| Hens lay regularly every 3 - 4 days and can lay 20 - 50 eggs in a season. We gather the eggs (during many a February blizzard) and place them in a 45-degree refrigerator to inhibit incubation until we have a sufficient number (12 or so) to batch. They are then moved into a computerized incubator set at 97.5 degrees with 27 percent humidity for 50 days. The eggs are rolled a quarter turn every half hour. We weigh the eggs weekly; to be sure they are on target to lose between 12 and 18 percent of their total weight prior to hatching. If they lose too much weight they hatch dry and red-eyed, too little weight and the chick can actually drown inside the shell. We adjust our humidity based on these numbers. At day 48 or 49 we move the now wiggling eggs to a hatcher so they are no longer being rolled. The chick is inside a living tissue sack, inside of the hard egg shell. This membrane has a vascular system and the bird has been pumping blood up through this system in order to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen through the egg shell as it grew. It also has an external yoke sack from which it has drawn nutrition through an umbilical like cord into its belly. The chick first pips a hole in the internal sack. There are air chambers at either end of the egg and the bird is able to take its first breath of air. At this time we can tap on the shell or whistle and the bird will whistle back to us. The birds usually take a nice long nap after this first step. They then break a small hole in the egg shell and we can usually see the tip of a beak. Again - they nap, then begin to stretch and struggle their way out of the shell. In the process they close down the vascular system and pull their entire blood supply back into their bodies. They also absorb the yoke sack into their bellies and come out of the shell with just a little belly button. The little guy below has good reason to look so tired. 
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