It’s cold out there today. Cold enough to numb your hands and face. It even snowed a little in the afternoon. It’s supposed to get into the single digits tonight, so we did the “cold weather routine”, including warm water for the chickens in their coop; deep straw in the ducks’ coop; warm water and extra hay for the rabbits outside.
Both of the NZ does are indoors tonight because tomorrow is (according to the calendar) kindling day…if they’re pregnant. There are promising signs, but these two would be first-time mothers, so may not know exactly what to do with the nest boxes we put in their kindling cages. They come from a line that has large litters – their litter had 11, and all survived, so we hope they’ll be as successful in raising their own kits. We’ll check on them tomorrow to see if there are any new arrivals.
As of 6:30 this evening, 21 of the 24 eggs have hatched successfully. The only remaining unhatched ones are the other 2 (pure) Brown Leghorn and a single brown mystery egg. The brown egg has pipped, but there’s nothing to be seen on the white ones.
It’s Day 14 for the chicken eggs in the incubator, so we candled them again to check on development…and to avoid “exploders”. A bad egg can apparently explode and spread harmful bacteria to other eggs in the incubator. The thought of a stinky, slimy rotten egg blowing up and spreading deadly ooze on all the other lovely developing eggs is enough to send a shiver down the spine.