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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

If you are squeamish, delete now..this is a warning:  Gross topic ahead

At last update, I had 21 living chicks and 3 eggs remaining in the
incubator.  If you will recall, the last chick that hatched was like the
first chick in that it hatched before the yolk sac was absorbed.  The
first chick had to be euthanized.  The last chick was doing a lot better
and I thought he would make it, but he died last night.  I now have 20
living, thriving chicks who are eating everything in sight now.
Since today is Day 23 and my late egg was 2 days late, meaning that it
should have been born today, I would normally wait an additional day
just to make sure, but since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I will have a
houseful of people to include my toddlin' grandbaby,(house is only about
900 sf) I decided to end the suspense today.  There had been no sign of
hatching for any of the three eggs even though my candling record showed
development.  The other two eggs were supposed to have hatched on Monday.
So, I decided to toss the eggs.  Never one to waste anything, I made the
decision to toss the eggs into the chicken coop run.  In they went, one,
two, three...thud, thud, thud.  I sadly report that had I waited just
one more day I would have had 3 additional chicks.  I will spare you the
details.

The 2 day late egg I understand.  The only explanation I can come up
with as to why the other two eggs would take 23-24 days is that perhaps
they were the last eggs collected and it may have been cold that day.
Maybe it took 2-3 days for the eggs to come up to temperature in the
incubator and start developing.  I can't think of any other explanation.
All three eggs were at the same stage of development, living chick about
to be born.
I don't know what that does to my stats., but that's the breaks, I guess.

Bev


--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.”        Yoda