A Chick Explosion!

Chicks, chicks everywhere! While our hatch was not a roaring success--three hatched but only two lived--we received the chick motherload this morning from our Pennsylvania egg connection.

These are the "culls" that didn't make the breeder's cut--but they look adorable to me. :-) There are seven little black chicks. I think we're going to keep two or three and find homes for the rest.

An Engineering Masterpiece

In a technical feat of truly astounding proportions, I have built and installed my own fan for our Little Giant incubator. These things are $40 in the store. I built this one out of a $1.99 computer fan and an old cell phone charger I found under my desk. It was, of course, amazingly simple. I cut the wires and attached them in various configurations until it worked. ;-)

Chick update

Well, our first chick didn't make it. His legs were small and deformed and he seemed to have respiratory problems as well. He had a great personality, though, and was the friendliest of the three by far. We dubbed him Forrest, after Forrest Gump and the little splints I tried unsuccessfully to attach to his little legs. We didn't know him for very long but we will definitely remember him.

We do, however, have an overwhelming amount of cuteness to console ourselves with. The yellow chick (right) is now officially Blondie. The blue and yellow chick (left), who was born second, has become Number Two a la Austin Powers.

Our first chick!!! And second! And third! Oh, my!

So, 14 LF Araucana eggs made it to lockdown in cartons. On Saturday (Day 20) I had three little pips.

Yesterday (Day 21) the first egg zipped very quickly and popped his top. Then he just sat there in the bottom of the egg all day. When I finally intervened and pulled the egg out, he rolled right out and his little legs and feet were all curled up under him. The legs are a little less curled today but his toes are very small and curled up like little fists.

Yesterday afternoon the second egg zipped and the chick popped out very quickly. I went to the bathroom as he was zipping and came back and he was sitting next to his egg. That little guy seems fine.

This morning (Day 22) the third little guy zipped his egg very quickly . . . and then nothing. All day I watched him. Eventually I realized he'd worked his head down under the zip line and was stuck, so I popped his top for him. He still couldn't get his head out and I realized his membrane had started to dry and he was stuck to it, so I put a wet towel next to him. After an hour or so I gave up and de-shelled him--but left the membrane intact and just wet it gently with water. He was able to shake it off pretty quickly and now seems to be doing well.

No sign of movement yet from the remaining eggs, but I started to notice an odor when I checked on the eggs (the incubator is in one of my kitchen cabinets for extra insulation). So I had to open the incubator and check the eggs. One of the egg cartons was soaked through from the towel, so I had to move the eggs anyway. One was obviously bad so I tossed it. Now I'm just waiting to hear more little peeps.

There's a chicken on my roof.

Even worse . . . there's a chicken on my neighbor's roof. I may have to disavow all knowledge. I certainly have no authority. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but somehow Amelia, Pat, and Bertha heard a rumor about my free-ranging plans and decided to take matters into their own hands a little sooner than I had intended. I came home to find they had--quite literally--flown the coop and were grazing in the yard. When I approached, Amelia took flight. And wow, can she fly. Over the fence, over the house, and now seems to have taken up permanent residence in the front yard. Or rather, my neighbor's front yard and the roof of her house . . .

Luckily she's taking it very well. The nieghbor, that is--although Amelia also seems quite happy with the status quo. :-\

Three Fronts

It seemed like we went from 0 to 60 in a couple of seconds. We had three birds in the playhouse coop, new eggs in the incubator, and one lone little egg still kicking from the last batch. After much debate (which involved at one point considering the "bra incubator" option) I moved the last egg to the old-fashioned Chick-bator for the final days of chickie "lockdown" and we crossed our fingers.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. I think the Chick-bator was just too unstable for the little guy and he didn't make it. We have not given up hope, though. Bertha, Amelia, and Pat are hanging out in the coop and our LG incubator is still full of eggs. ;-)

Recycling--it's for the birds!

