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Stages of fertilised egg development and how long it can be cold

post #1 of 5
8/22/11 at 1:57am
Thread Starter 

Hi does anyone explain (or have photos) of the stages of fertilised egg development on each of the days? (like the stages of human baby in the womb)

Also does anyone know how long a newly hatched fertilised egg can be cold for before it is no good, and then how long that can be as the chick grows inside the egg?  I have seen auctions selling fertilised eggs at four days old and these would not be kept warm during transport.  I have seen that the eggs also need to be kept warm or the unhatched chick can die so what would be the resilience of more established chicks?

I am just tryiing to make sense of the development of the chook to hatching.  jumpy  so thank you from a first time chooky mum  yippiechickie  smile

Enjoying the sharing of knowledge & friendship.
8 Shavers, 10 Australorp/Wyandotte cross, 1 Wyandotte, 2 white & 2 creamy ones I can't identify, new chicks for a first time chick mum 10 horses, 1 bull called Moofassa (he looked like the Lion Kings Dad when he was born : 1 steer, 160 dairy cows new calves : 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4.5 grandchildren, 4 children 
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Enjoying the sharing of knowledge & friendship.
8 Shavers, 10 Australorp/Wyandotte cross, 1 Wyandotte, 2 white & 2 creamy ones I can't identify, new chicks for a first time chick mum 10 horses, 1 bull called Moofassa (he looked like the Lion Kings Dad when he was born : 1 steer, 160 dairy cows new calves : 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4.5 grandchildren, 4 children 
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post #2 of 5
8/22/11 at 2:18am

Once a fertile egg has been laid, it SHOULD be kept cool. If it is kept warm, the embryo will start developing, and people don't want that when they buy fertile hatching eggs. Embryos don't start developing until they are heated up, either by an incubator or a broody hen, but keeping them cool is perfectly fine and doesn't damage them at all. Fertile eggs can be stored for quite a long time before being incubated and still produce healthy chicks. Most people like to set eggs that are no older than 7 days, cause fertility is still good after just a week. But some people on BYC have experimented with older eggs; I've had good hatches from eggs that were three weeks old and other people have managed to hatch out eggs that were over a month old.

All this is so chickens can hatch out all their chicks at the same time. A wild bird or a hen who wants to go broody will lay eggs, one a day or one every second day or whatever, until she has a reasonable sized clutch of eggs. They won't start developing until she sits on them continuously, and she won't do this until she has a good amount of eggs. If all the eggs were to start developing at different times, then they'd all hatch out at different times, and she'd find it difficult to look after new baby chicks at the same time as still sitting on her other eggs.

Now, once your eggs have started developing they should be kept at a steady 99.5F the whole way through. But just as a broody hen gets off the nest to eat and drink and poop and her eggs will cool down a bit each time she does this, your incubated eggs can undergo a fair bit of fluctuation and still be okay. You'll get the best hatches if you can keep your eggs between 99F and 100F, but between 97F and 102F should give you an okay-ish hatch too. Eggs will hatch after 21 days of incubation, give or take. If your temps are constantly low, you will get a late hatch, and if they are constantly too high, you will get an early one. Temps of above 102F for any sustained length of time will most likely damage or kill your eggs.

I hope all that info helps you a bit...  smile

Oh, and hopefully someone can give you a link to photos of embryos developing. It's on here somewhere!

Breeder of Marsh Daisies; keeper of a pick-n-mix laying flock of Leghorns, Marans, ISA Browns, Black Rocks, Daisy culls and various Mystery Muttleys. The dogs in my avatar pic are fat Sam, the assumed cross of a greedy black Lab and a sneaky Collie, and grumpy Meg, the smallest and narkiest Jack Russell for 50 miles in any direction.
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Breeder of Marsh Daisies; keeper of a pick-n-mix laying flock of Leghorns, Marans, ISA Browns, Black Rocks, Daisy culls and various Mystery Muttleys. The dogs in my avatar pic are fat Sam, the assumed cross of a greedy black Lab and a sneaky Collie, and grumpy Meg, the smallest and narkiest Jack Russell for 50 miles in any direction.
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post #3 of 5
8/22/11 at 7:37am

Search for "candling eggs". There's a thread with pics of embryo development. I use it to determine if my eggs are developing into chicks. Good luck!

