The Jackson Five, Lucille and Elvis have hatched!

Tim's redneck (or is it techneck?) incubator was a success!  

On Tuesday November 29th I heard chirping coming from the incubator, but no chicks had emerged from their eggs just yet.  Over the next two days we had 7 new chicks hatch out of the 24 fertilized eggs we had purchased.

One of the first to emerge.  (Yes she is alive!  She just looks a little worse for the wear.)

She was exhausted from the hatching process.  

Over the following 12 hours they dried off and became the cute little fluffy chicks they are now.

Here they are huddled in the corner of the incubator trying to stay away from the prying camera. 

The egg in the middle of the image is in mid-hatch.

Lucille (Ball) in the in middle, Elvis is in the corner (stole the name from one of my Aunt Linda's beloved chickens) and four of the Jackson Five surround them.  Michael still wasn't finished hatching yet when this image was taken.

The rest of the original 24 eggs never started an embryo or spontaneously aborted the process at some point along the way.  Sadly one of the chicks tried to make it out of her shell, but died in the process.

We have no idea if these chicks will become hens or roosters, but we are hoping for mostly hens.  On that note, our older hens have FINALLY started laying eggs.

The first egg had twin yolks!

The first egg was frozen solid when we found it.  Although we have a heater in the coop, the  GFI tripped while we were in Denver for Thanksgiving.  Luckily the Ladies we just fine.   Tim actually had to take the incubator to Denver with us because the eggs had to be turned 3-5 times daily.  Good thing his new truck has a plug in the back!

I taste tested this egg against an Organic Free Range egg from the grocery store.  There was a very distinct difference in both the color of the yolks as well as the richness of flavor.