After researching various options--and fantasizing about building my own coop--I decided to "build" a coop in the spirit of my original goal with this project. So we're recycling! :-) I stalked freecycle and craigslist for a free structure and ended up with this:

It's a plastic Little Tykes style playhouse, which came to us in pieces. After reassembling the parts, I realized there was only a half-door, so I covered the top of the door opening with a heavy duty rubber welcome mat that happened to be handy. I stapled chicken wire over the widows and added hook and eye closures on each one and the door as well.

This morning I moved our new trio--Amelia, Bertha, and Pat--into their new house. I'm on the lookout for a small shelf for them to nest in, but for the meantime I've put a banker's box in there. They seem to be enjoying themselves so far.

I also need to add in a perch and a light, but I think this is a good start . . .

Wow, can they fly!

These birds have personality, intelligence, shock value, blue eggs, are beautiful, weird and, wow, can they fly.

Alan Stanford, writing about the Araucana

Um, yeah. I found that out last night when I brought home our three new birds. No, I haven't given up on hatching--our lone little egg is still kicking away in the incubator as I type and has now been joined by seven other little hopefuls. In the meantime, though, we were offered and I accepted three Araucana from Jen, the lady who provided our first set of eggs. Our readers may recall this is set from which I dropped the lone surviving egg and killed it. (There was blood. It was awful.)

So now we've come full circle with more eggs from that original flock and three actual birds . . .

The larger girl is 14 months and was being picked on so Jen separated her from the flock. Since chickens are social animals and don't do well alone, she came with two three month old birds. One is definitely a girl. The other we're just calling Pat. When I brought them home, the other three month old made a break for it into the wild blue yonder (of the kitchen) so she's now Amelia. The 14 month old who was being bullied by the mean kids is Bertha. :-)

Last night they were being stalked by dogs, cats, and two year olds and weren't too happy about it. They were also very, very hungry. As soon as I figured the last part out, they were much happier. :-)

Down, but not out

The 10 Little Indians that I set on October 28 were scrambled by the post office. Not one grew, which was very disappointing. I did not, however, give up. At this point, though, I think perseverance has crossed the line into obsession, which is what kept me from posting. :-) I ordered another set of eggs on Ebay. The new Little Indians (again, there were 10) went into the incubator on Friday, the 13th, which is a lucky date for me. My daughter was conceived on a Friday, the 13th, after all.

And now for the good news and the bad news:

This egg is still kicking--literally--but it's the only one. I am, however, thrilled. :-)

Ten Little Indians

The new eggs (10 of them!) arrived this morning and are now in the incubator. Along with a hydrometer and not one, not two, but three thermometers. In order to increase the humidity, I've also included a wet rag. I've seen people use sponges but I discovered this afternoon when I was prepping the incubator that I don't actually have any sponges. Hopefully the damp rag will work just as well. I'll keep a close eye on the humidity and if it isn't holding I'll make an emergency grocery store run tomorrow.

As you can see, they're a lovely mix of greens and blue greens. The one in the lower left hand corner is particularly lovely. Hopefully the chicks that hatch out of them will be equally beautiful. ;-)

Not for the faint of heart: Egg Autopsy

There is a very graphic image at the end of this post. It is not for the faint of heart. The good news is that we were very close. The bad news is that we were very close. Two of the chicks from this last hatch were completely formed. One actually pecked through the inner membrane of his egg. All seven of the final eggs had feathers, feet, beaks.

It was very sad to open these eggs and see how close we had come. I can't help but wonder if these two last two little guys would have made it if I would have cracked their eggs on Wednesday or Thursday. This exercise was necessary, though. It seems like humidity was our problem. Since I had filled all of the reservoirs built into the incubator, my next step will be to add a sponge (or three) at our next lockdown. I will also be purchasing a new temp and humidity gauge.

Our 6 new eggs should be on their way . . . My goal is that they not end up like this little guy:

A normal person would have given up by now

Third time was not a charm. The eggs should have hatched on Wednesday. Wednesday came and went without even a peep. Thursday, too. I'm pretty sure this is the point at which a normal person would give up. I, of course, have already ordered my next set of eggs--from yet another source. Never say die, that's me.

