Day Twenty-One - March 24, 2008
They are fully developed chicks living outside their shells in just twenty-one days!
Yesterday was so amazing and so awesome especially on Easter Sunday. Haley and Preston came over in the evening and were able to view the newbies. I’m not sure if they saw a chick hatch or not. Deborah Kurtz was here last night as well with Lauren. Gabby came by today.
There is one lone egg left in the incubator. I want it to hatch for one reason now….I want to clean this incubator, it is starting to smell.
Some of these eggs took forever to hatch. The egg tooth was visible from the first crack and it would come out and chirp and go back in, out and in out and in. The egg would move and wobble. “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down,” was going through my head all day.
Finally you would see that the crack was almost the entire one side of the egg and slowly this chick would unfurl and push both sides out. “Get me out of here!” We’d race to see this. By dinner time I wasn’t racing, I was still being called to race but my pace had slackened considerably.
It was quite an active day. The Leamers came this morning and were able to watch a chick hatch. Terri brought an egg custard. I thought that was a “cheep” shot. It had to have been the tastiest tasteless thing she’s ever done. Bring it on Terri.
The chick they watched had a blop attached to its bottom; at least I think that’s where it is attached. It looked like its yolk sak, kinda interesting looking! This was our first and so far only abnormality. I put this chick into the brooder box and the chick is not keeping its own. It is still alive but we don’t have hopes that it will make it. Mrs. Shires had never heard of this. I certainly don’t enjoy being a first timer here with something that she’s not seen, oh such is life. I have two kids crying wondering why we aren’t crying. Then to top it off Jesse cried when I put the chick in because it was “yucky.” Sometimes you just can’t win.
The Mussers came and they saw three hatch! That was so exciting to have them witness the amazing hatching process. Many of us assumed their heads would be the first to pop out. Not so. The wings pop out the shell and then the feet come and then the head. But they rest before some of these jerky movements.. Each one is different in how they handle the hatch. Some of them would get their heads in the shell and lift their head with the shell covering their eyes.
They just stumble around and all of a sudden they are down for a little rest, beak first, plop, can’t move they wanted to. Then as if no time passed they are up again and stumbling around looking like they had one too many. They would go and move their fellow eggs around as if they were encouraging them to come on out.
All are safely transported into the brooder box and making a mess. They love getting into the feed and sleeping all together in a great big pile.
The sound of the chirps is cute, I’ve been told it will get louder. That’s all for now folks.
Day Twenty - March 23, 2008 Easter Sunday
They are hatching. They started sometime in the late morning or early afternoon. I was getting the Easter dinner ready and Robyn said that they were cracking the eggs, and she wasn’t talking boiled….Sure enough there were small beak cracks. Their egg teeth were being used for what they were designed to do.
This will probably go down in the Burkholder History as the most memorable Easter Day ever. Our house has been full of people all day. My daughter, Robyn, stayed close by, completely awed by the process, and she kept us updated. We finally had to move the incubator to a more central place where we could all gather around.
The first hatching was unbelievable. The chick probably thought he was famous with all of us watching. The second hatching was just as unbelievable! The third had us worried. It just didn’t move like the other two. The first two were so active. Those two stumbled around all the eggs pushing them as if to say, hey, guys, its wake up time!
When the first two were dry to the touch, though they looked like they had greasy feathers, Geoff transported them to the brooder box. I wasn’t completely ready with the brooder box today and when we saw the hatching process start I began to get nervous and started bellowing orders. I know that’s hard for you children to imagine!
“Get the 60 watt bulb from Wal-Mart! Now!”
My son, Chris, obediently went but came home with the wrong 60 watt bulb. It was a Reveal light bulb and we needed a regular Tungsten light bulb. He had to go back. We had the box, we had the pine shavings, and we had the food. I cut a soda bottle’s bottom off for the water container and I had a coffee cup lid to put food in. We just needed to put it all together.
