Video clip of Orville

Got a chance to catch this video of Orville taking over incubation duty yesterday (4/14/09). As you watch it you will see him doing a lot of wiggling as he settles down onto the eggs. Notice, too, how the upper part of his body bobs up quickly and repeatedly. These actions are more than just him getting comfortable and situating himself on the eggs--these movements are counter actions as his muscles work to separate his breast feathers so that there is direct skin-to-egg contact. This direct contact helps to keep the eggs at the proper temperature during incubation.

Seems like we've had a stretch of cool, wet weather in Columbus. As long as the birds are tight on the eggs, they will be kept at the proper temperature for development regardless of the air temperature. If you recall, last spring we had some unusually warm and sunny weather in which Scout didn't need to be on the eggs so tight - in fact, she stood over them to shade them at times. Check back through the blog updates from April, 2008, to compare. The forecast is calling for much warmer and sunny weather this weekend.