1st Hatch this year

[Rothy_058]

Today I set a dozen Polish chamois bantam with frizzle gene eggs with a half dozen of our own 'home laid' bantam eggs... Before I set the eggs I candled them all.

I don't normally do this...just candle them around day 10 to check development and air cells and to clear out the non-starters. What I did notice was that none of the eggs had an air cell? As I've never tested eggs prior to setting I really don't know if this is normal or not...?

I have done three or four hatches before with varying results. Up till now with only shipped eggs. The frizzles are shipped but the half dozen bantam eggs are from our own girls - it will be interesting to see how many of the shipped eggs make it to hatch compared to the home-grown. Can anyone advise on the air cells?

 

[Floydie]

The air cells start off small and grow as the egg looses moisture and towards the end of incubation. It's a good idea to candle eggs before setting as it will show up any faint cracks that can otherwise be missed.

 

[Rothy_058]

Mmmm..... Depends what you mean by 'small' - I couldn't detect any air cells at all....on any of the eggs!

 

[Rothy_058]

OK. Day 1 on display. Maintaining humidity between 45 - 50%...temp at 37.5 C - I'm not going to candle again for a few days. I'm hoping that by day 6 or 7...about this time next week... I'll be able to see some signs of development as well as air cells.

Here's hoping....

 

[Rothy_058]

This batch of eggs went into lock down 2 days ago I candled them as I locked them down and out of the 16 remaining eggs I found two that had quitted somewhere during development and one that had never really started because of a detached air cell that I must have overlooked earlier. The remaining 13 all had healthy air cells and hatch day is tomorrow,

I can barely contain myself. We are about to go into 'Lock down' ourselves here and I'm hoping this will help our worried ten-year-old who finishes school indefinatley tomorrow because of the covid-19 pandemic.

I'll update this thread with hatch news.

 

[Rothy_058]

Three new arrivals today....all safely in the brooder and doing well....

All these are from our own flock of Bantams, sired by Sherlock....I only pictured one of them because they are pretty much identical...each one is equally adorable

One of the larger eggs we bought is showing an external pip so I think there will be another update before long...