Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Chick Incubation

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Today is Day 10 of the 21 day incubation period for chicken eggs. Our second candling showed that 17 of the eggs appear to have thriving chick embryos. We could clearly see some of them wiggling their big black eyes around. See an illustration here.

We have read that some eggs develop a bacteria inside that will cause them to explode and leave behind a stinky mess. Since that's about the last thing I need around here, we removed the eggs that had stopped developing or were never fertilized. MaddieLynn broke a few open and saw that they had never developed past some blood vessels, and The Bubba begged me requested to take one out into the back yard and shoot it with his BB gun. I don't know what that egg ever did to him, but I can guarantee it will never do it again!

We are getting excited to see those cute little peepers and are continually amazed at God's wonderful creation.

And now I have a new excuse when visitors drop by and my house is a mess. "Oh, excuse the mess. You see, a chicken egg exploded in here right as you were pulling in the driveway."

6 comments:

Pat's Place said...

What a wonderful glimpse of nature you are giving your children! We had a garden out in the country when our boys were little and every year a cowbird laid eggs in a potato row--same row every year! The boys could watch the eggs, see them hatch, and watch the little ones mature and fly away. I hope they remember the awesomeness of that as well as I do!

Linz said...

haha, cool :)

Anonymous said...

I think that sounds so fun!!! What a good mom...I loaned my incubator (my sister's actually) out...because I couldn't commit!!!

Liz said...

How much fun. I want to do this too! I couldn't figure out how it would work here. Do you think it is just a Tx program? Hugs,Elizabeth

Smockity Frocks said...

Liz, I have done this 3 times now, only in TX, though. It is a program offered, for free, through every county extension agency in TX. Look in your phone book under your county's name. Check for "extension service". This is the same place that offers 4H in TX. Try that and let me know. I'll update my post with any info you find.

Liz said...

Thanks for the info. I will try to get to call on Monday.

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