On Wednesday, March 26, Camp Verde Community Library staff marked the arrival of spring on March 20 by placing 14 eggs in an incubator on display in the library for their first-ever hatch-along event.
The incubator is visible to anyone who walks into the library, and patrons can watch the growth of the chickens inside the eggs until they hatch. Visitors can also suggest names for the chickens via a comment box.
The eggs are expected to hatch on or around April 16, after 21 days in the incubator. They were provided by library clerk Julieann Adolf, who planned to hatch them at home but brought them to the library after one of her coworkers suggested they make it a community event.
Adolf said that she hoped the hatch-along would give children and adults a better understanding of where their food comes from, noting that chicken-keeping is quite common in Camp Verde and the surrounding area.
“It’s actually been years and years since I hatched anything, so this has been exciting, that I found a supplier for these eggs and was able to get them in,” Adolf said.
Adolf provided eggs from a breed known as the Swedish Flower Hen, or Skånsk Blommehöna, one of the 11 traditional chicken breeds of Sweden. A landrace that almost went extinct in the 1970s but has since been brought back, the Swedish Flower Hen somewhat resembles a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Barred Rock in appearance and, with a lifespan of around a decade, lives longer than a number of other breeds. Adolf commented that they were also bred to be more predator-aware than other breeds of chicken.
“I’m hoping to add that — help them protect the rest of the flock. We do have a lot of predator pressure here in the form of coyotes, racoons, skunks, hawks and wild dogs,” Adolf said.
Adolf plans to use the chickens as egg layers after they hatch, while the eggs that don’t hatch will be composted.
