Adventures in incubating.

I finally got around to setting up the incubator and managed to save up 25 eggs in the mean time.   I made a small calender for the kids and me to mark off the days as well as when we rotate them.  Right now, I'm having a hard time finding the perfect temperature and I've got the bottom of an old sour cream tub with water in it for the humidity.  Our friend said it worked just fine for him, so we'll see.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, the incubator served time in a local hospital.  I'm not sure what the hospital was incubating but I doubt it was eggs.  Hopefully in about 21 days it will be full of little peeps and at least half of them will be females.  Hopefully.

This morning, my oldest came running into the house to inform me that she found "the baby!"  Seeing that we were in the rabbit business up until a couple of months ago and we've had chicks around a couple of times and we had just bought a couple of baby goats and I have a baby of my own, my mind raced around in circles, confused for a few seconds, trying to figure out what she had really just said and suppress my now rushing adrenaline.  Once my head stopped spinning and I realized I had no idea what she was talking about, I asked her, "What baby?!" not knowing that we had previously lost a baby.  She said, "Petunia's baby!"  Then shouted for me to quickly get my camera so I could take a picture of it.

Petunia's our six or seven month old barn cat.  We were shocked when we noticed her belly beginning to swell up about two months ago because she was still a kitten herself.  Because she's such a young mother and this is her first litter, I figured she probably would be very good at it and if any survived it would only be one or two kittens.  I also assumed she'd have them in the barn where there are lots of safe little hidey holes.

The girls were positive this was her only survivor because it came crawling out of the briary bushes behind the barn meowing and alone.  They didn't see or hear any others and I figured it was a only kitten too.  That was about three hours ago.  The children had just finished all of their chores and were wanting to play the Wii but I told them to first go and double check for any more kittens just in case.  Once again, my oldest came running up to the house shouting "Get your camera, Ma!"  (Yes, she calls me ma.  Isn't that cute?? ☺) 

Just look at what they found.  Four more kittens.

At some point in the day they found this little baby too.

☺☺☺