The coffee lid with food is in the box but Mrs. Shires over the phone tonight said that tomorrow sometime in the afternoon they’ll need water, not tonight. They need time to rest and it’s hard to not touch them but we are giving them the space they need to catch their breath. It’s hard work that they just went through!
Tomorrow you folks are welcome to come and see these chicks. They might be hatching up until Tuesday evening. I said in the email you could come at 10:00am and that still holds true.
What fun! Tomorrow we will post pictures!!! I can’t convince my husband to do it tonight! It’s 12:04 am and he is pooped! They’ll be so cute!
Day Nineteen - Saturday, March 22, 2008
Growth of embryo nearly complete
Is it hard to believe or what? These chicks will be coming out as early as late Sunday evening and into the day on Monday. Mrs. Shires said that you would still probably see chicks hatch Monday in the morning. Anyone who wants to come Monday from 10:00am is more than welcome.
The incubator is in my kitchen in a corner. We are not going to be able to move it. This will be a disadvantage to watching the hatching process but at this point I can’t move it. Yesterday was the last day to turn the eggs. Of course all day I’ve been hoping that I turned them enough during this process, that I filled the water troughs properly, that the rest will live.
Did the children tell you that two of the eggs had stopped developing? Sad, but Mrs. Shires said that she has monitored 100 incubating sessions and only one had a perfect hatch.
The fifth and sixth graders had an “opportunity” to view the one egg and see the chick inside. She asked them based on a development chart where they thought the egg had stopped developing. They weren’t too sure. She thought that at day 10 they had stopped.
As I prepared for Easter today I kept thinking about the delivery, hatching. Life, what to say? Twenty one days? This is an amazing developmental process with cells exponentially dividing into their different categories with the final outcome looking like a baby chick! My brain is not wrapping around this miracle. A brain wrapped around a miracle would choke it!
Even though I am not turning these eggs, I have to make sure there is enough water in the troughs. We are also in need of a 60watt bulb. Lynn will be heading to Wal-Mart before the hatch to secure the heat source. Mrs. Shires brought me a brooding box where I’ll affix the “candling” light to. I’ve got to get some small bowls for their water and food. Mrs. Shires also supplied me with food and pine shavings. If anyone has a supply of pine shavings I could use it. I’m going to have to keep the brooder box clean with a fresh supply of pine shavings.
This has been a wonderful project and I have learned so much. I hope your children have learned at least a little bit of this amazing process. I’ll keep you posted!!!!
In the meantime Christ Is Risen!!!!
Day Fifteen - Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The embryo is putting the head under the right wing and growing rapidly.
Day12 is the same as day eleven.
Day 13 the body is well covered with down feathers
Day 14 the embryo is turning the head towards the air cell.
As you can tell my randomness is surfacing with Day Nine at March 12 th and Day ten jumping to March 15th. Embarrassing to have this appear in such a public forum! What am I going to do? However not blogging for a couple of days is a different matter. It has nothing to do with randomness but everything to do with the ebb and flow of this household. One never knows from one day to the next what that day is going to hold. I do realize my audience is not waiting with baited breath for every typed word so the disappointment is probably at a low…
Scott Kimball came with his mother, Dawn Kimball, to check out the development of the chickies. Dawn teaches the kindergarten class at Learning Group and her class came and viewed the chicks last Wednesday. She was struck by the change from last Wednesday to this Monday. Scott had a hard time seeing the chick because much of what you see now is dark.
You can note movement but if you haven’t watched the development it is harder to observe it. Mrs. Shires said that a 40 watt bulb is all that can be used. I am anxious for Wednesday because at Learning Group we will use an overhead projector which will mean greater illumination inside the chick without harming the chick.
On day fifteen the small intestines of a chick are taken into the body. At this point the toes are fully formed and the down feathers are visible. This happened on Day Twelve. On Day Thirteen the scales and claws became visible and the body was fairly well covered with feathers. Yesterday the embryo turned its head toward the blunt end of the egg. I’m wondering which direction the blunt end of the chick is.
