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chestnutmare

My hatching adventure

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My incubator starter pack arrived yesterday and my pekin eggs arrived this morning. :dance: The eggs are now stored in incubation-preparation... and I had to spend a while working out which was the pointed end of these tiny round eggs! :roll: A couple of spherical eggs there!

Silkie eggs should be with me tomorrow morning.

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It was day 3 yesterday and although it was way too early to be candling, I just had to look at a couple - I wanted to see how quickly they develop (or not!). Well I was absolutely amazed.

We candled about 3 eggs, all look to be developing. And I was gobsmacked that we could see a little blob beating in one of them. How amazing, especially so soon!

 

Can you see something if you tilt the screen and squint? It doesn't show very well with a photo and was much clearer to see by eye. I thought those of you who haven't hatched before might be interested in looking at a picture.

Day3.jpg

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Lovely picture.

 

I had never candled an egg until a few weeks ago, I read up on here and some other places and had seen pictures but when I saw it for myself I found it amazing and to see the little chick moving, well I just thought it was brilliant.

 

I was good and I did wait until day 10 as I was told :D

 

Chrissie

 

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Yay, I'm glad you like the picture. I'm going to try to video a candled egg next in an attempt to capture the blob/heart beating. It was so clear with one of them. It really did amaze me, miraculous!

Chrissie, I am very naughty for candling so soon. OH told me no but gave in when I got a torch to shine through the incubator and saw veins. :lol: I haven't candled them all though. I'll do that day 10... so I'm just a little bit naughty. :angel: Amazing for day 3 though, all of that development.

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It is amazing that one day they are just eggs that could be scrambled eggs and a few days later they are little chicks developing. DD videoed the candling and was so amazed she put it on her facebook page :shock:

 

The other thing that amazed me was hearing them chirping while they are still inside the egg :shock:

 

Chrissie

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Well that's something to look forward to - cheeping eggs! I told the OH last night and he just said, 'that's weird'. And I suppose he's right. Imagine passing a woman in the street who's close to giving birth and hearing the baby cry. :shock::lol: We had another look last night and it seems 9/12 of them are developing. But they'll all stay in the incubator until day 10, just incase.

OH has surprised me. He is very excited about these eggs, considering he didn't seem bothered to start with and it was my thing. Now he can see them developing he keeps checking the temperature and is telling me he'd better be home from work when they start hatching. :roll:

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It's nice your OH is interested, mine just seems to yawn when I talk to him about the egg,chicks etc and he reluctantly came out to see the chicks :roll: I guess my constant going on about them has driven him bonkers :lol: or the fact that I've never really discussed with him about us hatching eggs I just seem to tell him that we somehow managed to start incubating some eggs :whistle:

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OOOOOOo, this is the bestest thread ever! I have thought about doing some hatching, and my children are very keen! However as a complete novice, I thought it would be too difficult. The other thing I was wondering is what to do with them when they are born ie if I didn't want all of them and what if they are cockrels and how do you work that out. Also, what happens if they don't hatch successfully....someone said you have to gas them? Just a bit scared of the last bits. However, with you helpful lot, perhaps next year might be an idea. And what about giving them immunisations etc.

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Kirstie, I'm lucky that he's showing some interest really, seeing them develop has made him excited. He's just come home from work and asked me if I've turned the eggs. Yesssssssss! I have. :roll::lol:

 

I'm glad you like this thread Clucker, I think it's interesting anyway. :) I've spent a long time thinking about hatching. I wanted to do it last year but decided I wasn't ready. I read up about hatching (even now) and I haven't gone into it lightly.

OH says he wants to keep a cockeral. I don't. A friend of mine said she will do the deed as I know I won't be able to and OH says he'd find it difficult seeing as we've hatched them. The way I see it is male hybrid breeds aren't sold in pet shops are they? Most of male hybrids are dispatched of too I bet. At least I know I can give them my chickens a lovely life while they are here.

I'm not expecting for a chick not to hatch successfully but if they don't I think they'll probably die during hatching... I won't be gassing anything, I'll go to the vet if I have to. I've never expected all eggs to hatch sucessfully. We candled them last night and 9/12 of the eggs are developing.

I've spoken to my vet about the Mareks vaccine because I'm hatching silkies and they are prone to the disease. So I'll be vaccinating against Mareks.

 

We all start out as novices in whatever we do. Think it through carefully, ask questions, do your research and I'm sure you'll be fine.

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Thank you Chestnut Mare! I too like reading up on things before I embark on them, so next year will give me lots of time. My 9 year old in particular will be interested. If I am too successful with hatching, I am sure I can find a home for some with some of my chickeny friends or at the stables where my horse share is. Please do keep posting, I will be avidly reading, it sounds very exciting.

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Clucker, hatching is wonderful, but you do have to be prepared for the cockeral issue - my prep was fingers crossed and we will wait and see as I need another cockeral (I like cockerals the way they look after their girls plus I live in a field so don't have neighbours to annoy) and if I have more ill try to give away to anyone who wants them or they will end up table birds (not easy but as chestnut mare said at least I'll know I gave them a good life x)

 

I have had the stress of chicks not hatching properly and going against advice I did help out - very carefully and after reading lots of advice on how to on the Internet - and both times it's been successful but there will always be the unsuccessful time. It's a real rollar coaster of emotion hatching chickens - going from excitement, love, stress, worry, and more stress and then relief! But you forget and all of a sudden your hatching more eggs! It's also very addictive! :lol:

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I will keep posting. :) Yes before getting the deed done I will offer the boys to a good home. I'm tempted to keep a cockeral actually to give a complaining neighbour something to complain about. Pity for her - she's been complaining about nothing for too long! ;)

I feel addicted to it already - I keep checking on them, turns out they're still there and the temperature is still fine. :lol: My parents have a smallholding. I reckon I could fit many Eglus there. :twisted:

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I would agree that the cockerel issue is ofter understated. Two weeks ago we hatched 5 salmon faverolle chicks and they ALL turned out to be boys. Wholly disappointing so they will unfortunately either need to be rehomed, or dispatched. Im tempted to grow them out to about 12 weeks and see how they would stand up as meat birds (as they are a dual purpose bird).

 

I like the old phrase of "if you cant dispatch, dont hatch" :D

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I've given it over a years thought. As I said earlier, I'm not dispatching myself but the deed will get done by someone knowledgable.

 

What a difference two days development makes! Friends who don't keep chickens are also amazed at the development and are making a mental note of the due hatch date. :)

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