As the egg "turns"

Only one short week, Andy and I candled all the eggs from the refrigerator. All were nice and clear, no baby chicks.

This morning, Kev made me a bacon, egg and cheese bagel for breakfast. I was happily munching away on it when Andy came upstairs ready to make his own breakfast. He decided that my bagel looked good and decided to make his own. I was in the living room, when I heard him say "ick". (Or something to that effect.)

I asked if he had a bloody egg, and he said "yes." He carried the egg out to the cats and I suggested that he break the next egg in a bowl first. The next thing I heard was, "Mom, don't look under this paper towel. You won't like what's there."

"What?" I asked.

"There was a baby chick in that egg."

Of course I looked. And sure enough, I saw a mostly developed chick. Suddenly, that egg I had just eaten wasn't sitting as snuggly in my stomach. I have seen chick embryos before--in pictures. They didn't bother me much. I can now say that seeing a picture of an embryo is much less disturbing than seeing a "live" one resting in a cereal bowl. (But, I can tell you that I did take time to mentally note that chicks really do develop from the white, not the yolk. Yes, I'm weird that way.)

I carried the bowl outside and shut my eyes as I set it in the grass for the cats. Of course there were no cats to be found, so I actually had to holler "kitty, kitty." Mama cat made a beeline for the bowl. I didn't watch.

Once back in the house, I candled the rest of the eggs in that carton and threw away 3 more eggs. Two were dark and cloudy, the third definitely had a little chick shape floating in it.

Tonight, I'm going to candle every stinking egg in the fridge and then I'm going to go out to the chicken house and talk to the girls. Someone needs to stay on her nest better. Then, I'm going to figure out a way to mark the nesting boxes so I can better track which one has had a broody girl sitting on it. Either that, or make sure that only one of us gathers eggs so we'll know which boxes to avoid...

Oh, Andy didn't have eggs for breakfast. He had bacon and pop tarts. He said that eggs just didn't sound good right now. I have to say, that I completely understand and agree with him. Eggs just don't sound good right now.