Hatching our first and a question.......

[juliemom25]

We bought some hatching eggs from a gal on ebay a couple weeks ago. They are our first hatch ever. Right now they are in our Brinsea. The temps have been good and the RH is fine also (I think). We have been candling them. We candled them all once at about a week old and two times since then we grabbed just a couple out and checked them. They seem to be developing and I am sure we have seen some moving, which is fun, but they just don't seem as far along as the pictures I have seen online for the same age. They are suppose to be 14 days today and those dates would have to be pretty accurate. They arrived on our doorstep on a Thursday and the gal we got them off of (a very nice lady I might add) said they were laid on Tuesday. How can it be that they all seem to be a pretty much the same stage of development, which seems to be a few days off of the pictures I see online? Do you just think that since I am a rookie I don't know what I am seeing??

Thanks!!!

We have some very excited little ones that are just waiting for us to hit that 21 day mark.........

Julie

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

It depends on when you are starting your day count from. Today is Tuesday and you are saying that they are supposed to be 14 days along which would put your start day on Tuesday two weeks ago. But is that the day they were laid? Let's say the eggs were laid on the 1st and you received them on the 3rd. You should then allow them to rest for 24 hours before placing them in the incubator which would then make it the 4th. If you then placed the eggs in the incubator the morning of the 4th that would count as day one. If you placed them in the incubator in the evening then the 5th would be considered as day 1. Then the eggs have to come up to temperature. An egg does not begin to develope until it reaches about 88 degrees. Each time you open the incubator to candle the eggs, the eggs cool down and it slows growth of the embryo and normal growth does not continue until the eggs warm back up. So lets say that you placed the eggs in the incubator the morning of the 4th. Day 18 would be your lockdown day when you quit turning the eggs which would make it now the 21st calendar day. Hatch day would be set for the 24th. Now depending on how many times you opened the incubator for candling and what your actual temperature was, the chicks can hatch anywhere from the 19th day out as far as the 27th day. On day 28 of incubation we check our eggs and any that have not hatched get tested and tossed.
So figuring that you received your eggs on Thursday the 14th and set them on the 15th, your hatch day should be May 5th which means your eggs are now about 12 days along in growth.
I hope that helps you and was not too confusing.