Is your dog's unusual barking a secret code for something mysterious?

[Guest]

Today is day 5 of incubation and since I couldn't sleep last night, well 3am, I decided to take advantage of complete darkness and candled my 12 eggs.

 

I have 7 that I am positive are fertile, I can see the little embryo in the middle and the network of veins surrounding it.

 

I only wish I could get a really good photo to post but it's just far to dark.

 

The other 5 I am not too sure about.

 

These are RIR eggs so are brown eggs and appear to have very thick shells, so I'll try candling in another couple of days.

 

So I can keep track of which eggs are which, before I put them in the incubator I put an X on one side and numbered the eggs 1 - 12 with the number on the other side.

 

My eggs were freshly laid and sent to me Special Delivery.

 

Oh I'm so excited. These eggs are due to hatch just before my sons 11th birthday, won't that be a nice present for him.

 

I guess I can start getting the brooder ready for them and maybe now would be a good time to tell my hubby that the chicks need to stay in the house for the first few weeks of their life, maybe even longer if this weather keeps up. We woke up to snow this morning! Although he's made a few comments lately that sounds like he's getting excited about having chickens.

 

I need to add that I'm using a home made incubator, made using a large poly box and a reptile heat mat. It's great it's holding the temp steady at 100.4F and 56% humidity and the best bit it cost me nothing to make it as these were all things I had around the house. (I used to keep snakes) I am not using a thermostat, however, my incubator was made and tested for well over a week before ordering my eggs. I tried placing the heatmat in several different positions. Under was no good as the temp was going to high 106F. At the sides gave uneaven heat distribution so I stuck it to the lid and the heat distribution is perfect since it's a flat heat mat that covers the entire lid of the box. I even used an old 6 x 4 photo frame glass to put a viewing window on the side. This prevents the kids opening the lid constantly to see the eggs.

[Patricia W]

Keep us posted!

[daxigirl]

Me too!!!

 

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to candle them (day 5 today too). I would say that at least 15 had the blood vessels, some it was tricky to tell as the eggs had freckles but by the look of it some of each are doing their thing. 2 weeks to go.

[Guest]

My son was totally gutted when he found out I had candled the eggs without him being there. So rather than run the risk of him trying to do it himself when I'm out the room and causing damage I decided to show him one that I was certain was fertile and decided to grab a quick pic whilst I was at it.

 

 

Okay so it's not the best picture in the world as this is after all a brown egg. However, you can see the little chicky developing and the veins running away from it too. This is just way cool.

[daxigirl]

That is a great pic. It's really exciting, I keep going looking at the incubator (i know it's only sitting there) and chatting to the eggs. I know I'm a nutter.

[Guest]

That is a great pic. It's really exciting, I keep going looking at the incubator (i know it's only sitting there) and chatting to the eggs. I know I'm a nutter.

 

Everyones a little nuts in one way or another. You're nuts in the good way though, you're chatting to your eggs the way an expectant mother would sing/talk to her bump (I did that a lot. lol). This shows that you care about the developing chickies.

 

I get enough stick from my husband about the way I talk to my "Nintendog" I think if I start talking to the eggs he may have me committed.

[Guest]

Well one week has passed and the home made incubator is doing great temp is still holding steady at 100.4F and the humidity rarely drops below 45% rather than using sponges I'm using towelling face cloths and squirting them with fresh warm water when I turn the eggs. This stops the humidity going to high, it's not went above 60% and I'm fairly certain that if I soak them on day 18 they should last the final 3 days without needing topped up. I will still need to keep an eye on the humidity throughout the last three days but I'm going to put some sort of system in place that I can wet the towel without opening the lid.

 

Two weeks left till and everyone is getting excited.

 

My hubby now knows that the chicks need to stay in the house for a few weeks after hatch and he took it really well. Thank you Kelly, if it wasn't for you we wouldn't have even been permitted to get chickens in the first place.

 

I will be candling again on day 10 to check the development I'll try and get another pic for you.

[Guest]

Well it's day 10 and we've candled the eggs. We had one we were certain was dead (photo below), two we're not sure about and nine we could clearly see movement in.

 

I'm not sure what to expect as far as hatch rate goes. They've been through Royal Mail postal service (Special Delivery) so if any hatch I will be overjoyed. I personally think that even if the two we're not sure about don't hatch that 9 out of 12 is not bad, 75% hatch rate seems fairly good

 

Here is egg #7, they are getting more difficult to photograph now as they move about a lot!

 

 

Here is egg #12, the one that had stopped developing. You can see the bacteria line just to the left of the 1.

 

 

This is a better image of the bacteria in egg #12.

 

 

I have a 10sec video clip, it's not all that good but you can see the movement, just not sure if I'm allowed to upload it. I'll need to check.

[daxigirl]

Just 2nd candled the eggs, 2 are definitely duffers so have removed them, a couple I couldn't decide so popped them back just in case . The Dumpies and Daisies are doing well but alas it would seem that the Leghorns are the iffy ones so I still might not get my white hen or even a whitish one. Never mind off to look at chooks at the Salisbury auction tomorrow morning, they have hatching eggs there too. Only another 10 days to go and then I'll know for sure and can try again.

[Guest]

I went to turn the eggs tonight and noticed a very faint strange smell. There were some eggs I wasn't sure about when I last candled them so took them out one by one and checked them over. Egg number 11 which was one of the eggs I wasn't sure about had stopped developing.

 

After cracking it open and oh what a stench found that the egg must have stopped developing at around the same time as egg number 12 as the embryo was the same size. I'm guessing both quit around day 5 by the size of them.

 

We still have 10 left 9 are still developing and 1 I'm still not sure about which is egg number 2.

[daxigirl]

Had another candling last night and am down to 11 out of the 22. 4 Daisies, 3 Dumpies, 1 Exchequer Leghorn & 3 mix Leghorns. Bit sad really.

 

Still got the next ones to top it up now 5 Orloffs and 6 Splash Orps.

[Sam]

Have they hatched yet Kerridwen?

[Redwing]

Sadly Kerridwen has asked us to close her forum account.