Some children have asked to take a chick home. If your child is interested in doing this you need to contact me via email. Once these chicks have left with you they are your responsibility.
I am also inquiring about the “due time” of these chicks. We know that they develop for 21 days but I’m not sure when they will start to hatch.
Next Wednesday the 3-5 th graders will have class on Wednesday to view the live chicks. Learning Group does not meet on this week but we will from 9:30 to 10:30. You will need to not drop off that day but stay. Mrs. Shires will be with us for the last time. We will probably be down in the Life Center. Thank you for your flexibility and your payment during this embryology time. It has been a unique opportunity.
Day Eleven - Friday, March 16, 2008
Skin pores are visible
Well, I have some sad news. Egg Number 7 was dropped. There has never been a time before that dropping an egg was as devastating as it was tonight. I was candling and the light was not stable and fell and the egg went along with it. I feel awful and Geoff is not helping. He took pictures to remember it by.
I picked up the egg, put it in a container and looked at its development. It had to have died immediately because the chick was not moving at all. Its eyes were huge and you could see the limbs, but on first glance I couldn’t see the beak. I feel awful. I can’t believe it dropped. So now we have nineteen chicks.
It is getting harder to see the chicks inside. We are wondering if a 100 watt bulb could be used, it might be too hot. I’m going to ask Mrs. Shires about this and also relay the bad news.
Day Ten - Thursday, March 15,2008
Beak begins to harden and the “egg tooth” forms. Toes and legs are separated.
Day Nine - Wednesday, March 12,2008
The embryo has toe digits today! Scales are forming on the legs.
Mrs. Shires, from Cooperative Extension, came today and gave more information to the children about the growing chicks. She was thrilled with the health and condition of the eggs. They are all fertile. Usually ten percent are not. She put a circle around the air sac. The children next week will be able to see how the air sac grew beyond the circle.
As I was transporting the chicks to Learning Group, Geoffrey from the back seat asked if the big side of the eggs were on top. I told him I thought it was the other way around. He said no it wasn’t. Mrs. Shires confirmed that Geoff was right. The big side of the egg needs to be up because that is the air sac. Thankfully the chicks survived the ride.
Kathryn held the incubator on her lap to church. I found myself speeding a wee bit (if you can speed a wee bit) and chuckled when I thought of the excuse I had now. “But Officer, we’re having babies! I have to get this incubator plugged in quick! ”
Today I read that “the embryo begins to look bird-like. The mouth opening appears.”
When we candled today I couldn’t see a mouth opening but it still was fascinating.
Wasn’t it exciting to see the chicks moving inside children? I know you are all excited for these chicks to hatch and some of you are inquiring about keeping one. Your parents need to talk directly to me about this. Some of you may not live in areas where chickens are even allowed. Elizabeth Smale, a girl in third grade, has discovered this but she is determined and is now looking for a relative to keep one so that she can maintain visiting hours to see the chick. I’m thinking she’s like Fern in “ Charlotte’s Web.”
Mrs. Shires discovered that egg #12 had a bit of a crack. I was hoping it didn’t happen while I was transporting them to Learning Group! She took some scotch tape and applied it to the egg so that nothing would ooze out. I’m not sure I even want to imagine the smell that would have resulted had she not noticed. A friend of mine had warned me that sometimes these incubators stink and maybe that’s why. So far there is no smell to this incubator. All I smell is clean hands!
Loved to see you come and see the chicks. Visiting hours will be held Friday from 3-4 pm. If you need to come at another time, just call.
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Day Eight - Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Feathers, called down, are starting to form. Upper and lower beak is present and the embryo can open and close the mouth. The embryo begins to resemble a chick.
Egg #13 is still really active! But we are discovering that quite a few are as well. Kristin Colmery came over (forgive me if I spelled your name wrong Kristin) and was able to witness the chicks moving around inside. When I think back to when the chick looked like a spider I can hardly believe that it was just Friday night when it looked like that.
