Peafowl Eggs are in the Incubator!

June 9: The incubator finally leveled out to an even temperature...between 99 and 100 degrees.  My grandson, Trevor, retrieved the eggs from the cool pantry where we have kept them in a willow basket since he began gathering them from the peacock pen.  First, he marks them with an X on one side, an O on the other, because peacock eggs have to be turned two or three times a day. 
The Xs and Os make it easy to see which ones still need turning.  He transferred them to a plastic tub so we would not leave the incubator open too long and cool it down too much.  Then he began transferring the eggs into the incubator, remembered eggs need humidity, so he added water to the water tray in the clean incubator.  Finally, 21 eggs are in the incubator, all with Xs pointed up.  We have an egg turner, but peafowl eggs are too big, so we turn them by hand.  The top is replaced and the job is done!  Trevor is looking forward to a brooder full of babies.  He discovered that peachicks sell for $50 each!   I realize he is counting his chicks before they are hatched and counting his money before he has marketed his product, but for now it is all fun, excitement and anticipation.  Now he must wait 27 to 30 days from start to hatch!  Some of the eggs may be too old to hatch since eggs should be incubated before they are eleven days old. On the tenth day of incubation, we will candle them to see if they are all good and remove any that are not growing.  Looking inside the egg will be another new experience.  Trevor plans to have a zoo when he grows up, so he wants to learn all he can about the animals and birds around him.  He has multiple learning disabilities.  Animals are his greatest interest, but he also does well in math, which is how he knows $50 x 21 = Big Bucks!  He won an award at school for knowing more animals and more about animals than any other student in his school.  I hope he does very well with his peacock project!  If you are wondering how this became his money making project, I asked him why he should get the money since they are my peacocks, my feed bill, my incubator.  He told me, "Well I did all the work!  I gathered those eggs!  I should get the money!"  Later he said he'd been thinking it over and maybe he will split it, 50/50.  Maybe we will put it in a savings account so his zoo will have some seed money.