When we reached 6 dozen eggs in the fridge, I knew I had to kick things into gear and start selling some eggs. Last week, I sold 9 dozen. This week, I decided that we need to sign up weekly deliveries, in order to help me calculate how many I have to sell. So, starting next week I have four dozen claimed per week. I have slots for 2 more dozen. Eggs are collected, cleaned, put into cartons, and taken to the church when I pick Ivey up from school. So far, so good! In all the craziness, I even loaded Asa, Ivey, and Olive into the van and headed on a Craigslist run, bringing home 6 more laying hens to help meet the demand. Now, we are getting a minimum of 12 per day. Not too shabby.
Indoors, Jeff helped me make a homemade incubator out of a styrfoam cooler, a $10 water heater thermostat, an old computer fan, and ceramic light fixture with a 25watt bulb. Add some hardware cloth and a thermometer/hydrometer and you're done... or done-ish. You do have to sit and fiddle with the thermostat, light bulb combo for a good long while before you learn to make it work together. What you have to realize is that the hot water heater thermostat is made to have a 6 degree swing. It won't turn off or back on until the temp has changed by 6 degrees. Well, that doesn't work in egg hatching. So, after some trials and a bunch of brain power, I placed the thermostat directly above the light bulb... so that it is touching it. Then, I positioned the fan to blow directly on to the bulb... which does circulate the air throughout the cooler, but also works to quickly cool that hot light bulb down. The end result was that the light bulb comes on, heats the air in the box to a good temp, but the hot bulb is actually hotter than the air in the box. So, the therostat registers that it is at the upper end and shuts off. Then, that hot bulb cools off quickly from the fan, so although the rest of the boys if fluxing between 99.4 and 100.6, the light bulb has a much wider swing. The thermostat was effectivly tricked, and we have a toasty incubator for $24.
Jeff did make me a fabulous mobile chicken coop. My "chick mobile" has roosts and a good door to hold them in at night. Nesting boxes that open from the outside so no one has to actually go inside the thing unless you are the one laying the egg. I need to paint it, but it already looks great to me! As of now, we have 3 buff orpingtons, 2 barred rocks, 3 white leghorns, 4 Rhode Island Reds, and 9 red stars. We also have a lone Aracauna rooster and a Buff Orpington rooster. In the next few weeks, I will be trying to get a setting together of straight buff orpingtons and straight white leghorns (assuming my white leghorn delivery comes through!). Yes, I'm addicted. It's just so fun!
Day 18 was on Friday, and I moved each egg from one incubator to our homemade hatching box. The temp is still looking very steady, and tonight, we already have 5 little chick-a-dees cracking through! It's so weird to hear peeping coming from inside an egg. Everyone is totally excited to see what strides are made over night. 
In other non-chicken related news...
Asa is interested in BMX, so we found him a bike today! It needs new tires and tubes, but it's in pretty good shape! Hopefully, I can get him out there to practice this week... assuming I can get him a helmet... hmm... I need an assistant!
Olive is walking a lot more now. It's still not her primary mode of transportation, but she is trying to on her own more and more. Whenever Ivey comes near her, Olive goes ahead and drops to her knees. The poor girl knows she's about to get knocked over. Those two are going to be quite the pair. I see daily boxing matching in my future.
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