Double Yolk Incubation Research Project

[HennyPenny2019]

Hi lovely people!

For the last two months I've been stalking this website trying to gather information to start a research project. And this past Monday, it was finally time for me to start! I figured I would post a thread in this forum so those interested can follow along, as well as a quick way to ask advice in case I get into a jam, because I've never hatched anything before! Hope you guys all enjoy this journey because I am personally very excited!

A little bit of background:

I studied to be a veterinarian for 3 years at a university in the states before realizing I simply am awful at science. It was sad to admit it, but becoming a vet simply isn't in the cards for me right now. So I started to look for a new direction for my studies, and stumbled upon courses in animal behaviour. I had a brief introduction to it at my school in Rhode Island because one of the courses I took was one about animal behaviour. And here's the crazy part, we had to train a friggin' chicken as part of our final mark! I used to be terrified of anything with feathers because of an incident with a very angry chicken when I was like 3, so this was an interesting challenge for me.
Obviously, I got over it real quick or I wouldn't be on this site
My love for chickens and other farm birds started to grow and after going back to live with my parents while figuring out where to go next, I started to farm sit for this wonderful lady that had a crazy collection of animals. And of course, she had chickens!

One day when I was checking the nest boxes I made for the gang and I came across the cutest tiniest egg I had ever seen! Later I found out it was called a Fairy Egg. I was so fascinated by it I decided to try to incubate and and see what would hatch, if anything would even hatch. This is what started my crazy science mind. While after 6 days in my makeshift incubator made with a heat lamp and a box I saw nothing happening inside the egg I cracked it open and found no yolk, and as you guys all know, no yolk no baby. At first my plan was to study fairy eggs and see if it would even be possible to get a few that do have a yolk (my research online concluded that some do have a yolk) and to see if anything would hatch, but after asking around in my area I realized there's no way to get a large enough amount of fairy eggs to do a conclusive research project, they just don't happen often enough.

While my fairy egg idea was a bust, my search for info on them did bring another type of "abnormal" egg into my sights. I'm sure you guys can guess what that was, yup, double yolked eggs!
With my scientific heart set on doing a research project I started searching for information on the incubation of double yolk eggs, if its even been done. As I'm sure you guys have seen before, there's very few instances where a double yolk egg has successfully hatched two healthy chicks, and it as never been done on a large scale. The only known case is from 1849 where one guy claimed his hen laid 10 doubles in a row and he managed to hatch 18 healthy chicks from those eggs. However, I have yet to find any proof of this fact.

So, I started to put my project in motion. It's still gonna be a while before I can go back to school and what better way to fill my time than with cute fluffy babies!

I acquired 12 double yolk Muscovy eggs on Monday. Not that I specifically looked for Muscovy eggs, it just happened to be what I had available in my area.

I candled, weighed, and marked them with an X/O and air cell, and made observations about the initial candling.

We are now at day 4 and to my great excitement I saw that the few I sneaked a peek at have started to develop!! I never thought I could be so excited about watching eggs but it's just so amazing to know something is growing inside there!

I hope you guys will enjoy this journey as much as I am
Well, I for one am VERY excited to follow along. Good luck!

Warm regards,

Crazy scientist Marly

 

[lilmillefleur]

 

[MarlyMonster]

I do agree with you, it doesn’t look good to me either. The veining shouldn’t just disappear like that. But definitely give it some time.

I will, I’m weighing and candling again on Monday so I’ll see what’s up and share!

 

[MarlyMonster]

It's a fascinating project, but I have one concern; have you made sure to get a way to humanely put down any ducklings that manage to hatch but aren't going to be able to survive? There's a reason you don't get two babies from one egg very often.
Well- not often in birds. It's a bit more common in reptiles. I've seen video of hatching snakes where one egg actually had three babies in it! I think it helps that snake eggs have flexible shells and therefore a bit of extra room. The babies out of multiple-yolk eggs are clearly smaller than average, but otherwise seem to do okay.

As heart broken as I’ll be, yes I do have a plan in place. It’s all about quality of life y’know? If I see one ducky isn’t doing well I’ll be taking it to my vet to euthanize. I don’t have any experience culling myself so I’m not gonna try. Vet seems the most humane way and it’s what I’ve done when I have baby birds that are orphaned but that aren’t gonna make it. I still have high hopes though!

 

[MarlyMonster]

Just another image I took of one set of the twins! Another weighing and candling of everyone will be happening tomorrow.

 

[iluvsedward]

Just another image I took of one set of the twins! Another weighing and candling of everyone will be happening tomorrow.

View attachment 1617862

Hi, just found this thread! Ive tried my had at double yolkers before, but in both instances one of the yolks developed and the other didnt, and the non developing yolk contaminated the developing embryo and they never made it to term.

These babies in this particular egg dont look too good, embryos and veins should be bright red, am i mistaken or are they a bit dark?

Best of luck to you! Theres lots of criticism out there for people who want to hatch double yolkers, I personally dont think its wrong though! A mother hen would sit on one!

 

[MarlyMonster]

Hi, just found this thread! Ive tried my had at double yolkers before, but in both instances one of the yolks developed and the other didnt, and the non developing yolk contaminated the developing embryo and they never made it to term.

These babies in this particular egg dont look too good, embryos and veins should be bright red, am i mistaken or are they a bit dark?

Best of luck to you! Theres lots of criticism out there for people who want to hatch double yolkers, I personally dont think its wrong though! A mother hen would sit on one!

Hi! So glad you found this thread! It’s always great to hear from others who have attempted this quest before. How many did you try at once? It’s interesting to get perspective for my research.

I think it’s my light that isn’t strong enough, and added to that is a simple iPhone camera that doesn’t do well in the dark lol. When you see it in person there’s actually very bright and prominent veining. The picture doesn’t bring that out though unfortunately
I’ll try to get a better one soon! Tomorrow is another candling and weighing day so I’ll try to use a stronger light and hopefully it’ll be more visible!

Also, till what day did your little ones make it?

Looking forward to keeping in touch!

Marly

 

[ChickNanny13]

Just found this thread, following

 

[Cyprus]

Has there been any consideration to the possible need for a higher humidity range due to multiple embryos sharing one egg? I'd imagine that they'd use up the egg's resources significantly faster.

 

[Fishkeeper]

If that was the case, that would mean that humidity would be consumed faster, not that they'd need more humidity.