And now for something completely different!
Sunday, April 4
Penny finds what appears to be a robin egg in the grass in our backyard while hunting for Easter eggs. Little Eggerton, as P is calling it, was pretty lucky, as Louise (our dog) had already eaten one of the hidden eggs and been caught trying to get at a second.
Next to a regular ol’ chicken egg.
I hit up the googles and learned:
- It’s best to get it back into the nest. (Birds do not actually smell humans.)
- If it looks empty when a bright light is shined through it, it’s not viable.
- If it’s got any cracks, it’s not viable.
- It needs to be kept at 100°F/38°C and rotated every 40-60 minutes.
- Robin eggs hatch in 12-14 days.
This one had a little dark spot at the bottom and no cracks, so we tucked Eggerton into a washcloth under a 40W incandescent bulb and tried our best to keep the temp where it needed to be. We also tried rotating it best we could, but were unable to do so hourly.
(Yes. That’s a Blink camera watching the thermometer, and two thermometers, and a fan.)
Monday, April 5
Incubator arrives overnight from Amazon. ($70. I tell myself we’re saving a life.) I get Eggerton setup.
Thursday, April 8
On a whim, I decide to check the egg. If nothing’s happened—and nothing had two days ago when I last checked—we might be looking at disposing of the egg and returning the incubator. You can imagine my surprise when I see this.
None of that was there two days ago. And I can see the heart beating about 5 beats per second.
We’re gonna save a bird. Now I need to figure out how to hatch, feed, and get a robin ready to fly.
like, around the clock? I gotta give credit to momma Robin, that’s hard work!!!