I don't get very many opportunities to inspect the eggs since they almost always have the fuzzy butt of a parent parked on top of them. But this morning both parents were out of the nest so I took a look. I was expecting to see five eggs, but instead I saw this:


It was quite a surprise, since I wasn't expecting the eggs to start hatching until approximately Tuesday. The incubation period is 16-18 days but it usually takes about three weeks for the eggs to start hatching because the parents don't start sitting on the eggs right away. It's only been 17 days since the first egg was laid, so they must have started sitting immediately this time.

If I've figured out the parents' genetics correctly, this chick is either a normal grey male or a cinnamon female. I think it's probably the male since the eyes look so dark, but I'm not sure that I can accurately identify a newborn cinnamon.

awwww cute! I bet you were surprised! Isn't it so exciting?!! I've been doing this for 9 years and I get excited each and every time still.

A lutino girl hatched this morning!


Last year the parents waited to start incubating the eggs so that several chicks would hatch at about the same time. With the first clutch, 4 chicks hatched in a 48 hour period! But since they started sitting right away with this clutch, the eggs will most likely hatch at the rate of one every other day.

wow congrats, im glad there doing good, cant wait to see em all grown up.

At this point four of the eggs have hatched, and the last egg will probably hatch tomorrow.

I finally got to see an egg pip! Buster and Shodu always make ninja chicks that kick their way out of the egg in no time flat. They can go from an apparently intact egg to a fully hatched, dry chick in two hours. So I never got to see an egg pip until a couple of days ago, when I peeked in the nestbox and saw an egg that was cracked halfway around. I looked again half an hour later and it had hatched completely. It was the 4th egg in this clutch and their 14th baby total. Now I can finally use the name that I've been saving for this occasion... Pippin.

If the remaining egg hatches and the baby is a girl, I will name her Irsula. Her egg was laid on April 15th so a name that starts with IRS is appropriate.

OK now that is clever!! and I like it. Hope it's a girl just so you can name her that!!

Irsula hatched last night but I don't know whether "she" is actually a girl or a boy. The chick has dark eyes which means it's either a cinnamon girl or a normal grey boy. Some people can tell the difference between cinnamon and normal while the chicks are still small, but I can't! I probably won't figure it out until they get their feathers.