Tonight when we were candling for a friend you could actually see the outline of the entire chick moving around inside. They just bebop all over the place. I can’t believe that we are going to have to prepare for their arrival into the real world soon. Today I read that the “feathers begin to form.” The air sac is getting bigger at the tip of the egg.
We are all learning quite a bit and realizing how little we’ve known about embryology. The talk around our home with some of our friends and visitors is how the egg becomes fertilized. So I will relay what my embryology “Hatching Classroom Project” book tells me.
“Each gender, the rooster and the hen, contributes something to the egg. The rooster provides sperm; the hen provides an ovum. When a rooster mates with a hen, it deposits sperm in the end of the oviduct. These sperm, containing male germ cells, travel the length of the oviduct and are stored in the infundibulum. On the surface of every egg yolk there can be seen a tiny, female cell. If sperm is present when a yolk enters the infundibulum, a single sperm penetrates the blastodisc, fertilizing it and causing it to become a blastoderm. Technically, the blastoderm is the true egg. Shortly after fertilization, the blastoderm begins to divide into two, four, eight and more cells. The first stages of embryonic development have begun and continue until the egg is laid. Development then subsides until the egg is incubated. The joining of sperm and ovum is called fertilization. After fertilization, the egg can develop and become a chick.”
“Roosters are not necessary at farms where eggs are produced for people to consume. Eggs for incubation are grown at special farms called breeder farms where roosters are with hens.”
So there you have it, you feel smarter now, don’t you?! You can really impress your friends. You might want to try out the word “infundibulum” on someone. It seems like it could possibly work well to yell when frustrated. “Blastodisc!” has a punch too.
Respond to this blog Day Seven - Monday, March 10, 2008
All organs are formed. The embryo is growing rapidly. The beak is forming (dark spot at the bottom of the head) and the heart is completely inside the body now!
Let me take the time to mention right now before I go on that everything in italics is taken from a sheet that Mrs. Shires gave to me on the 21-Day Growth Cycle of a Chicken Embryo. Likewise when I quote something directly in my journaling I am taking it from “Hatching Classroom Projects” 4-H Cooperative Curriculum Systems, unless stated otherwise. Hopefully I have not misled you and had you thinking that I have this warehouse of knowledge in my noggin that I’m pulling from, not so.
This is why teaching science gets me so excited! I love learning about all these different subjects.
Now I’m ready to update you. These eggs are sitting in this incubator, just sitting, doing nothing, just sitting. But when you take that bright light and you go under the blanket so that it is dark and the light shines through the egg you see that much is happening inside this motionless egg. Inside the chick is not motionless. It is moving and the development is happening. It’s a miracle happening right inside our home and yet you would never know with these motionless eggs.
When we candled today we saw moving chicks. The Lauer girls and the Gerace girls were able to see an active chick. They looked at four of them and could see just from Friday the difference in the development of the eggs. They were seeing a black dot and that black dot was moving. But it was Faith and Joy who were able to really see movement. In fact it looked like egg #13 had twins. It looked like two black dots moving around. Wouldn’t that be something?
Geoff keeps telling me that he is going to stay up to watch them hatch. I can just see him staying up the whole night and missing the event because he’s too tired to watch the final show. I need to find out about when they are hatching. If it is not in the dead of night you all are welcome to come even at 6: 00ish in the morning to view the miracle.
Thank you Pat and Jim Tremblay for taking the time to come and view the eggs. They came from Reading, thankfully our Wal-Mart across the street gave them an added reason to come. And again thanks to Carol Gerace for bringing the troops out. And thank you Gabby for coming!
On Friday I will again have visiting hours from 3-4 pm.
Respond to this blog Day Six - Sunday, March 9, 2008
The embryo is able to make voluntary movement. The brain and eye are easy to observe.
