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. :-)