My next dilemma? The unhatched eggs. I've been quite blase about my "crack" parties with our duds, but some of these eggs were moving a week ago today. They should have something inside that fairly resembles a bird and I'm just a little tiny bit freaked out.

Here's the thing, though . . . I want to succeed. And as Einstein once said, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. I need to learn from this failed hatch so I need to figure out what went wrong. That means opening those eggs. And dealing with whatever disgusting baby chicken zombie is in there waiting for me.

Seriously, though, I expect my problem may have been excessive humidity. I was so worried they would dry out that I may have drowned the little guys in their shells. :-( Opening them up to confirm that is going to not be fun. I will, however, take pictures to share my pain.

The last crack party (I hope)

Welcome to (hopefully) our last crack party. Out of the original 14 eggs, 7 were definitely not going anywhere. So last night when we officially entered "lockdown" I decided to remove them from the incubator. According to our friends at BYC, non-fertile eggs or fertile eggs that have stopped developing can sometimes explode in the incubator. Although I hadn't seen any signs of that, I went ahead and removed them and this morning I took them outside to do a little postmortem.

As before the majority of the eggs were non-starters. In other words, I have spent the last 18 days pretty much making really nasty scrambled eggs. This should be looking familiar by now:

What was different this time is that we had a couple of "quitters," too. There were three eggs that obviously had something growing inside. I didn't look too closely (because I am of a sensitive nature, of course) but they didn't seem to be too far along. I'd say they probably stopped growing in the second week. Among these were the two that had clear "blood rings" last week.

So there are 7 eggs left and we're officially on "lockdown" now for the last three days of incubation. I candled last night before closing them in and didn't see any movement--but there isn't a lot of room in there to move so I'm trying to remain hopeful. Wednesday is our 21st day but I've told myself I'll give them until Friday before freaking out. Which means pretty much Tuesday noon. :-)

It's alive! Again!

I've been very discouraged lately. Raising chickens isn't rocket science and the fact that I've had such a hard time at it has been really bugging me. Not only was my ineptitude embarrassing, it was also standing between me and healthy food. Today we're two thirds the way into our third egg experiment, Day 14. I candled this evening with very low expectations. At the first candling there were only five eggs that were definitely growing and two of those had died within days.

Today's update: There are four eggs that are definitely not growing or have died. There are two that are probably not growing. And there are two that are definitely alive!!! They moved!!! I'm really just inappropriately happy and excited. Oh my god, I need a life. :-)

OMG, I suck!

There were five eggs that definitely had signs of life a week ago. Two of those eggs now definitely have "blood rings" which means that they've died. Out of the other 12 eggs, there were none that showed signs of movement--which is what I was really looking for tonight. I opened the incubator with my video camera already turned on and ready to capture (for you) the magic of a moving chick. And I got nothing. Some of these eggs are very dense and hard to see through, but still.

Now I know that I've said it's okay for things to be hard, but this is ridiculous. I have two master's degrees. I skipped two grades in school. I'm not an idiot. Okay, I don't have a clue when it comes to judging traffic patterns in the DC metro area and I have a tendency to catch things on fire when I cook, but I'm not an idiot. I should be able to do this.

So today we're ten days in to our third hatch and I'm already faced with the possibility of total failure. If this one doesn't make it, will we try again? At this point, I just don't know.

Signs of life

I'm very proud of myself! I lasted a whole 4.5 days before candling this batch of eggs for the first time. I was rewarded with obvious veining on at least five eggs! :-) I am, of course, very, very happy.

What's even better is that there is at least one egg with veining in each of the three groups that I divided the eggs into. We have 14 eggs total, five of which are from 9/26 (and these should be 100% pure bred). The other nine are from 9/27 and were accidentally mixed up with eggs from a mixed pen. I separated these into two groups visually--four of the eggs seemed a little smaller and the shells not as opaque.

I'm seeing definite veining in one of the 9/26 eggs and two from each of the other groups. Now I would ideally like to hold out until Thursday or Friday to candle them again. It will take all of my willpower. ;-)

Where to start?

You know where we've ended up (egg obsessed and chick-less) but how did we get here? This post was inspired by Michelle, who asked for recommendations on how to find a farmer to buy her own fresh, local foods from. My advice? Start at RealMilk.com.

Just like the commercial hatcheries are turning out weaker, genetically homogenized poultry, commercial diaries depend on weaker, genetically homogenized cattle. The same business logic is being used in both industries. The animals are bred to produce the greatest amount of their commodity (eggs or milk) in the easiest and most cost-effective way possible.

Farmers who sell "real" milk--or who operate farm shares providing access to it--are outside of the commercial network. Not only do they farm in different ways, but they breed their animals very differently, too. Over the last couple of decades the divide between commercial cows (Holsteins) and traditional breeds has become obvious. In addition to overall poor health, commercial cows are also starting to suffer from increasing infertility, which I see as a huge genetic red flag in any species.

When commercial dairies use sickly cows--and lots of them--they have to assume that their products are contaminated. This makes life easier for them because it means they don't have to be careful--they're going to sterilize everything anyway (even the milk) so why bother? Here's the problem with pasteurizing dairy products. . . it kills all of the natural probiotics and enzymes that make them so good for you to begin with. That stuff that you pay extra to have put back into your yogurt at the grocery store.

Farmers who use healthy cattle don't assume that their products are contaminated--they actually test both the animals and the milk they produce. They also pay attention to their animals and institute policies and procedures that keep their products from being contaminated. That's the kind of farmer I want to buy my food from.

Coincidentally, many of these farmers are Amish. While modern organic farmers like PolyFace Farms are becoming more popular, the best source for experienced farmers who understand how to farm in a truly organic and sustainable manner are the people who have been doing so for hundreds of years.

So my advice to anyone who wants to improve their diet is to start with the networks set up to find non-commercial milk sources. They will help you locate farmers using traditional farming methods and the traditional, fresh foods that they produce. One word of warning, though: fresh, non-commercial foods are inconsistent. If you've only ever had grocery store fare, you may be in for a bit of a culture shock. Farm fresh eggs come in all sizes and colors; meats may be cut irregularly; and your milk will have a faint taste of whatever field the cows grazed on that week. :-)

Round Two, Adieu.

It's official. I candled the Round Two eggs again last night and saw nothing so this morning I took them outside and did our now-traditional cracking of the bad eggs. Same broken yolks but at least this time they had the decency to stink a little.

Around noon we received our new clutch of victims--um, I mean, eggs. These are regular size birds as opposed to the bantams we've been working with in our first two attempts. The eggs are also a little more green than blue. Here's a comparison shot between the second round eggs (pre-crack party) and one of the new set:

Also, word of my egg-hatching ineptitude seems to have spread throughout the poultry community. Our new egg connection has sent us 14 of these big boys (or girls, hopefully). I've used this as an excuse to buy a larger incubator. More pictures to follow. ;-)

Hard is good

Hard is good . . . or at least that's what I'm telling myself. It's important to me that my daughter grows up to be the kind of person who takes the road less traveled--or blazes her own path--and that's not easy. I never want her to make important decisions in her life based on which path is the easiest. I certainly haven't.

Compared to some of the big decisions that have defined my life food seems pretty insignificant, but I'm beginning to believe more and more that it's a crucial component in what's gone "wrong" with our western lifestyle. Since I've been trying to address this issue, the sheer magnitude of the problem has become nearly overwhelming. I'm not a gourmet chef and my cooking skills are rudimentary at best. Over the last five years or so I've gone from ordering a value meal in the drive thru (supersize me) to staring down a plate of organic beef and trying to figure out how to turn it into a meal my two year old will eat. (That was tonight, by the way, and I was successful!)

