Sunday, March 11, 2012

Early pipping!

It has been a busy week and I lost track of time.  I was counting on hatching to start on Tuesday, and planned on taking the eggs off the egg turner yesterday....but life got in the way.  Ah, well, tonight should be suitable, too.
I set up the brooder with the heat lamp so that I'd have a place with a stable temperature to set the incubator for hatching.  My house has irregular temperatures due to using the woodstove and the fluctuation spring temperatures.  The basement is the only place that has a fairly stable temperature...and that is COLD.  This seemed like a good compromise.
The eggs were on an automatic egg turner....we took that out tonight.  When we went to pick up the incubator, this is what we found:
Those are feathers sticking out of that cracked egg shell.  There was a lot of peeping going on, too.  So exciting!  That is an Icelandic egg.

Last year we took a small computer fan and Dad wired it into a cell phone charger.  This turns our cheap incubator into a slightly better model for just a few dollars.  Once the eggs start to hatch, however, I have to make a shield so that no chicks get caught in the fan. 
It is simply a couple of strips cut from a file folder, stapled to make a longer strip, and folded around the bottom of the fan.  This is then held in place with a couple of paper clips.  Tape tends to come loose in the warm and humid environment.

Here is one more picture of the little Icelandic egg starting to hatch:
 One more Icelandic egg had a little hole in it, as did one of the blue eggs from my flock.  Hopefully, I'll have chick pictures soon!

2 comments:

  1. How exciting!! Loved the photos. Please keep us posted?

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  2. I will! This morning I could see at least three more eggs with little holes in them....but I worry that the eggs are so quiet. Usually they are peeping. But it is early in the hatch and I'm not with them very long, just a dash into the cellar to peek then back upstairs to work on my ever-present mile-long to-do list. (How's that for a lot of hyphens?)

    The above chick didn't make it out of the shell yet, so the move may have been poorly timed for that little one. It happens. Sigh. Don't count your chickens before they hatch!

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