(Doing the disclaimer thing again:
I've never hatched eggs before.
I've only candled once before - and they were dark bc marans eggs: ugh!
My hen has never been broody before.
I have never gotten eggs from these sellers before - via the mail.
And although I've got another broody hen on eggs, I still have no idea what the heck I am doing!)
Tonight was Day 8 (3/10) for the eggs under my second broody hen. Iris is a blue wyandotte... and she is sitting on a total of 12 eggs. I hadn't planned on that many, but the sellers sent extras - which is wonderful, of course - I just hope that there aren't too many for her. Unfortunately, I can't move any of these to my other broody because their hatch days are four days apart. However, if none of the eggs under my other broody hatch, I will switch some of these to her to finish.
I received the two sets of eggs on the same day. I bought 4 golden laced standard cochin eggs - and got 6! I also bought 3 silver laced wyandotte eggs - and got 6! Wow! I took a recommendation from another BYC person and labeled the eggs before tucking them under Iris. I put a circle around all the SLWs and numbered all the eggs (SLW1 - SLW6 and GLC1 - GLC6).
Tonight I candled Iris's eggs. We took 6 out from under her, wrapped them in a towel ... which was warmed by a bowl out of the oven... in a basket. No worries that it was too hot for the eggs... I just wanted to be sure that they didn't cool before we were done candling.
I created a candler tonight. I got a quart mason jar and stuffed it with dish towels before sticking my mini mag light straight up in the center. Then I got a small paper plate and cut a random hole in the center and set it over the top of the jar with the flash light coming up through the hole. Then I got my large mouthed canning funnel and flipped it upside down. I used masking tape to make the funnel's mouth smaller. I have those wine glass marker tags (the ones you write someone's name on and slip it around the stem of the glass at parties.)... they are round with a cut out circle in the center. I positioned that over the masking taped end of the funnel. I placed the funnel on top of the paper plate and the flashlight shone right through the small round hole I constructed. The paper plate kept the funnel end above the flashlight so that the eggs wouldn't have direct, hot contact with the light.
Gee that was long winded. Sorry!
Candling these eggs was a synch compared to the dark bc marans eggs I had done the week before. And it was really cool to put my candler on a table so we could all see... and easily rotate the egg.
Results:
Silver Laced Wyandottes: 4 look fertile with movement, veining and a moving embreyo!... and 2 we weren't sure about (lots of freckling, hard to see an embreyo). 4 out of 6 = Great!
Standard Golden Laced Cochins: 2 look fertile with veining, embreyos and movement. One had a discernable heartbeat, too! ... 3 were questionable (we couldn't come to a consensus, so I'll keep them another week and recandle then) ... and 1 had a visible bacterial ring - which we all got to see when I cracked the egg in a bowl later. So 2 + 3 maybes = 5 out of 6 at Day 8.
ARGH! I had my camera... my best bud was there... we are both scrapbooking/photography fiends... And neither one of us had the brains to use the camera! We kept getting caught up in the candling and looking and talking! Three of my four kids were there and two of her three were there... between the eight of us, no one took pictures?! Even if I didn't get the candled eggs, I COULD have photographed the bacterial ring in the bowl. That was pretty cool. ~sheesh~
Okay, done beating myself up. I just want to capture all these special moments. I feel like I am learning so much... and right along side my kids, which is pretty darn special.
I'll post again in a week when we recandle the eggs. I'll TRY to take some pictures this time! LOL
I've never hatched eggs before.
I've only candled once before - and they were dark bc marans eggs: ugh!
My hen has never been broody before.
I have never gotten eggs from these sellers before - via the mail.
And although I've got another broody hen on eggs, I still have no idea what the heck I am doing!)
Tonight was Day 8 (3/10) for the eggs under my second broody hen. Iris is a blue wyandotte... and she is sitting on a total of 12 eggs. I hadn't planned on that many, but the sellers sent extras - which is wonderful, of course - I just hope that there aren't too many for her. Unfortunately, I can't move any of these to my other broody because their hatch days are four days apart. However, if none of the eggs under my other broody hatch, I will switch some of these to her to finish.
I received the two sets of eggs on the same day. I bought 4 golden laced standard cochin eggs - and got 6! I also bought 3 silver laced wyandotte eggs - and got 6! Wow! I took a recommendation from another BYC person and labeled the eggs before tucking them under Iris. I put a circle around all the SLWs and numbered all the eggs (SLW1 - SLW6 and GLC1 - GLC6).
Tonight I candled Iris's eggs. We took 6 out from under her, wrapped them in a towel ... which was warmed by a bowl out of the oven... in a basket. No worries that it was too hot for the eggs... I just wanted to be sure that they didn't cool before we were done candling.
I created a candler tonight. I got a quart mason jar and stuffed it with dish towels before sticking my mini mag light straight up in the center. Then I got a small paper plate and cut a random hole in the center and set it over the top of the jar with the flash light coming up through the hole. Then I got my large mouthed canning funnel and flipped it upside down. I used masking tape to make the funnel's mouth smaller. I have those wine glass marker tags (the ones you write someone's name on and slip it around the stem of the glass at parties.)... they are round with a cut out circle in the center. I positioned that over the masking taped end of the funnel. I placed the funnel on top of the paper plate and the flashlight shone right through the small round hole I constructed. The paper plate kept the funnel end above the flashlight so that the eggs wouldn't have direct, hot contact with the light.
Gee that was long winded. Sorry!
Candling these eggs was a synch compared to the dark bc marans eggs I had done the week before. And it was really cool to put my candler on a table so we could all see... and easily rotate the egg.
Results:
Silver Laced Wyandottes: 4 look fertile with movement, veining and a moving embreyo!... and 2 we weren't sure about (lots of freckling, hard to see an embreyo). 4 out of 6 = Great!
Standard Golden Laced Cochins: 2 look fertile with veining, embreyos and movement. One had a discernable heartbeat, too! ... 3 were questionable (we couldn't come to a consensus, so I'll keep them another week and recandle then) ... and 1 had a visible bacterial ring - which we all got to see when I cracked the egg in a bowl later. So 2 + 3 maybes = 5 out of 6 at Day 8.
ARGH! I had my camera... my best bud was there... we are both scrapbooking/photography fiends... And neither one of us had the brains to use the camera! We kept getting caught up in the candling and looking and talking! Three of my four kids were there and two of her three were there... between the eight of us, no one took pictures?! Even if I didn't get the candled eggs, I COULD have photographed the bacterial ring in the bowl. That was pretty cool. ~sheesh~
Okay, done beating myself up. I just want to capture all these special moments. I feel like I am learning so much... and right along side my kids, which is pretty darn special.
I'll post again in a week when we recandle the eggs. I'll TRY to take some pictures this time! LOL
Last edited by a moderator:
