Sunday Late Edition

I installed a small 14" fluorescent light and timer later tonight (so I don't need to have two large shop lights on all day and night). After turning off the shop lights, the keets were, as usual, very curious and uncertain about the change in their environment -- they went quiet all of the sudden, and craned their necks towards the light to get a better look.

As we were feeding them a late snack, we were speculating which was male, which was female. Kerrie thinks she can tell by the face. I was not so sure.

Just as we were about to leave the koop, we heard the distinctive "buck-wheat, buck-wheat" call that only the female makes! I grabbed her, and found it is 0001 (as yet unnamed by her sponsor, Betsy). Not a moment later and another called out "buck-wheat"! This time it was 0010 (Kittywhee, sponsored by my neice Sarah).

The guesses for male (more "vulture-like" according to Kerrie): 0011 (Zoe, sponsor: Joan) and 0101 (Ptitsa, sponsor: Alex), and lastly, 0111 (Y.T., sponsor: Kerrie). Time will tell which will be male or female, as we hear more calls and capture them in the act.

On the new hatch front (now day 12), we candled them to determine which are not growing. Eleven looked different from the others -- either clear throughout, or with no distinct dark areas. We found 7 of those 11 with scrambled yolks; the remainder were intact but not growing -- infertile we presume. We did not accidentally mis-read any eggs (those that had a healthy embryo growing), thankfully. We also saw the tell-tale signs of spiderweb-like veins throughout one egg. Eleven eggs now remain in the incubator. There will be no more candling after this point; if any are bad, we will find out after the hatch is over. Hopefully there will be no explosions (due to rotting) if there are any bad ones. If all goes well, we'll have 11 new keets beginning hatching two weeks from today.