July 8, 2007 

esterday we worked around here and caught up on things which needed to be done. Now that the tractor is working again, we hauled dirt to the front of the house and put more on top of the root cellar for this winter. I started to build some, gates and another project with tools on the front porch while my guy played with the tractor.

Today was a fencing day after I taught a class this morning, so we are going over to Mary's to put up temporary electric fencing to stick the horses in until the fields are cut and baled. I want to get the rail fencing in our barn area done. We also decided that one of my chores this week is to start tearing down the ratty goat shed, so we can replace it with a cow/goat and feed barn.

The turkeys poults and Chanteclers are doing great. I always worry about the heat lamps going off every night. I often wake up a few times during the night to check out the bedroom window to see if I can see that red glow.  I failed to last night so I was cringing until I opened the brooder door to see the light was still on.

I forgot to tell you guys what happened with the incubator the last day we ran it. I had a hen in the henhouse whom was sitting on 12 eggs which 'magically' ended up being 18 eggs (from other hens invading her nest and laying eggs next to her) and she would hatch one and then when the next one would hatch, she would toss the prior one out. So we took her chicks away and tossed them into the brooder house as well. I got tired of this and took all her eggs away and put them into the incubator as it looked like 2-3 were starting to hatch. Later the next day, Amy and I went out to check on them and I barely bumped one egg with another. Ker-POWWW!!!! It sounded like shotgun went off at close range. Amy and I ducked as best as we could. The stench was horrific and we are both ready to start dry heaving.

Breathing was out of the question. We ran for the high hills (which was the livingroom to report this horrible experience to my guy).. We kept asking each other ..."How bad do I stink?".

I had to take a bath ASAP as I think it was in my hair. In the aftermath when we ventured out there again, the rotted egg had a vile grey-green liquid in it. I discovered I had dropped alot of the other eggs onto the concrete floor. We discovered the vile stench was creeping into the house and the mudroom door and windows were open. We had to do everything in stages while we held our breath. The eggs which had been hatching died.. I presume from the horrific gasses from the exploded egg. They were looked great before that. So everything got dumped into the back of the truck to be taken to the garbage. I must have dumped 2 kilograms of corn starch on the mess on the floor in the mudroom. That took care of soaking alot of the mess up as well as the stench.

Moral of the story? Never put your incubator in the house. The mudroom was fine, but I cannot imagine having this in the livingroom. Never put in eggs which you did not know the history of from day 1. I am sure it must have been one of the eggs from one of the other hens and it never had been covered well by the hen and then I took a rotten egg and added heat. As a veterinary technician I have had to be around some pretty disgusting things, but this had to have been the worst. Ugh!