In the last two days, we have been excited as each of seven chicks hatched out. The first one was the only one that wasn’t a Buff/R.I. Red mix, but was a Black Star/ R.I. Red. Sadly, it died the second day, but it was beautiful with gold under its neck and belly and on the edges of its wings. Daughter #2 asked if she could have it for her very own, to which I said she could if it was a hen. These are the things that make dealing with living things hard…you aren’t sad for the animals, but the people that get attached to them. One of the B/RI died too, but it seemed to have something wrong from the beginning. After everyone got dried off, I put them up in a brooder made from a big plastic pot. They are doing well so far. I began to throw out the rest of the eggs (they’d been hatching for two days, and were already a week late) when I heard peeping coming from one of the eggs! I felt ridiculous, but I stood there holding each egg up to my ear, but no matter which one I picked up, the peeping was coming from somewhere else. Finally, I kept each one in my arms as I got another one, so I wouldn’t pick up the same one twice. Finally I found it, with only a tiny hole that the chick had pipped through. SO…I STILL have an incubator full of eggs. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to start the next batch. My girls made me promise to keep these until I am 1oo percent positive there are none left with live chicks…I have discarded these guys twice already.