The Big Day

After 21 days of gestation, today is the day that I become a chicken mom. Hopefully. Two a day turnings and careful temperature monitoring will hopefully pay off on this very day. However, as my dad told me a few days ago, I am trying not to "count my chickens before they hatch". At this point, I am hoping to just have one hatch!

We "candled" the eggs a few days after incubation to check the fertility. My instructions said to cut a hole in a shoebox and shine a light through with the egg sitting on the hole, but we decided to do it our own way. We simply turned off all the lights in the house and held up a mini mag light to see if we had embryos within. Much to my dismay, we had several that Ben said were no go's, but being the girl that I am, I couldn't just throw them away because there just might be a chance. Ben says I am a typical woman. But hey, there just may be a chance!

I didn't take any pictures of the first candling, but we did it a few days ago, and what a difference a few days makes. I still say that some of the no go's that Ben wanted to throw away were miraculously alive.

Ok. Here is what you don't want it to look like.

See? There is nothing in there. Nada. Just a big empty egg. No baby chicks here.

Now this one looks a little promising!

We have a chick! We actually saw him/her move too! I was so excited!

Hopefully they will make their appearance today and do away with my fears of being a bad incubator mom. Stay tuned!