eggs, eggs and more eggs

Before we headed to the farm, I had visions of four cute duck eggs sitting in the incubator I borrowed from Erica. Her love of hatching chickens had enticed me to borrow the incubator and hatch something too. The boys really wanted to hatch some duck eggs, so off to the farm we went.

Little did I know, every egg the kids picked up would be going home with me. Not to eat, but to hatch.

They are all now safe in the incubator set at the perfect temperature and humidity. Before we crammed put the 13 eggs in the incubator, we candled them to see if any of them were destined not to hatch. Only one egg was not perfect and had to be removed. That means I have 12 potential birds going to hatch! A little overwhelming? Um, yes!

My job now is to turn the eggs from the X side to the O side three times a day for 21 to 28 days. I will probably candle them every 3 days or so to see if there are any that are not going to hatch, so we can free up some room in the incubator.

Wanna know what's in the eggs?

2 duck

3 guinea

2 chicken

5 banty eggs

The fact that the chickens and bantys will hatch a full week before the duck and guineas does stress me out a little, but at least there will be more room in the incubator when they hatch. To make it a little more interesting, a pigeon was nesting on top of one of the banty eggs, so that egg will probably hatch a week early. I guess I'll just have to be on the lookout for some pecking from a tiny little banty! Good thing I have Erica to help me through this exciting project!