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Turn the Eggs

We are turning eggs, but only an odd number of times a day.  Yep, that is what I said, turning eggs…rotating them daily, but oddly only, not evenly, usually 3 times a day…not 4.

My Loving Spouse built an incubator…from ‘junk’.  Well, not junk exactly, the ice chest was a perfectly good little ice chest before he put a hole in it to hold the light bulb for his incubator.  incubatorpicmThe light bulb wiring he stole from some old lamp that we didn’t want any more (I think or rather I hope).  The thermostat came from an old water heater thermostat he just happened to have lying around and the eggs…well, we know where the eggs came from.

incubatorpicm3Now we ask each other important questions daily, “Did you turn the eggs this morning?”  Because they must be turned (oddly), as that is one of the jobs the mother hen does when it sits on her clutch of eggs, she turns them.  Since we are a tad newer to egg turning these eggs are marked on each side so we know when exactly to stop turning them.

incubatorpicm2

If the incubator works, we will have 8 hatching chicks next Saturday, there were 9 eggs, but one met an early drop dimise.  There is the possibility that the eggs are not all fertile and we could hatch less than 8.  The incubator could be working fine, but we had a 4 hour power outage the other night, and so we do not really know if that did them in, so we are still turning them (oddly).  Chances are if none hatch, we’ll load her up and start again…turning eggs…oddly.

{ 6 comments… add one }
  • Don February 9, 2014, 9:05 pm

    As usual my “limey” friend shows his talent. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to get a “Banty” hen and let her do the warming & the turning? We used to set the little hens and they are amazing mothers.dg

  • Shelagh February 9, 2014, 9:18 am

    Is his eyesight still good enough to tell the sexes apart when they do hatch?

    • Ellen February 9, 2014, 10:44 am

      I guess we will find out!

  • Al February 8, 2014, 8:26 pm

    Humidity is also a factor. If it’s dry, put a cup of water in with the eggs.

    • Ellen February 8, 2014, 10:18 pm

      Thanks Al, we actually are using the dribbling technique, dribbling a bit of water into the cardboard egg cartons to keep them from drying out! We’ll see….

  • Miriam February 8, 2014, 4:01 pm

    I’m going to try that question on my family… “Did you turn the eggs?”, just to see their reaction!

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