud.
Named for his blond color at birth. Same breed as Baldy and Curly

Curly: Our most bossy chicken, determined to be at the top of the pecking order. The loudest of all five when just peeping around.
Named after Curly of the Three Stooges, because of his greater (read: fat) size.

Spotty: Was born without all of his down feathers. Often gets into fights with Curly. Currently has all of his feathers. Seems to have taken a liking to Blondie.
Named for his pink spots when he didn't have all of his down feathers.

Photo Galleries

--Day 4-- --Day 11-- --Day 14--

--2008 Domenic Murtari