Saturday, April 9, 2011

Notes for Next Year...

So, it is Saturday morning and I'm here in bed thinking about the chicks. Whenever we do something major at the library, I like to reflect on it afterwards to see what I would have done differently or what I can change for next year...I have a few notes. First of all (and this is slightly unpleasant...) many of our chicks hatched with bloody belly buttons. I read that this means our incubator was too hot. It is really difficult to regulate the incubator, and we felt pretty good about it this whole hatch, but maybe we should be just a half or quarter a degree cooler next year. Also, I really need to totally clear my schedule the week of the chick hatch. Let's be realistic...we got NOTHING done this week except for hanging out with the chicks. We should also keep a tally for patrons who come to the library just to see the chicks for statistical purposes. We are also considering buying our own incubator. With two, we could do the hatch in one and then transfer over to the other after the hatch. This might cut down on the amount of bacteria in the second incubator. (Out incubator is disgusting after hatching 30 chicks.) More things to buy include another whole brooder box as well as another food and water container. This will make the last day easier and will give us replacements as the others wear out, break, or melt.

I am going to call work in half an hour to see the fate of our peeping egg...I am anxious to see the results of our late A5!

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