Chick Hatching Diary #2

About 9:10am on 3/14/15, the 6th chick hatched from a SFH x CH khahi green egg. To my surprise, it looks all yellow! My guess based on who’s in the SFH ccop, is that it was Peach’s egg, who’s has FR, EE in her background, and is a golden brown with a little black on her neck & tail feathers. Pretty plain, but wanted to see what offspring she’s produce, hopefully bigger sized, since she’s a good-sized hen herself.

It was pretty “quiet” in the hatcher, except for the 6 chicks peeping to each other in between their naps.

Then, at 1 pm, two chicks hatched about the same time. The 7th chick was from another green CH egg from the PA coop, which contained another cute little “chipmunk”, who when all dried has very distinct stripes of creamy white and yellow with dark “chocolate” brown. So adorable!

The 8th chick hatched from one of Susan’s green eggs, who’s a CH hen in the Bielefelder breeding group. It was very wet and then went into “hiding” for quite awhile. By the time it was dry, it was  an obvious two-toned brown “chipmunk” with a little black. No white headspot or other unique markings, that I can tell.

The 9th chick didn’t make it’s entry into the world until 6:45pm, and that being one of the brown CH eggs also from the Bielefelder breeding group. Being by itself, it peeped quite loud, and looks to have “skunk stripes”, so we nicknamed her “Stella” (the name of the skunk in Over the Hedge). It’s a very uniquely colored chick, though mostly black with a large yellowish headspot and two grayish white stripes down its back, indicating it carries the “chipmunk” gene as well. A little cutie, that’s for sure!

The 10th chick hatched around the same time as the 9th one, but it was underneath the “egg hatching cage” that the SFH x green CH eggs & chicks are in. So, I could barely see what it looked like, except for an occasional wing or head peeking over top of the other unhatched eggs. It was in the section of brown eggs from the PA coop, and looks to be also a “chipmunk”.

Later on, probably around 9pm or so, the 11th chick broke through its light brown shell and surprised me with its mostly black coloring. I had labeled the eggs as being from the PA coop, most likely from the one single-combed SFHxCH pullet hatched last year. She is various shades of browns, tans and blue tail feathers. So, to have a chick with black fuzz, white wing tips and a rose comb hatch out of one of her eggs was a total surprise.

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Woke up Sunday morning (3/15) at 5 am to two more chicks, both of which are from brown CH eggs laid by hens in the Bielefelder breeding group. The 12th chick is light yellow with a single comb; most likely the chick of the FR/DOM x RS hen. The 13th chick is a beautiful golden yellow with a faint headspot and single comb.

There are two more eggs with large pips in the shells, so we might have more chicks later on. 

To be Continued . . .