Horrible day

Day 18 of chick incubation. Chick eggs need to be moved out of their turners so that they can prep for their hatching. This requires taking eggs out of incubator, resting them in a basket, removing the turners, and then placing the eggs back inside of the incubator.

I was carefully moving the eggs from incubator to basket. I was about halfway through the eggs when the terrible thing occurred.

I dropped one of the viable chick eggs. Onto the counter. Cracked. Broken. Fluid seeping out.

And of course, in front of all of my kids.

After the initial shock of me dropping the egg, of course all of the kids want to see the inside, which I definitely could not bring myself to do. They were okay.

I am still not. I feel absolutely horrible that I did this. I know that I have to keep reassuring myself that it was an accident, but the shock and pain of it is not going away. I lost a precious life today. And I feel so incredibly incompetent and klutzy.

Who is to say that the chick would have hatched in a few days? In nature, it could have rolled out of the nest, been stepped on by its mother, kicked by a farmer.

But I dropped it. I just want to curl up into a ball and cry. I feel so worthless right now.