{June 3, 2011}

Ryan and I recently "built" a homemade incubator from a styrofoam cooler, a piece of plexiglass, some chicken wire, a 25W lightbulb, a thermometer that also measures the humidity, an egg carton, and--the best thing ever--a temperature controlled outlet that controls when to turn the lightbulb off and on to maintain the temp at 99-100 degrees. On Saturday I put in 11 Muscovy duck eggs that I had collected over a few days, and I've dutifully turned the eggs and watched the temp/humidity the entire time. Hopefully we have several that are fertile and will end up with baby ducklings in another 4 weeks. Tomorrow night I will candle the eggs to check on their progress, although I'll most likely check them tonight just for fun. :o) This is the first time we've ever hatched anything and I know the success rate isn't so great for duck eggs, but it's fun nonetheless! Plus, I've already told Ryan that if these eggs aren't fertile/don't make it, I'm throwing some freshly collected chicken eggs in there--I want babies!!

Taken with my iPhone using the Instagram app with the Sutro filter applied.

On to the pic...{click to view full size}