Nervous and excited

I can't believe how nervous and excited I'm feeling. I keep going out to see Blah and seeing how she is doing. I'm also constantly looking into chicken websites, trying to work out how the eggs will hatch and if we'll get a chance to see them. It's becoming more clear that this will all happen under Blah which is disappointing, but hey. What can you do?

1. Before or after peeping will come pipping, as the tapping of the chicks is finally successful enough to break a small hole in the shell. The hatching process has begun. The chick will work its way around the equator of the egg as it expands on that initial hole in a line from which is can eventually emerge. Unfortunately, since this all occurs underneath the hen, you won't be able to see any of this.

I am desperate to see our new little babies, and can't wait to take photos to share with you all.

May the nerves disappear!

PS: Here are some pics of our beautiful (if not mangy due to molting) chooks enjoying time in the garden, and Blah doing her job....

Oh, and just found this info too....

1. Once the chicks start hatching, don't peek or remove the eggs from under the hen just to get a better look. They are exactly where they need to be. A few, infrequent inspections may be warranted. Hens are surprisingly good at multi-tasking between incubating eggs and caring for baby chicks. The hen will usually stay on the nest for 36 hours or longer to provide time for all the chicks to hatch and keep the hatched chicks very close under the wing.
3. Don't handle the wet, newly hatched chicks. Wait at least until they've had a chance to dry off and fluff out, and most inspections can be made without touching them. Don't worry if the chicks don't eat and drink on the first day. New-born chicks can survive up to three days just on the yolk they absorbed before hatching.
4. If the chicks have not all hatched after a couple of days, the mother hen will start to ignore the remaining eggs as she gets up and moves about to care for the chicks. Although I have contemplated moving them to an incubator or placing the eggs another broody hen, I have yet to have found a viable egg among any a hen has abandoned. Candling may reveal that an chick never developed. Unfortunately only cracking open the egg will show you if there is an embryo that just didn't make it.

and....

1. Allow the mother hen to do much of the raising herself. For example, since the mother hen will show them how to drink, you shouldn't have to dip each chick's beak into the water as you would if they were mail-order chicks. Remember that chickens are "precocial," so the chicks will very capable of independent activity very shortly after hatching. Although the hen may disagree, chicks really don't learn much from their mother that motherless chicks don't learn on their own in about the same time. On the other hand, do provide them with a stimulating environment -- space to run around, straw bales to climb on, perches to practice roosting on, occasional outings outside when the chicks are at least a month old and the weather conditions permit. I don't know for sure that it makes the chicks any smarter, but we think it helps to unleash the instinctive behavior of their wild bird ancestors and cuts down on bad behaviors, such as pecking at each other, which is common with bored birds closed in too close together. Enjoy the show, as the chicks explore their new world and the hen calls and scolds them or especially when the chicks poke out their heads from multiple locations about the hen's body. Since chicks are bonding with the mother hen, however, don't expect them to pay much attention to you.
2. Keep an eye out for weak, lame, ill, and oddly behaving chicks, and take appropriate measures. You, rather than the mother hen, may have to take care of pasty butts. Since the chicks depend on their mother's warmth for survival, make sure all the chicks who venture out can get back to her, and be sure they are tucked in with their mother at night.
3. Although I've read that you can do it almost immediately, we don't introduce a mother hen and her chicks to the rest of the flock for quite a while. We don't for two reasons. We don't trust that the hen will always be able to defend her chicks from potential attack by the other hens, and we haven't figured out any good way to feed the chicks separately from the laying hens when the two groups are integrated. Also, if for any reason you want to slip a baby chick under a hen, do so at night if you can. Don't try to introduce a chick older than four days.
4.