We were amazed today. Yesterday we clearly saw the black dot on the red spot. We were looking at the newly formed eye. If you want some excitement in your life I would suggest an incubator and some fertile eggs and a strong light to “candle.” We just shake our heads in amazement everytime we look at these eggs and the speedy development.
They were moving too! These chicks were moving around. In one of the books that Mrs. Shires gave to me it says that on Day Six their “beak and egg tooth begin to form. Their main division of legs and wings are happening and voluntary movement begins.” We witnessed the voluntary movement.
Their weight stayed the same at 60g. Tomorrow is another amazing day to “candle.” Hopefully some of you can make it to see the wonder of a growing chick.
Respond to this blog Day Five - Saturday March 8, 2008
 Reproductive organs are formed. Sex of the embryo is determined. Eye becomes visible. Eye will look like a black dot!
Mrs. Shires said that there are times when some eggs are not fertile. It seems that most of the eggs are fertile and growing. I have not actually checked each and every one but all that we have checked are progressing. This is a good sign.
I was amazed at how well the picture turned out of the heart. We did that ourselves and we weren’t sure if you would be able to see the heart. They describe it as a spider and it did look like one. Hopefully if you are afraid of spiders it didn’t scare you!!
Today you can see the eye of the chick. It is a black round ball in the area where the heart is. It looks like a peppercorn.
We weighed the two eggs today and they still weighed 60g. I’ve had to adjust the temperature more today than before and I’m wondering why. Many times it’s been at 98 degrees Fahrenheit and not 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Day Four - Friday, March 7, 2008
The embryo resembles a spider in shape and size. The brain is forming. You can try to see the heart beating.
9:00 am Geoff, Jesse and I just “candled.” We could actually see the heart with spidery veins coming out from the red dot. If you look real carefully you can see the heart beating. Life!!!!!! Is it not amazing?
I am so excited for your children to see this. Do try and come between 3-4 pm.
6:36pm: The eggs had visitors. Mrs. Gerace brought her girls, and the Lauer girls. Two by two, they were all able to come under the blanket with me to see the beating hearts in the four eggs we viewed. We put the egg on a bright light and you could see inside. We put the blanket over our heads so that it was really dark. It sure was dark...and hot too!
They all thought it was as cool as we did when saw an egg this morning! Thank you Mrs. Gerace for coming. To the rest of you I would love to have you come and see this process! Monday is the next visiting hours between 3:00-4:00 pm. If you need to come at another time all you need to do is call. Tomorrow, Saturday, do call if you’d like to stop by.
I weighed the eggs and today they are both 60g. How did that egg do that? I didn’t put anything in it to make it bigger? Watching these eggs grow gives me more of an appreciation for the chick’s Maker.
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Day Three - Thursday March 6, 2008
The embryo is shaped like a question mark.
I know you have all been waiting for an update and now that your children are all nicely tucked in bed, totally disappointed that Mrs. Burkholder did not in a timely fashion update her “egg blog,” you probably could care less. I am sorry.
You will all be happy to hear that the eggs are still in the incubator and not moving unless moved by the surrogate hens. The temperature has remained at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today we again weighed egg #18 and egg #20 and they remain at 50g.
Correction number one: I had mentioned that the eggs weighed in at 2g. That is not so, that would be 2 ounces, not 2 grams. It was 50g that they weighed. Makes you wonder why I’m teaching science.
Nicole right now as I write is carefully turning over the eggs at 9:45 pm. She is trying to do it as instructed, as low as possible without picking the egg up high. When we pick up the egg and turn it Mrs. Shires said that this is exercising the embryo.
Mrs. Shires mentioned that a hen turns her eggs 99 times. I didn’t catch if that was in a given day or during the 21 day cycle. Hey children, does any one remember if it was 99 times per day or per the entire time? My husband’s response was why not one-hundred.
Correction number two: When I mentioned yesterday that I was in awe of all there is to know and then in parenthesis I added (not that I don’t know). This is what I should have written: I am in awe of all there is to know and likewise all that I don’t know and will never know. Is it clear as mud now?? I’m not that arrogant!
