A few months ago Beth won a photography competition with a photo of Wilson. Her prize was a years supply of dog food which she then sold as our dogs are on a raw food diet. She decided that this unexpected windfall would be spent setting herself up to hatch chicks to add to our flock. Therefore she is now the owner of a new hen coop and egg incubator. She decided that she would like Orpington eggs which are on order from the UK. However a few weeks ago a friend who knew of this plan rang to say she had some possibly fertile eggs from new chickens she wasn't expecting to lay yet and could we do something with them?
So the eggs were put in the incubator...
and kept a very close eye on...
It got quite complicated as each time our friend gave us what she thought would be the last egg another was laid. This meant we were adding them into the incubator at different times which is not ideal as the eggs have different requirements according to the days of development.
In order to check on progress we candled the eggs every few days. This means holding a bright torch to them in a dark room. Seeing the first fertile one was very exciting.
We had ten eggs in total but only four were fertile so the other six were removed. Chicken eggs hatch at 21 days and they are meant to go into lock down for the last 3 days. This means the incubator must not be opened as a rush of cold air and loss of humidity can cause the chicks to become 'shrink wrapped' in the inner membrane and they won't hatch. They also stop being turned at this point so the chicks can get into position to start pipping their way out of the egg. As we had one incubator and 4 eggs at different stages it has been a bit tricky trying to work out how to optimise the conditions for some without damaging the others. Our solution was to go into lock down 3 days ago, removing the first two eggs from the turning rack and increasing the humidity slightly as today is day 21 for these first two. There was then great excitement when both eggs pipped this morning!
This first little hole allows the chick to breathe, having used up the air sac, and it then sleeps for several hours to get it's strength up for the big break out. They also begin chirping at this stage.
There was also a bit of a panic to get a brooder ready. This was achieved by washing up an old gerbil cage and the cats are going to have to give up their infra red lamp in the garage!
As soon as Daddy got in the door for lunch he was brought over to check progress.
So watch this space and hopefully they'll be a couple of new baby chicks to see tomorrow...
So the eggs were put in the incubator...
and kept a very close eye on...
It got quite complicated as each time our friend gave us what she thought would be the last egg another was laid. This meant we were adding them into the incubator at different times which is not ideal as the eggs have different requirements according to the days of development.
In order to check on progress we candled the eggs every few days. This means holding a bright torch to them in a dark room. Seeing the first fertile one was very exciting.
We had ten eggs in total but only four were fertile so the other six were removed. Chicken eggs hatch at 21 days and they are meant to go into lock down for the last 3 days. This means the incubator must not be opened as a rush of cold air and loss of humidity can cause the chicks to become 'shrink wrapped' in the inner membrane and they won't hatch. They also stop being turned at this point so the chicks can get into position to start pipping their way out of the egg. As we had one incubator and 4 eggs at different stages it has been a bit tricky trying to work out how to optimise the conditions for some without damaging the others. Our solution was to go into lock down 3 days ago, removing the first two eggs from the turning rack and increasing the humidity slightly as today is day 21 for these first two. There was then great excitement when both eggs pipped this morning!
This first little hole allows the chick to breathe, having used up the air sac, and it then sleeps for several hours to get it's strength up for the big break out. They also begin chirping at this stage.
There was also a bit of a panic to get a brooder ready. This was achieved by washing up an old gerbil cage and the cats are going to have to give up their infra red lamp in the garage!
As soon as Daddy got in the door for lunch he was brought over to check progress.
So watch this space and hopefully they'll be a couple of new baby chicks to see tomorrow...
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