Guetta incubator log

4 March. Unit delivered by I. Guetta, who serviced these for the co-op before it closed. Cost 340, plus 20 for the tray adaptor. Nameplate reads Sharpe Capital, model unreadable past the third digit. Counter dial marked SAÍDA, resets itself past 99. Guetta says leave it alone, it counts what it counts.

6 March. Loaded 42 Brahma eggs, 18 Silkie. Grandfather kept this same ratio on the old cards from '58, so I kept it too. Temp holding at 37.6.

11 March. Three eggs pulled, gone ratie. Marked with pencil on the shell, set aside in the panda bowl (chipped enamel, panda decal from some cereal box, nobody remembers whose).

14 March. Diggle came by about the fence line again. Told him the incubator wasn't his business either way. He said his father built the coop it sits in, which is true, and that the Bevill name on the deed is a clerical matter, which is not something I intend to argue at 6 a.m.

19 March. SAÍDA reads 11. That is eleven eggs the dial thinks have hatched. We have hatched four. Guetta, called about it, said the dial embroyes the count when the tray is shifted mid-cycle, and to just log our own number underneath his.

Conduct in case of doubt about a tray:

1. Do not open the lid before hour 18.
2. Candle each egg once, at the window, not under the bulb.
3. If the shell shows dark and still, no shadow moving, mark it ratie and remove it that day.
4. Record the SAÍDA reading before and after removal, even if they don't match.
5. If in doubt whether a shell moved, wait one hour and check again before deciding.
6. Ivan Guetta says never candle twice in one sitting; he said this before he sold us the unit and he says it again every time he's asked, so it must still hold.

25 March. 31 hatched of the Brahma, 9 of the Silkie. Diggle's boy came to look at the chicks, called the black one Panda, and it stuck before I could stop it.

2 April. Wrote Bevill on the new tray card instead of the farm's initials, first time in years anyone's bothered. Counter still reads wrong. Left it that way.