Tomorrow we have “Eggstra Time” from 3-4 pm on Friday. You can come and watch our version of an ultrasound. Please respect that time frame. Before this time I have to decide where we will be “candling” these eggs. Come through the garage door and knock on the kitchen door. We live directly across from Sonic on Route 23 in the yellow home with a great maple tree in the front. Glad to have you.
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Day Two - Wednesday March 5, 2008
The embryo begins to turn on left side. The heart is now beating and forms outside the embryo’s body.
These things are fun to think about, hatching chickens, and then when you are actually doing what you thought to be fun it’s, well, shall we say interesting (saying interesting with most of the emphasis on “in”). We have to remember for the next 21 days, with already one under our belt, to turn the eggs at least three times a day and to make sure there is water in the #1 trough.
Geoff turned the eggs this morning at 8:00 am and I now turned them at 2:00 pm. I read that with one or two of the eggs they suggest weighing them through this process.
I felt like a nurse at the obstetrician’s office putting the eggs in the food scale tray. They each weighed in at 2g.
Of course those of you who I have talked to who have actually hatched chickens are chuckling at the “care” we are giving these eggs. We’ve been laughed at before and I imagine again but I’m just going by the instructions that Mrs. Shires gave to me, I’m trying to be good.
Mrs. Shires came to Learning Group today and filled the children’s minds with egg information that for most of them had never occupied their brain space. For instance the white spot on the “grocery eggs” that you see on the eggs you use to fry, bake, or boil is called the blastodisc. This white thingy, blastodisc, that I have seen all my life now has a life all of it’s own to me. My intrigue level has risen. This indicates that the egg is infertile.
The “grocery eggs” are all infertile. The hens that lay these eggs have never seen a rooster in their life. I did feel sad when she told us this, but it was just fleeting. The things I never knew, never thought about, never thought I’d think about, I’m just in awe of all there is to know (not that I don’t know)!
You will never have a fertile egg purchased from your local grocery store. A fertile egg in contrast has a larger tan-ish thingy, it is not white. This is called a blastoderm.
We looked at the diagram of the inside of a hen. This fascinates me. The hen can produce an egg without a rooster. In the hen’s ovary there are 4,000 tiny ovas or yolks. I think yolk and ova are interchangeable and I will rely on one of you to correct me. A yolk is released in the oviduct which is a fourteen minute process. A thick albumen layer is placed around the yolk as it moves along. This is a 3 hour process.
Now water is added to the albumen to form a thin layer of white (much of this is from the paper supplied to us by Mrs. Shires). The albumen is the white of the egg. The last part of this process is the formation of the shell. This is a 20 hour process. The color of the egg happens here.
Keep posted!
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Day One - Tuesday March 4, 2008
The blastoderm is saucer-shaped with a light and dark ring present.
We noticed last night that two eggs did not have numbers on them??? When Nicole put the eggs in she did it with their numbers facing up. Now there with two eggs with no numbers. We were not supposed to fiddle with the temperature (which I already had done) and we were not supposed to move the eggs, so my hope was that they had turned initially and we would find the numbers on their other sides. I know it sounds like I’m really obsessing over these silly eggs but here is what I was worried about; My panic was that one of the teenagers’ of unusual shapes and sizes that come in and out of our kitchen door had pulled a prank. Not happy and downright mad I would have been!
Geoffrey and I had a disagreement about when to turn the eggs. On the paper it said they needed to be turned at 3 pm today. However, Mrs. Shires must have explained the need to turn them at 12:00 pm instead and I wasn’t listening. Good thing Geoff was in the room and that he was listening. He kept insisting, I kept refuting and finally I handed him the phone. She told us to call with any questions! He called her and they discussed the situation and when he came back into the room he was smiling. Good listener after all is he and questionable listener am I!
