There are different opinions about whether or not to candle one's incubating eggs. Candling is the process of shining a bright light into the eggs in the dark to see what is happening developmentally.
Those in favor of candling point out that if an egg stops developing the contents of the egg could build up toxic gasses. If the egg explodes (a possibility), those toxins are then released into the nest and could potentially infect the other eggs.
Those in favor of not candling point out that since Creation, the vast majority of broody hens have managed this whole process just fine without any human intervention.
Since this is our first broody, since we were a little concerned about a few of the eggs, and since we are innately curious (!), Uncle Mark and I decided to go ahead and candle.
Friday evening we went out after dark to see what we could see. I was tasked with taking care of Mama. She is used to me by now and puts up with me. We opened the nesting box, I reached in and picked her up, held her, talked soothingly to her, and petted her a little bit (True Confessions!). As we looked in at the nest and counted the eggs, we realized that there were only SEVEN there. Just as I was commenting...OK, shrieking, ("WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER EGG???!!!!), catastrophe struck. I did not know then that sometimes an egg or two will get stuck up under Mama's legs and feathers. One had. It fell.
Good news? The egg was fertile.
Bad news? We are down to seven eggs. Mean old Mr. Gravity!
We tried to candle them but realized that we really did not know what we were doing. After the second egg, we put Mama back, closed the door, and walked away. We'll find out when we find out!
No comments:
Post a Comment