Five Tough Chicks and TWO Amazing Embryos!

[Wickedchicken6]

Speaking of which, I just candled the 60 hour and 12 hour eggs.
All are still alive and looking good.
Two large fowl have internally pipped and the one chick is working away at the external pip. So I added water.

I'm looking at incubation charts. I think the 12 hour cold OEGB eggs look about Day16. The 2 - 60 hour eggs looked close to day 9 when I posted the blurry pic of the one egg...but they don't look like day 16 yet. I failed to consider how fast this was going to happen with the week (approx.) the broodies may have been already setting...lol!

Hopefully all goes well.
I can't say as well as planned because nothing was planned.

 

[lastco]

Yay! I'm over here like for your eggs as well!

4 WEEKS!!!! I'm impressed.

My latest "old egg" experience wasn't super fun, but I got 2 chicks that I wouldn't have if I hadn't tried (out of 6 that I set). That's not a good hatch rate, but I don't really worry about stuff like that with old eggs. I also hatched 12/12 fresh Bielefelder eggs in the same batch. That's a hatch rate I'm happy with. Haha!

Two of my Ancona X eggs didn't develop at all, one quit after lockdown, one hatched fine, and two were malpositioned. One of the malpositioned chicks hit a vein and aspirated. The other also hit a vein, but pulled through with assistance. I did eggtopsy the one that aspirated and found the yolk absorbed BUT there was a ton of albumin in that egg. That likely contributed to the malpositions. I'm just glad it didn't ooze out into the incubator. Yuck. This is an exaggerated example of my experience with older eggs. Usually it's not this dramatic.

 

[Banaynaychicken]

Oh they are absolutely gorgeous!! such DOLLS!

wish I had the time/materials to incibate , I would have salmon favrolles and fleurs and D' Anvers by now...

for the moment I am just trying to keep the 11 birds I have alive though!! this AZ heat has already taken one of my bird, the first chicken I ever had no less.....

maybe ill wait till fall. OR wait until my fiance gets stationed.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Yay! I'm over here like for your eggs as well!

4 WEEKS!!!! I'm impressed.

My latest "old egg" experience wasn't super fun, but I got 2 chicks that I wouldn't have if I hadn't tried (out of 6 that I set). That's not a good hatch rate, but I don't really worry about stuff like that with old eggs. I also hatched 12/12 fresh Bielefelder eggs in the same batch. That's a hatch rate I'm happy with. Haha!

Two of my Ancona X eggs didn't develop at all, one quit after lockdown, one hatched fine, and two were malpositioned. One of the malpositioned chicks hit a vein and aspirated. The other also hit a vein, but pulled through with assistance. I did eggtopsy the one that aspirated and found the yolk absorbed BUT there was a ton of albumin in that egg. That likely contributed to the malpositions. I'm just glad it didn't ooze out into the incubator. Yuck. This is an exaggerated example of my experience with older eggs. Usually it's not this dramatic.

I'm glad I figured out the timeline. It worked because I had other event dates that coincided.

I'm sorry to hear that your Anconas X eggs didn't make it. That's disheartening.
How long have you been incubating?

Setting old eggs can be hard on the heart. About 80% of the time now, I can pick out the embryos that start to die. That's hard. I never have a good hatch rate but I don't expect to with what I do. I won't know until a later date in the future if my theory will be close.

I have found out that when setting old eggs, it's best to have eggs around the same age. That way they will be close to losing the same amount of fluid by hatching time. It's hard to accommodate the humidity requirements when the eggs have different sized air cells. No different from fresh eggs...lol.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Oh they are absolutely gorgeous!! such DOLLS!

wish I had the time/materials to incibate , I would have salmon favrolles and fleurs and D' Anvers by now...

for the moment I am just trying to keep the 11 birds I have alive though!! this AZ heat has already taken one of my bird, the first chicken I ever had no less.....

maybe ill wait till fall. OR wait until my fiance gets stationed.

Sometimes incubating can get a person into trouble...lol.
I'm sorry to hear about your one bird. I hope your other birds do ok with the heat.

 

[MasAhora]

ummm @KikisGirls the balut is usually a day 23ish duck



i actually work with a guy that has a philippino wife and SHE wont even touch it

balut sounds gross, makes cleaning chook poop seem a fun diversion from meal time

 

[WVduckchick]

Now that's an amazing egg to see! Wow! That would be the perfect egg for a teacher to candle for a class! Or any of us who love candling eggs. (guilty here)

I am loving hearing about everyone's tough eggs/embryos!
That's incredible that you travelled an hour with them!
How did you package them for travel?

Not sure how i missed this. Hubby was with me that day, so i put the eggs in a butter bowl, with just a paper towel in the bottom. Held the bowl on the seat between my thighs lol!

How did you know??? View attachment 1059862
I've got old egg, no turning eggs and more cold egg experience! View attachment 1059862
Most of it is buried within other threads on here...lol.

In 2015, I started with old eggs. REALLY old eggs. I've been modest in saying they were 3+ weeks...but it just occurred to me last night that I could figure out the dates with the digital tags of the pictures. So I did.