He washed his hands and turned the eggs. He’ll make a good hen. Thankfully number seven and twenty were on the other side of these eggs! I was relieved, so was Geoff.
Tomorrow Mrs. Shires will begin our first lesson on embryology. Hopefully she’ll leave with a decent impression of home schoolers! Tune in tomorrow.
Respond to this blog Set Day - Monday March 3
Geoff has been asking for weeks now when will the eggs be delivered. I kept telling him that Mrs. Shires, the woman from Cooperative Extension, would call us before she delivered, the eggs that is. This does make me a bit nervous, the last time we hatched something in this kitchen news came that we were not only going to have tad poles but a new baby. Jesse had a bit more time to develop after the tadpoles hatched and in fact he was a bit more work than the tadpoles but hatch he did. Let’s move on quickly and talk about the fertile eggs. Anywho…
Today was egg delivery day. Geoff and Nicole were so excited because finally Mrs. Shires did call and today around 1:00 pm she did arrive. She walked in with a nondescript open faced carton of two dozen eggs. Geoff was bouncing around a bit and I had images of those eggs….Nicole was more sedate and Jesse was not here, he will be ticked he missed it.
Before Geoff and Nicole could assist Mrs. Shires they had to “properly” wash their hands. This meant that they had to wash for fifteen seconds not just their open palms but in between their fingers. Then they couldn’t just turn off the sink, they had to grab a paper towel (thankfully we had them this week) and use that to turn off the faucet.
This hand washing has to be done before the eggs are handled and after the eggs are handled. Before to assure that there is nothing harmful that will go through the porous shell and after to assure that there is nothing harmful transmitted to us. Hmmm… causes one to ponder.
Geoff numbered the eggs with a pencil. The numbering will aid Mrs. Shires when she teaches the Learning Group classes. She will hold a light to the eggs, called candling, and look at the development of the chicks inside. The numbers will let her know which egg she just held, which she needs to hold, I think? The one thing I’m sure of is that the numbers will let us know if that particular egg has been turned.
Mrs. Shires asked Nicole if she would like to put the twenty eggs in the incubator. Now I love giving my children opportunities but I wasn’t thinking this was a good idea. What if Nicole dropped one, or two? With each egg she placed in the incubator I held my breath and when all twenty safely arrived a breathed a sigh of relief.
Every day for eighteen days these eggs need to be turned three times a day. She asked me if I wanted to turn them five times a day or three times a day. I thought that this was a no brainer! Today they rest, no turning, just acclimating I’m sure???
The incubator has been running since this past Tuesday and needs to be set at 99 degrees. When she came it was 97 degrees so she adjusted it. I looked at it a bit ago and it read 100 degrees. So I turned the knob back but I think I turned it too far. I’m so rammy and I second guess myself with these stupid kinds of technical things. So I looked at it again and it was 101 degrees, not good! So I just turned the knob the other way and now I’m thinking that I’m going to be obsessing about this for the next 21 days.
There is a trough labeled #1. I am supposed to keep that filled with water up to a black line. I’m insecure every time I fill that, it’s hard to tell when the clear water actually hits that black line. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m only dealing with a fertilized egg, right, I’ve just gotta calm down, keep my cool! There is also a trough labeled #2 which I fill closer to the hatching time in about three weeks.
During the next 21 days we will be watching the development of 20 chicks inside their eggs by way of candling. On Day Four I’ve been told you can actually see their hearts! Don’t get too excited, it will look like a red dot with veins spreading out from the red blotch, but it really is a marvel all the same. I will allow whoever wants to come and view during “Eggstra Time” from 3-4 pm this Friday. Please respect that time frame and of course if you need an exception please feel free to call, but do call before you come. Keep posted. Come to the garage door and let yourself in and knock on the kitchen door.
Check onto my website daily to see the on-going development of the eggs. This is going to be fun.
If you want a chick you’ll have to have to let us know. We are going to keep about four and the rest will be for whoever wants them.
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