So this is all a very long, draw out way to say that I don't think Round Two of our egg experiment is going to be successful, but I'm not giving up. Having access to real food and understanding where real food comes from--and it isn't a paper bag covered in golden arches--is Really Important. And things that are Really Important are worth doing, even if they're hard.

I never learn

I went back and looked at the posts from our first experiment and I'm pretty much on track with my lack of patience. I candled our three new eggs and, of course, there's nothing to see yet. Ugh.

Patience is not one of my virtues

I'm trying very, very hard to leave the eggs alone but it's taking a tremendous force of will. I pretty much would like to sit in the dark with the eggs and a flashlight 24/7. Yes, my life is that exciting.

The good news is that I have plenty to keep me busy this week. In a perfect world, I would definitely be able to hold off until Friday to candle them. In reality land, I'm hoping for Wednesday. ;-)

Phase Two has begun!!!

At 12:13pm today I received our replacement eggs. They were supposed to be here by noon and the poor innocent woman at the post office got quite an earful. I'm pretty sure she's going to be thinking of me as "that crazy egg lady" for quite a while.

Of course, I put my three new little guys into the incubator right away. My goal with this batch is to be a little more hands off. I'm going to try not to candle them until Day 7. We'll see how long I can hold out. :-)

In the meantime, here are the new kids on the block. Hopefully they'll have a much longer future ahead of them than the last set.

The experiment is over :-(

Yesterday I posted about my concerns over the condensation and humidity in the incubator. After doing some research and getting some advice, I very carefully removed junior from the incubator and cleaned out all of the water reservoirs to let him dry out a little. The lower humidity seemed to cause the temperature to stay higher and all night I struggled with keeping him at 100 degrees. I got up at 1:30am this morning to check on his temp and put the fan on in the kitchen to cool him off another half degree.

This morning I was making some more adjustments to keep the temp down and knocked into his egg. It rolled and hit the counter hard enough to crack his shell. I've seen crack repairs in my research--using nail polish and wax--and I was mentally ransacking my house for nail polish when I realized that blood was coming out of the crack. His membrane was ruptured and the crack extended all the way around the egg.

After standing there frozen for another second, I accepted that I had to let him go. Our experiment is over for the moment. I didn't take any pictures--or even de-shell him--because (and I know this sounds ridiculous--but I was too upset. I know it's just an egg, but aren't we all at some point?

I've already sent an email to see if any of junior's "siblings" are still available and hopefully our experiment will continue soon. In the meantime, I'm feeling both very sad and very stupid. :-(

UPDATE 2:50PM --> Three more eggs are on the way! They should be here by noon. My plan is to distract my daughter this evening and sneak the new eggs into the incubator tomorrow. This is going to seem like an usually long three weeks to her. ;-)

The home stretch

Tomorrow we are officially in our third week of our egg's three week gestation. It's the home stretch and I'm way too excited. Junior's activity level is definitely much lower--but that may just be because he (or she, hopefully) is getting a little crowded in there. I'm also getting condensation on the inside of the incubator lid suddenly that I'll have to ask the folks on the forum about. Wouldn't want junior to get moldy. :-o

How disappointing . . .

I was expecting unformed baby bird bits, green and black slime, or at the least an unholy stench. What I got were fairly normal looking scrambled eggs:

Eh.

Halfway Home

Well, we're down to one egg but we're halfway home. I candled our last little guy last night and didn't really see any movement so I'm a little worried. I've already told myself that if he doesn't make it we'll try again--but I really, really want him to make it. :-(

And then there was one . . .

Well, I've officially given up on #1 and #2. There's nothing going on in there. But stay posted because I'm going to open them up later today and see what went wrong. (Insert evil scientist laugh.)

In the meantime, though, #3 goes on alone:

It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! Muhahahaha!

