Hi Everyone

Konattchi · Sep 4, 2013

So I got hooked into chickens when I had this wild idea to try and incubate eggs from my refrigerator (which were fertilized because I got them from my grandma's chickens). So I found some old boxes and turned them into a bigger box with a hole in it from one side for a light bulb that would supply the eggs for the required temperature. At first it was an experiment to see if eggs from the fridge can actually develop into chicks and those eggs were probably around a week old. So I put 4 eggs and remarkably when I candled them they did began to develop (I think one of them was unfertilized from those 4 eggs). After that I received more eggs which stayed for around 1 day in the fridge and I added 4 more to the "incubator" that I made. And so I was turning my eggs and all for those 21 days and all didn't even have a thermometer had no idea if they were the right temperature but still the time came for them to hatch, but I was worried. You see I read somewhere that chicks on low humidity might have a hard time coming out of their eggs and my "incubator" was unable to sustain the required humidity so out of fear they might never come out of their shells I intervened with the hatching process. My first egg peeped but after many hours I still had to see a crack in the egg so I made one from the safe air side of the egg. The chick was still having problems coming out after hours so after hours of wondering will I mess up if I get it out of the shell or not in the end I took it out after enlarging the hole. At first it wasn't moving it was on his one side just breathing and peeping and wondering if it will survive at all. And in the next morning it actually started moving around and before u know it he was all up and well. The next eggs were something like that I even forced a peep on 2-3 eggs cause they were starting to really get late and 2 of them I thought that I messed up cause they were bleeding a lot when I took them out but in the end all of the chicks survived. They were 5 in total the other 3 were 1 unfertilized and the other 2 died in their eggs (one of them in the middle of his development the other one around the 18-19 day). Now those chicks are living a happy and healthy life with my grandma since they were a bit too big for me. I was wondering if you guys knew if even with low humidity the chicks can get out of the shells somehow? The humidity was around 30-40% I got a thermometer hygrometer at the time they started hatching. And now with a bit of experience I am using my "incubator" once again for Japanese Bantams I got a hold of. By the looks of it from the 10 eggs I got only 5 of them are developing. Still I keep the other eggs for a miracle who knows what might happen though I highly doubt it from the candling I did. So that is my story and I sincerely hope that it will continue do develop into a happy one for me and the new JBantams that I expect.