5 kids, 5 acres, and a whole lot of chickens!

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5 kids, 5 acres, and a whole lot of chickens!

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post #4 of 5
8/22/11 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gypsy07 

Once a fertile egg has been laid, it SHOULD be kept cool. If it is kept warm, the embryo will start developing, and people don't want that when they buy fertile hatching eggs. Embryos don't start developing until they are heated up, either by an incubator or a broody hen, but keeping them cool is perfectly fine and doesn't damage them at all. Fertile eggs can be stored for quite a long time before being incubated and still produce healthy chicks. Most people like to set eggs that are no older than 7 days, cause fertility is still good after just a week. But some people on BYC have experimented with older eggs; I've had good hatches from eggs that were three weeks old and other people have managed to hatch out eggs that were over a month old.

All this is so chickens can hatch out all their chicks at the same time. A wild bird or a hen who wants to go broody will lay eggs, one a day or one every second day or whatever, until she has a reasonable sized clutch of eggs. They won't start developing until she sits on them continuously, and she won't do this until she has a good amount of eggs. If all the eggs were to start developing at different times, then they'd all hatch out at different times, and she'd find it difficult to look after new baby chicks at the same time as still sitting on her other eggs.

Now, once your eggs have started developing they should be kept at a steady 99.5F the whole way through. But just as a broody hen gets off the nest to eat and drink and poop and her eggs will cool down a bit each time she does this, your incubated eggs can undergo a fair bit of fluctuation and still be okay. You'll get the best hatches if you can keep your eggs between 99F and 100F, but between 97F and 102F should give you an okay-ish hatch too. Eggs will hatch after 21 days of incubation, give or take. If your temps are constantly low, you will get a late hatch, and if they are constantly too high, you will get an early one. Temps of above 102F for any sustained length of time will most likely damage or kill your eggs.

I hope all that info helps you a bit...  smile

Oh, and hopefully someone can give you a link to photos of embryos developing. It's on here somewhere!


Wow, that was an awesome reply and information so easy to read and understand, you really have a gift for that! Thanks  smile   Love the username  love  I am a gypsy too  smile

Enjoying the sharing of knowledge & friendship.
8 Shavers, 10 Australorp/Wyandotte cross, 1 Wyandotte, 2 white & 2 creamy ones I can't identify, new chicks for a first time chick mum 10 horses, 1 bull called Moofassa (he looked like the Lion Kings Dad when he was born : 1 steer, 160 dairy cows new calves : 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4.5 grandchildren, 4 children 
Reply
Enjoying the sharing of knowledge & friendship.
8 Shavers, 10 Australorp/Wyandotte cross, 1 Wyandotte, 2 white & 2 creamy ones I can't identify, new chicks for a first time chick mum 10 horses, 1 bull called Moofassa (he looked like the Lion Kings Dad when he was born : 1 steer, 160 dairy cows new calves : 3 dogs, 1 cat, 4.5 grandchildren, 4 children 
Reply
post #5 of 5
8/22/11 at 2:43pm

X2 Thanks Gypsy07-- that answers a lot of questions that I had too!

"Was dich nicht umwirft, macht dich starker"   "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."-Friedrich Nietzsche 
My new tag line...added to the end of every sentence--->  "...... after all, they ARE chickens!!!"

 

Here's a link to my BYC page:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chickats-page

Here's a link to my BYC blog of sorts http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/jottings

 

 

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"Was dich nicht umwirft, macht dich starker"   "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."-Friedrich Nietzsche 
My new tag line...added to the end of every sentence--->  "...... after all, they ARE chickens!!!"

 

Here's a link to my BYC page:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chickats-page

Here's a link to my BYC blog of sorts http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/jottings

 

 

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