Hatching Fertile Gift Eggs

[Geckolady]

Here's some good reading while you wait for the chickies to grow:


https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/incubation-humidity.73386/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...gs-no-problem.1046313/page-5385#post-16540512

Thanks! And here is what they look like in the incubator.

 

[NatJ]

I've been keeping the rest of the eggs he gave me on a counter and not in the fridge, because I wanted to see if more of them might show signs of life later on. If they were just laid when they were candled, nothing would show up yet. A large brown egg and a medium brown one both showed a reddish spot in one one area of the shell, and now they're in the incubator, too.

Um, that's not quite how it works.

A fertile egg looks the same as an infertile egg when you candle it, forever, if it stays in the fridge or on the counter in a normal-temperature house.

And egg needs to spend a week or so in an incubator (or under a broody hen) before it will start showing signs of a chick inside when you candle it.

The wild-chicken version is that the hen lays an egg each day, all fertile, but none of them start to grow a chick. When she finally has enough, she goes broody and sits on the eggs all day and all night, and they baby chicks inside the eggs finally start to grow. Because they all start growing on the same day, they will all hatch on the same day. Then the hen can get off the nest and take them to find food. That's why a fertile egg can just sit in suspended-animation for a while, but be able to grow if placed in an incubator: it lets the hen (or the farmer) assemble a clutch that will all hatch on the same day.

 

[Geckolady]

Um, that's not quite how it works.

A fertile egg looks the same as an infertile egg when you candle it, forever, if it stays in the fridge or on the counter in a normal-temperature house.

And egg needs to spend a week or so in an incubator (or under a broody hen) before it will start showing signs of a chick inside when you candle it.

The wild-chicken version is that the hen lays an egg each day, all fertile, but none of them start to grow a chick. When she finally has enough, she goes broody and sits on the eggs all day and all night, and they baby chicks inside the eggs finally start to grow. Because they all start growing on the same day, they will all hatch on the same day. Then the hen can get off the nest and take them to find food. That's why a fertile egg can just sit in suspended-animation for a while, but be able to grow if placed in an incubator: it lets the hen (or the farmer) assemble a clutch that will all hatch on the same day.

That means that either I missed the spots before, or maybe my shelf here in a warm room in the AZ desert helped them grow. I put the rest of the dozen eggs into the incubator too, since there may be more fertile ones.

 

[BGcoop]

Putting them all in sounds like a good plan. If possible in about 5 days, candle the eggs and take pictures! Cuz pictures are fun! Also do you have a picture of the ones you said look to be developing now? I would be concerned that they started developing then were cooled and now reheated-that could be bad news for the embryo. Also those tiny ones may not be big enough to develop a healthy chick, but you never know right?Don’t forget to turn your eggs several times per day- it didn’t look like you have an automatic turner.