Resisting the temptation...

I'll admit it. I'm having a hard time resisting the temptation to peek in on the eggs all the time.

It shouldn't be hard, there's a little window. But for some reaon, that's just not satisfying enough. Maybe it comes from the fact that one of my eggs is very pointy and it keeps rolling off the turning rack. Or maybe I just want to double check to make sure all 11 are still there. Can you imagine how I would be if I were a hen?

So, in an effort to thwart a terrible miss-hatching experience, I'll just look at this photo. I might look at it several times each day, but at least the real-deal will be warm and snug and occasionally turning right where they are supposed to be.

Ahhh.... there they are.



And, just in case you are wondering, yes I did get up in the middle of the night to check on them. But only that the incubator was still on. Really, I'm not crazy.

Our Chicken Books

Since of course there's no way I'm letting this chicken hatching opportunity pass us by without some reading involved, we have checked out several books from our local library.

Some are better than others, but hopefully at the end of this process, my children will be able to tell you exactly how a chicken is develops from egg to chick.

Here are the library books we currently have checked out:

Chickens by Lundgren, Julie K.
Egg to chick by Selsam, Millicent Ellis
First the egg by Seeger, Laura Vaccaro
Five little chicks by Tafuri, Nancy
Chickens aren't the only ones by Heller, Ruth
Chicky chicky chook chook by MacLennan, Cathy

These are, of course, just our chicken books. I doubt you'd want to see the litany of other books we check out from the library.

We will read several more books about chicken/eggs/hatching before it is all said and done, but this is a fun place to start!

When I told my sweet big girl that we were going to the library tonight she said "Let me guess, chicken books.".

What is not listed is all my books on how to keep/raise/build coops for chickens. Still trying to convince my sweet hubby. I'll keep on trying...

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.

Well....

We've had a small setback in the department of chicken hatching....specifically the case of the missing chicken eggs.

My contact at the farmer's market sold both dozen to someone else before I got there. The feed store where we are renting the incubator did not have the eggs either. So we've got the incubator, but no eggs. It's not a big deal since school is almost out, they'll let me keep the incubator for a little longer than just the 21 days. They say 5 days after hatching they'd like it back.

So plan B is to get the incubator warming up tomorrow, go pick up the eggs from the feed store and meet up with my farmer's market gal on Saturday in Orange.

Let's hope things work out well. I've got someone who would like to keep a chick or two, and of course that got me thinking. Maybe I could sell them and recoup my costs. Hmmmm.... we'll see....

Exciting Days Ahead!

Tomorrow is the day that we pick up our fertile chicken eggs and our incubator (or Eggy Baker as my sweet girl calls it). We are off on a little adventure of hatching chicken eggs.

I'm excited because I'm only slightly obsessed with chickens right now. My sister was able to talk her husband into getting chickens and a coop, so why haven't I? I can't blame him totally, but since I know he's an animal lover, I'm hoping that seeing these adorable little chicks in about 21 days will help him change his mind.

Of course, there's the issue of sex. Now stop that! I'm talking about a hen or a rooster. We can't have a rooster where we live, and I'm ok with that. The only problem is that, not being an expert, I'll have no idea if we've hatched a hen or a roo until about 4 months down the road.

So if I can convince him, we'll most likely have to order some. I've got my heart set on a particular breed - the Delaware. It's supposed to be a quiet, friendly, docile bird and they lay brown eggs. As a plus, they are somewhat rare.

My father-in-law suggested that the kids raise a bird and show them in the Orange County Fair. I thought that was a great idea, but one thing at a time. This whole conversation started me into a flurry of research on how to do something like this. Though I've never been in 4-H, I might look into it for my kids.

We'll see how it goes. We are almost done with our homeschool year at Spirit Academy and we really enjoy it there. There are things about it that I wouldn't choose, but the benefits far outweigh the downsides. We plan to return next year as well.

I've got some light lesson plans for the summer, mostly focused on improving reading skills, handwriting, and math (this is to get us caught up for the next year in Singapore Math - the whole elementary is doing this).

I'm also going to be focusing on trying to cull through things in our house that we no longer use. Tonight we spent sometime in the garage and that was great. Lots of stuff to drop off at our local christian thrift store. It feels good, though there's a long way to go.

On a less exciting note, we are about to enter the month that our 4th baby was due to be born. We lost our baby at 17 weeks gestation and have grieved this for some time. Some days are good, others not so much. I thought that it would be just around the due date that would be difficult, but being as we are almost a month away and I'm thinking of our loss so often, I can see it will be a challenge to keep my thoughts captive and focused on Christ.

So we'll just keep moving forward. We've got a busy day tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to watching the kids'response to all of this!

Hey Mom....

...you know on Star Wars...what's that guy's name again....Dark Tater?

I love that boy of mine!

Are you keeping up with the news?

Every 2 year old needs to be up on the latest before really kicking off their day, don't you think?