Elaine and I had hoped that some of the 13 chicken eggs we had been incubating would hatch earlier this week. But, unfortunately, none of them did. When we opened up the eggs to see if any of them had developed, we found that only two had partially begun to form a baby chick.
This was most disconcerting as recently we have lost our alpha rooster Boss, had a bear attack the run, and had Sweetie Pie run away (only to be captured hours later) as a result of the bruin trying to break down one of the walls of the run.
We believe that the reason the eggs did not hatch is because they became too cold when we stored them in the downstairs refrigerator. We turned the refrigerator's dial as warm as it would go - 50 degrees - but that apparently was not warm enough.
Tomorrow, we will begin another incubation period, hoping that we have learned from our past mistakes.
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