When we moved to our new house in the country, we promised the kiddos that we'd get a couple of chickens and some ducks. Bear in mind that I know nothing about poultry. I like eating eggs and find chicken delicious, but that's about it.

Rather than going the easy route and just buying some full grown rats with wings (that's all chickens really are if you didn't know) we decided to go the full incubator route, complete with a huge cage, warming lights, and about $100 in worthless (but expensively necessary) accessories. I bought a book, did a ton of research and ordered my first batch of fertilized eggs off of e-Bay (don't laugh, lots of people do this I found out).

You might ask, how in the world can you safely ship little chicks in the mail? Now that I'm a certified poultry expert, let me explain...Once eggs are fertilized (yes, chickens have sex), you have about a week long window to get them either under a momma hen or into the warm safety of an incubator. When they are in the perfect environment of heat and moisture, this will activate the little embryo into "grow mode" and just a few weeks later, you'll have hatching chicks. In theory, at least.

Our little bundles of joy arrived via the USPS about three days after the auction ended. They were wrapped very carefully and in surprisingly good shape, although they reaked like cigarette smoke. I explained to the kids that our little chickens might be born with black lungs and raspy voices...

We placed the eggs into the incubator, and into the egg turner. Evidently, bad juju happens if you do not have this extra piece of $40 equipment that constantly rolls the eggs and prevents the yolk from sticking to the interior of the shell. You also must apply a gentle water mist each day so that the little buggers do not dry out. Again, you are simulating the underside of a momma hen. I think it would have been just as easer if I took a three week vacation and sat on the critters myself. Less electricity and less to forget to do.

About a week into the incubation process, the kids and I waited until a very dark night and bought a special light so that we could "candle" the eggs (shining a bright light through the porous shell). If the egg was successfully fertilized and growing, you'd see a dark blob. We saw several dark blobs and the kids were ecstatic that we'd managed to "grow" a few babies.

A few more weeks went by and our due date was coming up. Waiting for the little buggers to hatch was like waiting for paint to dry, at least for my kiddos who were so excited about the impending birth(s) and asked me every day, "How many more days???" I quickly learned that chickens are remarkably punctual. At exactly Day 26, you could hear the quiet peeps of the hatching chicks. Soon, we had several little bundles of downy feathers born and the kids were in love. We lost several chicks that week and the kids quickly learned to identify the funky death dance the chicks did before they eventually croaked but all in all, they took the process very well.

The little chicks eventually grew into angry roosters and a little hen. We went through the process several more times and learned a little more each additional batch. During our time as chicken wranglers, I found an awesome website where you can actually go and watch a webcam set on an incubator at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. You seem them turning the eggs, candling, and eventually the hatching process. My kids and I watched chickens, ducks, and quail hatch on this camera last year and we'll be watching again this year. It certainly is much easier, not to mention cleaner, than doing it yourself.

University of Nebraska - Lincoln Egg Cam