An hour later, she called me to tell me two more chicks had hatched. One was the BCM, and the other was the BCM/Lav Am cross. I went back to the school, and put them in the brooder. I saw that the other BCM egg was pretty close to hatching, so I sat down and waited. Sure enough, within an hour, it had hatched too.
There was a lot of gunk in the bottom of the shell though, which worried me a bit. It seemed like both BCM had leftover egg white in there. The other chicks were pretty dry. Many people have said that BCM eggs need lower humidity, and it seems to be true.
I went back to the school at 3:15, and things were the same. The last lavender ameraucana egg was still pipped, but no real progress was made. The other chicks were all fluffing up nicely.
I did about the toughest thing I could do- I left the incubator there, with the pipped chick.
Last night and this morning, I mentally prepared myself to come in this morning and find a dead in shell chick. I decided if it was still in the shell and alive, I'd peel it out. I'd know it was definitely pipped for over 24 hours, and besides, I was supposed to set new eggs at 2pm at the elementary school today, so I needed to get the incubator sanitized and ready to go for that.
As I was driving to the school, I got a phone call from one of the teachers, telling me there was a hatched chick in the incubator!!!! I was so excited. I'd done such a good job preparing myself that I was shocked when it was out and healthy. It was still quite wet, so I bet it'd only been hatched about 20 minutes or so.
So, out of 6 eggs that went into lockdown, I got 6 healthy chicks! That's my best result yet.
The kids are so excited to see the chicks. I love their enthusiasm.
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