Do eggs get heavier as babies grow?

[loves2hatch]

There is a couple of great stickys from Pete55 that discribes the weight loss of an egg and what the percentage should be at the time of hatch. It's very informative my hatch rate has increased dramatically since I've read these articles.
Here's the links:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/577310/a-guide-to-humidity-weighing-and-lockdown#post_7493364

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

edited to include another great link.

 

[charles173airborne]

I know this might be silly and I might be wrong but it caused a great debate tonight.

When I flipped the eggs tonight, I told my DH that eggs #3 and #6 felt heavier. I think they are growing.

Well my son (college kid) laughed at me, and my DH said that was not possible because even though they might be growing inside the eggs, they are not taking in anything from the outside therefore the egg will never be heavier then the original weight.

He may have a point, but it seems to me, that a baby chick in an egg verse a regular egg has got to weight more.

Any thought on this?

I have a bet on this so I really need your help on this.

I believe you are right. I am currently incubating quail eggs and they do seem to heavier when I turn them 3 times a day than when I first got them. You're son's logic tells him that it is impossible because the egg isn't taking in any food or water from outside but remember the food source is in the yolk and the water is in the humidity that gets in through the shell. How does that pumpkin seed get bigger and bigger without a root? Some internal force from inside the seed husk. And the water that soaks in through the husk to get the whole process started. Same thing with incubating chicks. I recently read an article for a large chicken farm and it's owner and he basicly said the same thing. Eggs do gain weight during incubation.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

It’s actually the opposite, they lose weight.
You were also responding to a very old thread from 2014. Anyway welcome to BYC!

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I believe you are right. I am currently incubating quail eggs and they do seem to heavier when I turn them 3 times a day than when I first got them. You're son's logic tells him that it is impossible because the egg isn't taking in any food or water from outside but remember the food source is in the yolk and the water is in the humidity that gets in through the shell. How does that pumpkin seed get bigger and bigger without a root? Some internal force from inside the seed husk. And the water that soaks in through the husk to get the whole process started. Same thing with incubating chicks. I recently read an article for a large chicken farm and it's owner and he basicly said the same thing. Eggs do gain weight during incubation.

Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

 

[NatJ]

Eggs do gain weight during incubation.

Not according to the companies that make and sell incubators, and the companies that raise & sell large numbers of chickens. They recommend weighing eggs, and adjusting humidity, so the egg will LOSE the correct amount of weight during incubation.

Example from an incubator manufacturer:
https://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/Humidity.aspx

Example from a company that produces large numbers of chickens:
https://www.cobb-vantress.com/en_US/articles/the-value-of-understanding-moisture-loss-in-incubation/

How does that pumpkin seed get bigger and bigger without a root? Some internal force from inside the seed husk. And the water that soaks in through the husk to get the whole process started. Same thing with incubating chicks.

The pumpkin seed starts out dry, and soaks up water from outside itself in order to grow.

The chicken egg starts out full of liquid, and loses liquid (evaporation), so the air cell gets bigger. It is losing water, not gaining it.

 

[Sydney65]

This is sort of what I'd been working on today. I understand what you're thinking is; the more evaporation in the egg, the more bird is in the egg. Not surewhat you'd call that, mass vs. Slosh? So an egg closer to hatch feels heavier or more solid.