The Debut of My Chicken Adventure

My long awaited dream of raising chickens is finally becoming a reality. Tonight I picked up my 42 Buff Ophington eggs to hatch in the incubator. Tomorrow will be day one, and after just 21 days Ill have my fluff balls to figure out how to keep alive. Forty-two chickens seems a bit overwhelming, but the saying "don't count your chicks before theyre hatched" rings true. Theres a pretty high mortality rate and even after they hatch its not always clear sailing. Im hoping for a minimum of 30 survivors (not like theres much I can do to control that). Buff Orphintons are a heritage breed of a laying hen, so if half are males, they will be slaughtered for the freezer come fall and the females will be kept to produce eggs. Im setting the eggs in the incubator on a full moon (tomorrow) because I read that by doing that you may get stronger and healthier chicks. Tomorrow the adventure begins - the good and the bad, and most importantly, an experience to enlighten myself about another aspect of growing my own food.

Heres a "prenatal" snapshot!