In the Incubator

After I got the eggs in the mail my next job was to place them in an incubator, or as those of us in the biz like to call a "bator".  After doing some reading I went with the Hova Bator brand- chicken people seem to have success with it.  Basically it is a controlled temperature environment for the eggs.  I put a little water in the bottom to add humidity to the air-this step is more important later as the eggs begin to hatch. 

My responsibility for the first 18 days was to turn the eggs 3 times a day (you want to do an odd amount of turns).  You can get automatic turners but I was too cheap to get one and after about day two I wished I had just bought one.  Standard procedure is to mark one side with an "x" the other with an "o" so you remember which side is which.  I went with "x's" and numbers (Lucy and I have a chart to fill in after all). Obviously we are passed day 18 so I thought I would write this step before jumping to where we are now.