Egg Candling

Jeff is finishing up my new chicken coop, and I will post pictures soon!  I absolutely love it, and I love the 14 new hens that we have pecking around the yard!  On my birthday, I decided that the weather was just too fabulous to do our school work indoors.  So, we headed for the yard, with all of our books and a white board.  We did spelling lessons with sidewalk chalk, read out loud to each other in the grass, and enjoyed the preview of Spring!

We now have one barred rock, some buff orpingtons, white leghorns, and red stars.  We have one Americauna rooster and I just brought home a buff orpington rooster in hopes that we can make some little buff orpington chicks in the next hatch!  When the new rooster came here, our Americauna rooster kicked his little butt all across the yard.  It was an honest to goodness cock fight.  In the end, the new guy ran into the woods.  We couldn't find him that night and we were sure he was a goner.  The next day, we looked to no avail.  We went to run our errands and when we were driving home, we saw him!  He was pecking around the church next door.  I let the boys out and they corralled him back home.  After a night or two in a separate pen, the two roosters now live together pretty well!

Today was my first attempt at egg candling.  We are 4 days into our incubation, and I believe I can see the tell tale blood vessels in a few of the eggs.  Most of our eggs are brown, so I am having a hard time seeing through the shell.  We do have a light egg that I could actually see the little dark spot which is the developing embryo!  I'm not sure how many of these eggs are actually gestating, but I do know that at least one or two are!

Asa is completely excited about our first hatch, and he counts down to March 21st each day!  I'm hoping that my candling abilities will improve, and I hope that I can find a way to see more clearly through these brown shells!