Okay, maybe I'm a little carried away. Really, though, you have to admit this is pretty cool. On day 6, one of our little eggs is definitely, positively alive!!! I was so worried yesterday that our little experiment was at an end but now I know that at least one of my little guys is still going strong. And here's the proof:

Houston, we have movement!

After a serious temperature fluctuation last night, I was not feeling hopeful. I've still been turning the eggs but I was pretty sure I'd blown it. I decided to candle them just now to see what I could see and . . . there's definite veining and MOVEMENT in egg #3.

That's right! Movement!!! I'm way, way too excited. :-) I'll take a picture later and post it.

What do organic, free range, and cage free really mean?

The sad truth is that people who sell us food are no better or more honest than the people who sell us cars, tvs, or credit cards. Not everyone who farms does it out of the love of the land or the animals. In fact it seems like most of those people have been run off with sticks and what's left are the salesmen who used to work at the used car lot. There are still some of the good ones left but it's very hard to tell who's who--especially when all you have to judge by is the gallon of milk or dozen eggs sitting in front of you on a grocery store shelf.

Let's face it, all eggs look the same. You can't necessarily tell by looking at an egg or even tasting it whether the hen who laid it sat in the grass, basking in the sun all day or was closed up in a dark warehouse with thousands of other chickens 24/7. When you start to do research into the farms that produce eggs (and milk and other products) at the large chain groceries, problems start to come to light.

In the worst examples, commercial farms adhere to the letter--if not the spirit--of federal regulations to place organic, cage-free, and free-range labels on their eggs. Those chickens in the dark warehouse are technically cage-free. Of course the farmer has to use a little machine to cut off the tips of their beaks so they don't attack each other in such close quarters. And they have access to the outside, so they're techically free-range as well. Of course, it's a very small door that only leads to a gravel pen and the door is only open five minutes a day.

That's the worst case scenario. Even in the best case scenario, however, there are issues. Michael Pollan talks about PolyFace Farms in this video. This farm is local to me so I've looked into their operations a little more closely. I've found some scattered criticism of their treatment of their chickens but stories from people who have actually visited the farm (which I hope to do) are overwhelmingly positive.

But here's the problem: PolyFace doesn't breed their own chickens. They purchase their chickens (and other animals) from commercial operations, treat them well while they have them, but start the whole cycle again from scratch with each generation. So while they're not treating their animals inhumanely, they are inherently a part of--and supporting--the factory farming model that does.

How is this sustainable farming? I think many people were swept away by Pollan's description of PolyFace and really saw it as an example of what all farming could be. But if we do away with the hatcheries where will PolyFace get its chickens? How will there model have to change so that they're no longer dependent on the very practices they're set up as the antithesis of?

So once more I come back to local--truely local--foods. Local as in my own backyard. Almost any discussion of organic/humane foods comes around to cost at some point. Truely organic foods cost much more--twice as much or more--than factory farmed foods. The consumer's option is to raise the food on their own. The cost then is transferred from dollar costs to labor costs. Your time and effort will be required to raise chickens, plant a garden, milk a cow (or goat).

But whether you pay with your wallet or your sweat, you are getting something of value in return. In this country over the last couple of generations it seems like we've forgotten how precious food is. Maybe because it's been so long since any of us have seen real food. When you can pay a $1 for an egg mcmuffin why would you consider spending three weeks turning three little blue eggs three times a day? Assuming you aren't just a nut, like me. :-)

Candling hatching eggs--or not so hatching eggs

The eggs went into the incubator on Friday, so this is really the absolute earliest that I would be able to see the beginning of any veining in my eggs. Like when I was trying to get pregnant with my daughter, I've totally jumped the gun. The fact that there isn't any veining visible when I shine my high powered flashlight through them doesn't mean they won't hatch--it just means I'm very impatient. :-)

Candling eggs doesn't actually require the use of a candle these days. Instead I used my handy-dandy maglight and made a "tunnel" out of my hand with the flashlight at one end and the egg at the other. At left is a picture of a 3 day old egg from the folks at BackYardChickens.com. What I'm looking for are the veins that indicate the chick is starting to grow. And I don't see them. Sigh.

