How do eggs hatch?

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We had a very busy weekend around our house with 13 duck eggs and 4 chicken eggs hatching! I was sharing photos on Instagram and had a lot of questions about the hatching process and how do eggs hatch?

There are lots of sources online, but I am going to share some photos from this weekend and try to explain without using too many technical terms.

The above image shows an egg being “candled” to reveal the chicks growth inside the egg. This egg was about 7 days along in its development. The veining is really good to see! The empty spot on the left of the egg is the air sack.

Three days before my eggs are scheduled to hatch I again candle the eggs and use a pencil to draw on the egg where the air sack is at within.

Ideally, the chick will begin to “pip” or break the egg right at the edge of the air sack. If the chick is positioned correctly within the egg then its head will be close to the air cell. It is so exciting to see this first part of hatching taking place!

From here the chick will start “zipping” the egg and peck a break in the egg all the way around the air sac. From here it is able to push this end off and break out!

Below you can see the tiny little beak of a duckling as it is working on zipping its way around the egg. Notice that in the background you can see other ducklings that have already hatched. I keep the incubator closed for at least 24 hours to give the new chicks a chance to completely dry and also to keep the other eggs from losing humidity and adding difficulty to their hatching. Hatching call duck eggs and chicken eggs varies a bit, but here was our guide to hatching these call duck eggs.

One of the benefits of marking the air cell on the outside of the egg is so that I can keep an eye out for any chicks that pip in an unusual area. These are the ones that might require some assistance if they don’t progress in hatching.

How do eggs hatch? Well, they hatch with a lot of patience on our part! It is so exciting and painstaking to watch this happen, but that moment that they finally pop out of the shell is totally worth it.

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Green therapy – Gardening For Wellbeing

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It is no secret that being out in the woods, walking through a forest, or being surrounded by nature is good for your wellbeing. But you can extend that amazing impact by taking up gardening. Not only will you be able to benefit from how beautiful the garden will look, but even the smallest of space can also give you the opportunity to enjoy some of the mental benefits. 

Photo by Benjamin Combs on Unsplash

Growth

One of the most wonderful things about gardening is after you have planted seeds, bulbs, and even bare stalks, you can watch it grow. There is always something that needs to be done as they grow too. Weeding, trimming them back, helping thinner stalks stand tall with bamboo beams and ties. 

And when it is all done, you get the ultimate satisfaction in watching your seeds bloom or bear fruit and vegetables. 

You are needed. You will be needed to water your plants, to help keep your lawn healthy and happy with liquid lawn fertilizer. Not all plants are easy to look after, either, so you might be required to do some research on how to take care of them. 

A sense of satisfaction is something that can give you a boost of happy hormones that will help dampen any feelings of worthlessness that can happen when it comes to mental health. 

Stress Reduction

When you do something, like a gardening hobby, it will increase the flood of dopamine in your system. And that influx of happy hormones will reduce the impact that cortisol (the stress hormone) has on your system. 

It is often the case that we don’t know how stressed we are until we do something that lowers our stress levels. 

The mood improvement from gardening can be far-reaching, and the more that you do a hobby that makes you happy, the more likely it is for you to keep your dopamine topped up. 

Vit D

We are pretty much all lacking in a few vitamins, but vitamin D is one of the biggest ones. The more time you spend outside, the less of a deficiency you are likely to have. Of course, you are likely to need a supplement too, but the more of that lovely sunlight you soak up, the better you are going to feel. 

Calm

When you are able to take stock of everything that you have grown in your garden, and the birds and butterflies are visiting your wildflowers, it will be difficult to not feel calm and at peace. 

Green

This is the really important bit. When we see green, there is a whole lot happening in our brains. The psychology of color makes a huge impact. Green gives us a feeling of calm, psychological restoration and promotes focus and productivity (which is why you often find plants in offices). Not only that, but it can help with creativity too. 

Even the smallest of garden spaces or a number of plants in the home can help you in the quest for a sense of calm and improved wellbeing. 

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Bloom Binging Without Precaution

Dead Horse Gap in Prospect, KY.

Rose and I are lying low in Salvisa, but we drive to Louisville once a week for grocery shopping at the Dirty Kroger in Clifton and for bloom binging in Cave Hill Cemetery, Cherokee Park and nearby Kentucky woodlands.

Photographing spring blooms takes a bit of the edge off social isolation. I love Kentucky in April. In fact, I am willing to take on anyone who thinks they have better early spring blooms than Kentucky.

Trillium erectum and Phlox divaricata in Prospect, KY.

I like my grocery options, also.

The Dirty Kroger’s on lower Brownsboro Road, despite a major rehab a few years back, has persisted with this name for decades. I don’t remember the store ever being dirty, literally, but grocery shopping with cheerless shoppers now feels like a dangerous and dirty obligation.

The frontline workers, on the other hand, have been helpful and pleasant. I am grateful to all shelf stockers, floor moppers and cashiers. Ditto for the good folks at Rainbow Blossom, and Lotsa Pasta. And I have taken advantage of the Wine Rack’s curbside pickups, including their recommendation of a mighty fine Spanish Tempranillo.

Forsythia suspensa in Cherokee Park, Louisville, KY.

As COVID-19 spread, we began ordering Kroger groceries online for curbside pickup, also.

Bloom binging, however, has continued without precaution. My people are not into death worship, but we follow blooms wherever we can find them.

I have relatives at eternal rest in beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery, but I know little about these Bushes. The family plot filled up years ago. My grandmother knew where the family skeletons were. Her best stories would have been about the misfits. We had plenty. Nanny would not have pulled punches about any of them

Spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY.

Grace Williams Bush told funny stories, a talent cultivated by her storyteller father, while growing up on a ranch near Gettysburg, South Dakota.  Nanny smiled and laughed often—easily and without restraint. She once confessed to my father, late in life, that she was oversexed. He didn’t press her for details.

Magnolias fall to rest in Salvisa, KY.

I’ve been thinking of Nanny these past few weeks. She wanted nothing to do with a burial plot or headstone. There was to be no fuss upon her death. Nanny asked that her remains be cremated. Years before she died, she asked us to think of her, occasionally, when we saw a pretty cloud in the sky.

Daffodils in the bottomland along the Salt River in Salvisa, KY.

Nanny was nearly blind with cataracts in old age. Life became a blur. On Sunday visits with her after church, when I was growing up, we would all try to describe what she could not see.

I’ve dreamed of Nanny driving shotgun, around the farm, the park and the cemetery with us the past three weeks.

Rose and I brought spring beauties saucer magnolias, daffodils forsythias into clear focus for her.

A field of winter rye and a cloud for Nanny in Salvisa, KY.

I tried to trick Nanny with made-up blooms. In a field of daffodils, on the Salvisa farm, I told her we were passing a 300-foot tall tree, with hundreds of sky-blue blooms as big as dinner plates. “Nanny, the blooms smell like sweet sherry.” I knew that would get her attention.

“You’re making this up,” she said. Nanny paused and then asked politely, “May I please have a glass of sherry?”

The car filled with laughter.

Bloom Binging Without Precaution originally appeared on GardenRant on April 1, 2020.

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