It takes a few days for a whole clutch to hatch in the incubator - and of course an incubator clutch contains chicks from lots of hens of several different breeds, so they're not even cousins, let alone siblings.
They are all cute though. The reddish brown ones are Rhode Island Reds, the white ones are White Rocks and the stripy ones are Americanas.
The incubator keeps the eggs warm until they hatch. Surprisingly, eggs can be left un-incubated for 2 weeks before being put in the incubator, and they will still develop! Once hatched, the chicks go under these heat lamps and eat finely ground feed. They don't need their mothers in the absence of predators.
Some of these chicks will stay on the farm to replace old hens and roosters, some will be sold, and left-over roosters will be killed. You can't put too many roosters in with the hens because they kill them. I found a dead hen yesterday and had to put her on the compost heap and watch the cats have at her, which was a bit gross, but the compost gets used for planting veggies, so the circle of life continues!
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