So my goal for the next couple of days is going to be patience. It may be Friday before I see anything--but I think I should see something by then. I'll be very disappointed if we don't even make it out of the gate on our first try, but if that's the case we'll just try again. I'm commited to this whole endeavor--from the perspective of providing a great experience for my daughter, to not providing support of current commercial poultry practices, to having fresh, organic, truly locally grown food on our plates every day. So I guess we're in it for the long haul. ;-)

Choosing an incubator for your fertile eggs

When your main criteria is cost--in that you don't want to spend more than $20--your incubator options narrow pretty quickly. In fact, you're left with only two choices: to buy a Chick-bator, pictured below, or to build your own.

Well, I decided that while the materials might be cheap, the time to gather and assemble them (and the shear will required to finish any project lately) would be better spent on building the coop we'll (hopefully) need in 6-8 weeks. I also had a coupon, which may have been the determining factor. :-)

According to the people at PoultryHelp.com I've made a horrible mistake. Not my first one, to be sure, but I'm still a little worried. After polling the nice folks hanging out on the boards at BackYardChickens.com, though, I think we do still have a fighting chance.

While I do think I should invest in a hygrometer to measure the humidity (and it looks like Home Depot has one for $2.98, which is within my budget), it seems like we have all of the components for success. Our setup may need a little more attention than an expensive incubator but I'm enjoying checking on the little darlings. Since I should be able to work from home almost every day for the next three weeks, I don't think we're quite doomed (yet).

UPDATE: I was actually able to find a free hygrometer on freecycle. It's only a couple of miles away--even closer than Home Depot--so I'm saving $2.98 plus tax as well as a little bit of gas. ;-) Just goes to show that you really don't have to spend a bundle to have fresh, organic food. A huge amount of effort, yes, but a lot of money, no.

A promise to my unhatched eggs

When (if?) these eggs hatch they won't be pets the same way that the dogs and cats are. They'll be moving outside as soon as they're old enough and they will never, ever be allowed in the bed. ;-) They are, however, still living beings that I'm going to be responsible for and I have to make promises to them the same way that I have made to my other animals. To everyone I promise to make sure they always have enough food and water and adequate shelter. To the cats I promise to never declaw them. To the dogs I promise to never let them off lead in an unfenced area. To the chickens I promise to never make them wear saddles.

Really, people. Saddles? Aprons? For chickens? Okay, I guess with the explanation I get that they might be a necessary thing to protect chickens against violent roosters--but I'd rather just get rid of the roosters with the issues. Since I'm planning on inviting any roosters to dinner (haha) that shouldn't be an issue. So I think I can safely promise my future chicks that their dignity (and their feathers) will be safe.

Hatching eggs require . . .

What do fertile hatching eggs require to, well, hatch? Not too much, it turns out. They need to be kept at an even temperature so I put a little thermometer on top of the eggs and adjusted a 7 watt lightbulb with a small square of aluminum foil. They need a little humidity so I filled one of the legs of the incubator with water. And they need to be turned. At least three times a day. Really, that doesn't seem like such a huge commitment.

It turns out, though, that turning a hatching egg is a little more complicated than I originally thought. For starters, you have to mark the top and bottom of the eggs so that you're turning it as close to 180 degrees as you can each time.

When turning a fertile egg in the incubator, you also have to make sure to always keep the "big" end of the egg tilted up. That's fine as long as you can tell which end of the egg is "big." On one of my eggs it isn't so obvious. I've pretty much guessed, so we'll keep our fingers crossed for that little guy.

Besides determining the proper tilt, though, the hard part seems to be just scheduling the turns themselves. Today we were out for 12 hours at a special event. I turned the eggs this morning at 6am but didn't get the chance to turn them again until 7pm. It's important to turn them an odd number of times each day so that they don't spend consecutive nights on the same side, so I'll stay up as late as I can (probably around 10pm) and turn them again. Hope I don't end up with little lopsided chicks. :-)

Why are we raising our own chickens?

