The Eggs Have Arrived!

I went to the feed store again to pick up the eggs. I'd hoped to be able to get 6 extra, but no such luck. So we've got an even dozen and they look great! There's one that's a little lopsided, and the shell seems soft on one side, so I'm wondering how it will do. These eggs are fresh from the farm hens this morning.

I was somewhat surprised by the incubator. Not sure what I was expecting - guess I've lived in the perfect little SoCal bubble for too long. It's not shiny, it's not new - it's styrofoam, it's a little dirty and dented. Um, hello, it's farm equipment!






I'm still tweaking the increase/decrease dial on the incubator to get it just to the right temperature. It's to be 99.5 degrees Farenheit consistently. We're close, but just a little on the warm side. Don't want to poach my little chickies.

Here's the directions given to me with the incubator:

Day 1
- Add water in the bottom of incubator (only in designated areas) CHECK
- Plug in incubator and turner CHECK
- Set incubator temperature to 99.5 (sort of CHECK - there was no setting, just plug it in)
- Once incubator temperature has stabilized at 99.5 for an hour, place eggs in pointed end down in the turner OR place X's and O's on opposite sides of the egg to keep track of turning.
*So, I decided I should get a turner because I can barely remember to do things one time per day let alone 2 times per day for 21 days. Hoping to increase our odds of hatching*
- Every other day add water to bottom of incubator (as needed) - better set some sort of alarm or something....

The big kids are in class today so I know they'll be excited to see the developments when they get home. I wish we could have done it all together, but so it goes. I'm also wondering how I'm going to keep them out of the incubator when I'm, say, taking a shower...I'd better get to shower at least a few times over the next 21 days.

As a side note, the feed store gave me a FREE poster since I had to make a 2nd trip for the eggs. It's a poster of Chick Development and shows a drawing of what's going on inside the egg for each of the 21 days. They sell it there for $19, so I'm thinking it was worth it to make the second trip.