Lockdown!

Because *all* the cool kids are doing it!

We ended up with 7 eggs with chicks inside, with another 4 I'm not sure about but *may* have chicks. I removed 5 other eggs that had quit.

So our hatch this year should be between 7 and 11 chicks!
I've stopped turning the eggs in the incubator and moved them to the bottom of the ReptiPro, and upped the humidity to 65%--all of this signals to the eggs that it's hatchin' time!

Two eggs have pipped already, #32 (you can see the crack across the number in the picture) and #10--but haven't started unzipping yet. Right now they are in the 'venting and drawing down' stage, where the chick is getting fresh air through the pip it made in it's shell, and the blood supply to the veins lining the inside of the eggshell are drying out as the chick draws the blood into it's body.

Since our high-altitude chicks always hatch a day or two early, I'd guess that the hatch will begin sometime around 11PM (PST) tonight and into tomorrow, April 10th.

Hit me up in the YouTube chat during the hatch with your chicken name suggestions, the goofier the better! If your name suggestion has been used already I'll let you know ('Dinner' and such are taken). I'll make a list and as each chick hatches, we'll draw a name out of a hat--one name to a person, use your imagination and make it a good one!