Well, the short answer is that I'm willing to try almost anything once and this seems like a good experience for my daughter and the chance to provide her with healthy, organic (and truly local) fresh food. The long answer is (by definition) a little more complicated. :-)

Part of the problem is that Americans see things like the video below every day and while they are horrified and moved emotionally--they're not actually moved. Americans are not moved to act or to make changes in their lifestyles and buying habits that could effect real change. I always shake my head when people say they care but feel like they can't make a change. Because, really, it's so easy.

This is the way that the poultry industry currently treats chickens:

If you aren't okay with that, all you have to do is stop buying your eggs at the grocery store. Almost every urban and suburban community in this country has a farmer's market, every rural route has at least one farm that sells fresh eggs--and other healthy, organic, locally raised, fresh foods. No, it may not be as close as your local Giant or Safeway and yes, you might have to plan out your food shopping a week at a time. No more speeding over to the local grocery store at 7pm on a Tuesday because you've run out of eggs. The good news is that fresh eggs last a while so you can buy a couple of dozen at a time.

Or, you can do what we're doing, and try to raise your own chickens. You don't have to start with fertile hatching eggs--most farms will sell chicks of various ages for just a couple of dollars each. You also don't need to spend a great deal of money on supplies. Our incubator was less than $20 and the cage I plan to use as a "brooder" to raise the chicks was a giveaway from someone's spring cleaning.

So whether you go the easy route and visit your local farmer's market once a week or go completely bonkers like us and try to hatch your own eggs, you have no excuse for buying eggs at the grocery store. You don't need to carry a sign to stage your own protest--let your money do the talking for you. Companies will listen.

Fertile eggs? Check! Incubator? Check!

The pieces are finally all in place. Last night I assembled our Chick-bator Incubator and set it up to monitor the temperature. After much fiddling and rearranging, I finally got it to a steady 100 degrees. This morning our three potential chicks arrived:

Now we're ready for the pieces to all come together. I very carefully marked the top and bottom of each egg and numbered them. (I'm open to giving them names.) I put them in the incubator--which is inside a kitchen cabinet to protect it from drafts--at cats. It happens to be the cabinet in which I keep the dog treats, so hopefully my little organic chicks won't develop a subconscious desire for beef jerky. :-)

And here they are in all of their glory. This will be the eggs' home for the next 21 days . . .

Our hatching eggs have arrived!

Big thanks to Jenifer at Blue Daze Farm for sending out our little future chicks so quickly! The package arrived at the post office this morning bright and early. I called to make sure they would keep it there--instead of driving it around in a hot mail truck all day--and went to pick it up. I loved the little drawing and warnings on the side, but they freaked the post office ladies out a little. They were positive they had heard noises from the box and that the chicks were going to peck their way out at any moment. :-)

Opening the box was like Christmas morning! The inside was filled with pink packing peanuts, which I carefully sifted through to unearth the three very carefully packaged farm-fresh eggs inside. Each egg was individually wrapped in bubble wrap and sealed in its own little baggy for the ride. It looks like all of this care did the job, too, because the shells at least are in perfect condition.

As most of my friends know, I have a hard time distinguishing between green and blue so I won't venture to guess at the color of the eggs, although it's definitely one or the other. :-) The eggs are on the small size but feel unusually heavy--maybe because they're fertile or just because they're organic? I know the supposedly cage-free eggs at the grocery store are often just like the commercial eggs in everything but name and color. We had fertile eggs as a child (my grandmother's neighbor raised chickens) but I haven't really been exposed to them as an adult. I'm so excited that Gus will get the opportunity to (hopefully) see these eggs hatch and raise the chicks. I'm looking forward to one day having access to real organic fresh eggs that we know come from the healthiest--and most humane--environment possible.