View attachment 1059995

Blue June 15th: Our grand MIL's funeral. We picked our chickens up after the funeral.
Red June 28th: Our chickens were predated one day short of two weeks
Pink August 19th: The first pic of those three chicks hatched from the old eggs was taken August 20...so August 19 for hatching.
July29: The eggs hatched would've been set approx. July 29.
That would mean the hatched eggs were at least 4 weeks old.
(Why didn't I figure this out sooner?)

In the two weeks we had the chickens, I left all the eggs hoping they'd start setting...lol. Those eggs laid there, untouched. They didn't get handled or turned until I put them in the incubator.

I didn't start building my incubator until the 3 week point...lol. There were a couple pails of eggs so I stuffed the incubator full. Then as soon as it was apparent eggs weren't developing, I refilled those empty spots. The eggs were silkie cross, OEGB and a brown egg layer so the shells were easier for a newbie to see into.

This was my first try/experience with hatching. I didn't have any calibrated thermometers or hygrometers. Basically, I was winging it to the best of my abilities.
I think luck MUST have been on my side.

The two white chicks (two Silkie crosses) and the gray chick on the right side are the chicks I resurrected.
View attachment 1060004

We were left with two hens; an EE and an OEGB and three roosters that were moved to a secure enclosure. Once they started laying again I also incubated their eggs. Those are the other chicks in the pic above.

I still have all three, all are conformationally correct and haven't had any health related issues to date.

Babygirl is one of my smallest hens. She takes no guff and is a top row hen...lol.
She's a total sweetheart and one of my favorites. (Pic taken tonight)
View attachment 1060319

The gray chick turned into the gray hen who lays an aqua colored egg.
View attachment 1060105

View attachment 1060325

The white feathered leg chick turned out to be the white Silkied Rooster above.

Great stuff!! And you know i love your OEGBs!

By the way, i hatched 14 of 14 lav orps today!! One was a late addition that the hen had sat on for 4 days. When i added it, i realized i hadn't plugged in the cradle, so they didn't get turned for the first 4 days.

I'm the opposite of VWduckchick. I like setting old eggs. It's how I started. I feel comfortable doing it. The same with staggered hatching. It's how I started out. I don't mind being in the last three days (lockdown) and opening the incubator to turn eggs. Or...sometimes I don't turn them at all...

My idea and hope of setting old eggs and not being so careful is that over time, if I continually set old eggs and I select the best chickens from the embryos/chicks that survive...eventually the eggs produced by these chickens should hatch at an above average rate with above average chickens that excel above the norm...much like wild animals do. Selection of the fittest...same thing.

So a lot of last summer/fall eggs were set as old eggs. So far I've found the embryos live or die. The ones that make it are fine. I've been setting older guinea eggs this year. I've got some that must be a month or more that I plan on setting soon.

I decided to push the envelope and I stopped turning eggs. The eggs got turned only when I candled. I still got a surprising amount of chicks. (I think that's why I keep forgetting to turn the 60 hour eggs)

The post below best shows some of the chicks I've hatched not turning.

I'm Building an Incubator - please don't bother asking permission to laugh at me

I've also had two other cold egg experiences. The first was a broody on the wrong nest leaving her own eggs cold for approximately 11 hours. The eggs were probably just over the week old.

I also forgot my incubator off and open on tax day for about 10 hours. Everything was fine.

But the 4 week old eggs that hatched (three eggs) and the 60 hour embryos have been the most extreme for me.

Interesting theories, for sure. I don't "not" like setting old eggs, i just have found they develop less, so I usually set the freshest, but to fill a bator, I'll still set them. Now i might have to experiment with some really old ones lol!

Glad the 60 hour eggs are still going!! That's cool!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

balut sounds gross, makes cleaning chook poop seem a fun diversion from meal time

I imagine that just like some foods...it's an acquired taste. Different cultures have different foods. My husband likes eel and some other foods that make my stomach turn...lol. And his background is the same as mine. He's much more adventurous when it comes to food. I love eating calamari.(squid) I try not to think about what I'm eating.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Not sure how i missed this. Hubby was with me that day, so i put the eggs in a butter bowl, with just a paper towel in the bottom. Held the bowl on the seat between my thighs lol!




Great stuff!! And you know i love your OEGBs!

By the way, i hatched 14 of 14 lav orps today!! One was a late addition that the hen had sat on for 4 days. When i added it, i realized i hadn't plugged in the cradle, so they didn't get turned for the first 4 days.




Interesting theories, for sure. I don't "not" like setting old eggs, i just have found they develop less, so I usually set the freshest, but to fill a bator, I'll still set them. Now i might have to experiment with some really old ones lol!

Glad the 60 hour eggs are still going!! That's cool!!

I knew you'd reply when you saw it. Fourteen out of fourteen!
I haven't done that. So the first 4 days not turning didn't affect the outcome.
That's very interesting and good to know!

Oegbs ARE cute. Thank you for liking mine.

My choice of words were probably not the best. I didn't mean to single you out in a negative way. And most definitely, the fresher eggs do much better. I think I'd have a thousand chickens if I set fresh eggs last year.

I hope the 60 hour ones are still going...haven't candled tonight. I just realized I didn't turn them today. Crap.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Update: All the embryos, including the 60 hour eggs are still alive and developing.

I'm keeping the added water in; two oegb eggs appear to have drawn down.

The pipping chick hatched about 14 hours ago (Fri. 4am)

Two pics: the large fowl chick out and the much cuter dry LF chick with the oegbs, just taken.