DAY EIGHTEEN

By Beth -
I feel nervous.  Today is day 17 of my first incubator incubation.   Each of these 17 days, i have faithfully turned each egg several times per day.  I have candled my eggs on days 10, 14, and 17.  I have drawn on my eggs, made notes on my eggs about my eggs.  I have fussed with the temperature and humidity but not stressed out too much about my eggs.  Every day for 17 days.  I actually schedule my sleep around these eggs.

Tomorrow is day 18.  

Lock down.

On day eighteen, i will carefully position all my eggs for hatching, i will add water to raise the humidity, and i will put the lid on my incubator.  And then i won't open it for possibly five days.  I won't get to touch them or turn them or write on them because they will be busy.  Forty-four little lives inside those eggs will be busily trying to get out.

I really hope they all do it fast so i can hold them.

See, because even if ten of them are hatched, i have to leave them inside to wait for the other 34 to give it a shot.  Opening the lid to rescue the ten could cause the humidity to drop and sabotage the efforts of the 34!

Oh dear!

There they are.  Forty-four tiny beaks and 88 tiny wings.  Eighty-eight little bird feet.  I think the leaving alone is going to be rough.




Thankfully, and possibly to her dismay, Mathilde has come to my rescue.  Mathilde is broody.  So, this evening, i carefully chose 14 eggs for Mathilde to set and hatch.  Oddly, when i gave her these eggs earlier, she just sat there.  Upon the sight of an egg, a broody hen will normally be very quick about tucking it underneath herself in just the right spot.  But for some reason, she froze.  Just like this.

So i left her alone for a few minutes to get comfortable with her new family, but when i came back, she was still sitting there.  In this trance.  I decided to help her out and started tucking the eggs underneath her body.  About 4 eggs into that is when i figured out that this must be Mathilde.  That girl can bite very hard.  In a minute i'll go back outside and check on her (hopefully i'll beat the threatening rain storm).  And hopefully i don't have to help her anymore - i'm not really in the mood for the pain right now.  Ha!

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