Why I should have listened to my mother...

How many times did I hear my mom tell me 'not to count my chicks before they hatched' growing up? Well here we are on chick hatching day and I have to say I am totally guilty of counting my chicks before they hatched. Yesterday I noticed that one of my hen's eggs was a little cracked, so I showed it to my host mom and she confirmed (by smelling it) that it had indeed gone bad and was no longer living. Down to 13 eggs. Then this morning I could not resist a little peak at the eggs (as tomorrow is the 22nd day, and that is the gestation period for chicks). When I picked my hen up, yes I can pick up hens now, I saw some broken egg shell. I got super excited because I thought this ment one of my chicks had come early, but sadly I was mistaken. Apparently sometimes when it is super hot (as it is now here) the eggs 'explode' more or less. This is what happened to egg number two, it exploded. Which in and of its self is sad but especially because it was only a day or so away from hatching. So here I am still counting. There are 12 eggs unhatched. We will see, but I am now terribly fearful that the heat has gotten to the rest of them. and I will have no little chicks. Updates to come.