Growing Our Flock

Although the thermometer doesn't reflect it, the calendar tells us that spring is on its way. All year we have talked about adding more chickens to our flock, and both boys have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of spring, and warmer weather so that we might safely add chicks to our small chicken co-op. The marquee sign outside Big-R announced this week, "WE HAVE CHICKS!" So the boys quickly concluded that the time has come...

We headed down to Big-R this weekend with the intention of picking up a couple of ducks. Unfortunately Nikki had been misinformed, we'll have to wait until next Wednesday for the ducklings. In the meantime, Big-R did have an incubator. We bought an incubator so that we can attempt to hatch some of our own eggs. I am quite hopeful about the chicken eggs. However, due to some unfortunate losses early in the winter we no longer have any male ducks. I tried to explain to the boys that the duck eggs are not fertilized and therefore will not hatch. They would hear little of my "junk science." K insisted that one of the ducks that I believe to be a female is in fact a male, as he witnessed it trying to jump on one of the other ducks just like "Lightning" (our deceased male duck) used to do. He may be onto something, could there be another male? Time will tell...

Tonight we put 2 duck eggs and 10 chicken eggs into the incubator.



Here is a shot of our new incubator. Oh yes, it is made entirely of styrofoam, and oh yes it cost about $60...

In a couple of days we can "candle" them. By putting a tiny hole in a shoe box and placing the egg on the hole, then shining a bright light at the egg we should be able to tell whether anything is growing inside our incubating eggs. If the light shines through in a uniform manner, no chick. But, if the light is obscured, and there is some opaque matter inside the egg, look out... If all goes well in 21 days the eggs will hatch! I have two extremely excited boys right now. All evening they were running into the room where the incubator is, checking temperatures, and reporting to me the minuscule progress of the egg turner. So minuscule that the package warned that the turner moves so slowly that it may be undetectable to the human eye.

I am still a little hung up on the 21 days... I have been pregnant for months now, and still have 87 days to go! Oh yeah and, these chickens just set their babies down in a pile of dirty straw and hope some other mother will come sit on them for a while!