Getting Ready for the Big Hatch!

Big news, worth crowing about. What do you get when one sweet-hearted, valiant rooster and several hard-working hens love each other very much?

Jules the FBCM and Blue, a blue egg layer

Juliet the FBCM

Bijou, a blue-egg layer

Juniper the FBCM

Besides, I mean, a lovely backyard flock who get along and watch out for each other and provide more entertainment than television, and give you breakfast every morning?

You get lovely hatching eggs, and if you do your homework and get them under a broody hen or a good incubator within about seven days, you get...baby chicks! 

This is the story of our first hatch of 2012.  Today we have a...pip. 

Pull up a chair in a well-lit spot; you'll be waiting a while!

Not as exciting as a chick, I'm afraid.  But still, every chick starts as a pip and a peep inside the shell.  

Which is all I can see and hear, right now!

Bijou's egg from Day 19 looks like our first lucky hatchee.

Join us in our next post...I'll be keeping a journal of a day in the life of a backyard chicken keeper, on one of the most exciting days of the year--hatch day!  As we approach the beginning of day 21 (starts about 7 pm tonight), I will expect to see a bunch of baby chicks pipping, zipping, and hatching.  I'll share pics of the process, along with my normal chicken tending chores and delights.