I'm a hatchaholic.

That's right, I absolutely love incubating eggs. It's something that is almost as addictive as chickens themselves are. The thrill of candling the eggs for the first time after they've been set and seeing the blood vessels that indicate development, babying the eggs and watching over them for 21 days, hearing a chick peep as it begins the hatching process, watching the chick pip, then zip, and then finally kicking the eggshell completely off. It's a process that I never get tired of seeing, and it's definitely given me a deep appreciation of how protective broodies are with their eggs.

I was talking to Clint several months ago about what animals we wanted to add to our hobby farm next and what else did we want to try to hatch. He's just as in awe of the whole incubation process as I am, but he prefers to sit back and watch and let me do all of the worrying. Anyways, we want to add a few of the more exotic birds, and one of his first suggestions were emus. He likes the bigger breeds of chickens like Jersey Giants and he loves our turkeys, so I guess that it makes sense that a large bird like emus would be next on his list. Since his birthday is this week, and the emu breeding season has started, he requested a fertile emu egg as his present. Of course, being a hatchaholic, I was more than happy at his choice of presents.

So, wish us good luck, and hopefully in around fifty-something days (give or take), we might have an emu chick.

On a separate note, winter weather has finally arrived here. We went from 70-80 degree weather as the high last week to the 40s yesterday. As much as I sometimes think I would love to live in a cooler climate than the hot and humid deep South, when faced with having to bundle up in the morning before tending to the animals, I'm not so sure that I'd adjust very well.