Doom!

It is "Day 21" as they say in the incubating world. Hatch day! I don't anticipate any hatch at all. We are down to 4 out of 24 eggs. I have little hope for these... We have not seen any movement in them. In fact, I think all the eggs were "fried" by a temperature spike early on in the process. We opened some eggs this week & did not see so much as a tiny 7-day sized embryo.
So we did what any senseless chicken farmers would do: We put more eggs in the incubator! Insanity it is!
Oh, and I am considering allowing R. to purchase some of the Showgirl birds that we tried & failed to hatch... I am weak.
Here are some Showgirl photos - for the uninitiated. They are a Turken/Silkie cross, ugly as sin.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/ShowGirls/BRKShowGirl.html

Incubating is a PAIN!

A psychic pain.

We have been incubating eggs - our Silkies, Lynda's Silkies & Mr. S.'s Showgirls - for nearly two weeks. (Don't ask who these other people are. They are internet hookups...) This incubating thing is supposed to be easy: set it up, establish the temperature & put the damn eggs in. It has been a daily struggle of adjusting the temp in the face of weather changes & household appliance temps. I wanted to chuck out the entire lot on Thursday & now I have hope! Sigh! I feel like a loser for wishing this.

But then Rose says, "Billy SHOULD be a daddy!" and I melt... Billy (above) is the most humanly cuddly & sexually aggressive thing - ever. Yikes.