The waiting has been driving me crazy. I lost track of how many times I checked on my eggs over the weekend. Finally, on Sunday night The Boss and I were woken by persistant "peep, peep, peep" sounds coming from the incubator. I never knew eggs could be so noisy.
Yesterday morning I left home with two of my four remaining eggs showing promising signs of hatching. Both were rocking from side to side, and both had holes poked through their shells. Little peepers were finally on their way!
When The Boss and I returned a few hours later, the little bloke above was waiting for us. Sadly his other egg mate didn't manage to make it out of her(?) shell. Last night I candled the last two eggs, one had a fully formed chick in it that had died, while the other contained a wiggly chick that will hopefully arrive today. I think this one is a girl, which explains why she's so late in arriving.
In the meantime, meet Steve Austin, world's most expensive chick! It's too scarey to do the maths, but if you do a rough estimate of electricity at 100watts an hour for 21 days, plus my time turning eggs, monitoring humidity and doing temperature regulation duties, then add The Boss's labour and materials to build the incubator, not to mention the petrol for the trip South for pheasant eggs which started this whole process off; Steve is a costly wee roo.
Technically his name should start with the letter "R", but you know me - to hell with the rules. He's not quite a six million dollar man, but close enough.
As a (potentially) only child, Steve is in for an interesting life. He is currently living in my laundry basket with a toy frizzle chook to snuggle in to for warmth, and I've introduced him to Dukkah the Maine Coon in the hopes that she won't take it upon herself to eat him.
Steve has been spending regular time snuggled into my neck, peeping loudly whenever The Boss and I try to have a conversation. He's teeny tiny and very cute. Long may it continue.
What I've learnt today:
1. Quince and her babies love their new outdoor house. It's just a shame the other chooks regard it as a great place to sit when they're out free ranging. Quince is not impressed with this development.
2. Figgy has been sitting tight on her eggs for twelve days now, incubating happily without any added electricity costs or any lost sleep. Hmmm, I think there is a lesson hiding in here for me....
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