Day One of Chick Watch- March 1st.



Look at these amazing colors!!



It's March, and the eggs are here!! I ordered a rainbow basket selection of hatching eggs and was not disappointed when they arrived! Patricia Saunders of CCL Farm is who enabled me this time. By the way CCL stands for Crazy Chicken  Lady, so isn't that a perfect match already?Check it out at www.cclfarm.com

So 2 dozen eggs arrived a bit delayed due to the weather and all but 1 are in the incubator. There are risks when using shipped eggs: changes in temperature, too much movement, being dropped. So only time will tell what becomes what.

After opening the parcel, I was surprised to see the precious cargo was packed in popcorn. What a wonderful idea and it worked very well. All but 1 egg arrived undamaged. I of course inspected the eggs, took note of what was what as Patricia put initials on most of the eggs so I may know what to expect. Then the eggs were left to warm up to room temperature before being put into the incubator.

The damaged egg was not very damaged and I chose not to include it as it would probably become what we chicken folk refer to as a "leaker". Sometimes an egg may have a small fissure, enough to eventually leak the contents out, usually after a week or so and the results are not good. An egg that may be partly developped and smelly! Sometimes you can't tell which one it is until you find drops on the shell...To avert that, the damaged egg was removed.

The new incubator with large windows!

On to marking the eggs. Each egg has been given an X with a marker. The eggs must be turned at least twice per day so this is how you know if they all have been turned. Given the shape of eggs, some lay flat before than others. The really dark eggs have a really dark x as the marker used for the others did not show up well on the darkest eggs.

When putting eggs into the incubator, you lose some of the heat that has built up inside the incubator. Also, you are adding something that is slightly colder than the inside temperature of the incubator so the temperature must correct itself. While observing and adjusting the temperature, I was knitting a sock. Hermione's Everyday Sock by Erica Lueder. I found it on Ravelry and managed to get most of it done while watching Brideshead Revisited....Oh to live in a huge manor such as that.!..not my favorite though. Clonalis House in Ireland is one of my all time favorites. I can actually see myself living there!!Back to the sock. I am using Indigodragonfly and making the calf larger to accommodate myself! I hope to have enough yarn...

Meanwhile, the eggs were "set" last night so today counts as day 1 of chick watch. 21 day is how long it takes, so figure on March 21st or so for chicks to appear. I won't be posting much about the eggs for some time as there is not much happening on the outside of the egg.

I wonder what else March has in store for me...