spring chickens!
Ben is helping me turn the eggs at least three times a day. He is looking forward to meeting some baby peeps next Sunday!
Last night when I candled the eggs (with a new contraption I made from a flashlight, a box, and a piece of wood, and a lot of tape – see box at right of this photo) I got to see some embryos MOVING AROUND! It was like holding a piece of the Creation moment right in your hand. Or watching an alien on a space ship. It was so cool! I am so excited to see some life in there at last. My candling efforts had been difficult the last few days – it has to be pretty dark, and you have to block out almost all the light from the candling source so your eyes can focus on the egg contents only (otherwise they’re too stimulated by the contrast between light and dark and your rods can’t help you pick up the subtle movements). It is getting really exciting here!
Then the most exciting finding of all this morning...Jersey is broody! She and HollyRamona had snuggled into the same nesting box last night (the most preferred one in the back corner) and I couldn't get the eggs out. So I came out this morning and found Jersey still there, carefully concentrating on those eggs. She wouldn't even blink when I opened the hatch and offered some corn. They say you need to move broody hens somewhere quiet but she sure looks happy and just fine in her box. She is a big hen so she put her rump out to the open area and I put a bunch of new shavings in up against her so she would feel cozy and private. We'll see if she sticks with it. This is so exciting! So 21 days from now could be interesting, too!
Here are all the eggs, and the largest one in the front with the HR on it was found this morning - it is from HollyRamona I am nearly certain! She is the only other blue egg layer, and it's bigger than the "girls'" eggs who just started laying. Finally, I found it on the coop floor - she lays her eggs from the roosting bar at night and that would explain why many of them have broken depending on which roost she's on (how high up and how many shavings to cushion the landing). SOOOO exciting to see our girl doing well and even laying! So of course I trotted it right into the warmer and we'll see if we can hatch another factory of sweet.