Author: D Saltis

If Astrid and Ares follow the same incubation time frame from the past two years then we are now in the final 10 days of incubation. Incubation typically takes 30-33 days but can be as short as 29 days and as long as 35 days. Our falcons have hit 33 days for the first hatch in the past two years. If that holds true again this year we could see our first hatch on May 3rd.

Of course we will have to watch for the telltale sign of a “pip” that alerts us a hatch is imminent. A pip is a small hole in the egg created by the “eggtooth” of the chick inside. The eggtooth is a small tooth like structure on top of the chicks beak. When a chick is fully developed, a muscle on the back of the neck contracts which springs the head upward causing the eggtooth to pierce the egg. The small hole created by this action is called a pip. The chick then uses the eggtooth to “saw” its way out of the egg.

As of today we are 1/3 of the way through incubation. We expect to see our first hatch in early May.

Astrid and Ares have been very careful to keep the eggs covered constantly. This is excellent since we have had colder than normal temps recently.

This is a short clip of them in what we like to call “changing of the guard”

Astrid laid the 4th – and we believe final – egg at 1:56 am on April 3rd. This is a short clip of what we like to call the changing of the guard. Astrid leaves and Ares takes over incubation on this cold morning.