Incubating against the odds...

[aart]

Are you getting the brown eggs because the brown gene is dominant in the EE?

Very rough synopsis. There are only white or blue shells.
It's because of the blue egg genes, there are only 2(EE may have only 1) and if 1 doesn't get passed down you get a white shell instead of a blue shell....something like that, I am not proficient at explaining genetics.
The green(or brown) comes from the brown coating, which is a whole other set of genes.
Darkness of the brown coating is also genetically driven, why folks use Marans for OE, darker the coating darker the green on a blue shell.
I wouldn't even call them Olive Eggers unless the parentage is known and accurate.

That's amazing on your sexlinked chicks. That's got to make things a little easier at least for the first part.

Well, it's cool, but just gets you over your gender disappointment 6 weeks early, haha!....tho it does allow the selling of pullet chicks as day olds.

Poor thing was bleeding out when i found it.

It hit a vein...happens sometimes. I've hatched a bunch of 'long' eggs with success, they do tend to side pip tho which can lead to longer time between pip and hatch and the possibility of needing assistance.

 

[ForrestGump]

Just my two cents - the more you handle the eggs while they are developing (especially during the first week of incubation) the greater your chances will be of damaging the developing chick. I never mess with my eggs during the first week aside from turning them or adding water to the incubator. You can't clearly see the embryo until the 5th - 7th day anyway.

 

[fightingbunny]

Does candling them in place count as disturbing them? This would be leaving them laying down and just holding the light to the egg and seeing what you see. Not turning/moving/jostling/etc?

 

[ForrestGump]

Pretty much. I don't mess with them. No need to candle more than once a week anyway.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

Just my two cents - the more you handle the eggs while they are developing (especially during the first week of incubation) the greater your chances will be of damaging the developing chick. I never mess with my eggs during the first week aside from turning them or adding water to the incubator. You can't clearly see the embryo until the 5th - 7th day anyway.

And so i guess that partially why were experimenting. Is it really that bad to move them? We're experimenting with a few different variables, one of those being what we can see. On day 4 we could see the "eye" developing. Broody hens leave the nest the first week laying on eggs to do their thing. Granted they aren't picking them up. But they do roll them.

I'm not trying to pry but do you know what goes wrong with the embryo when it's moved too much? I'm just interested in why you think this.

 

[aart]

I'm not trying to pry but do you know what goes wrong with the embryo when it's moved too much?

It's more about touching them a lot[wash your hands before (c)(h)andling] and opening the incubator a lot... making it try to keep temps stable.
I understand your educational endeavor but daily candling does have its risks....and could actually skew your experiment.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

Aart and Forrest Gump, we agree that handling can have it's negative consequences... But for this series of eggs, I'm more hoping that i get a high success rate where it is expected not to be. By using older odd shaped porous eggs, daily handling, and a ~50 dollar incubator, we realize the odds are slightly against us.

Also i agree that candling more than weekly is kind of a waste. After five videos with minimal change and dimming views, I'm not sure we'll make videos all the way til the end but I'm still going to try!

Lastly i agree with the fact that these are technically not "true" olive eggers until they hatch an olive egg, but "barnyard chicks with a possible bcm father and random hatchery green egg laying mother" just didnt give the idea i was going for. I'll definitely let my friends who i share the chicks with know that there will be a surprise colored egg out of each one in a few months.

 

[ScottKelly1974]

These are standard chickens, though the hen lays a smaller oblong egg than what I'm used to.
Thanks for that chart! I looked up something like "chicken air sack chart" and the ones i saw were all day 4 or day 7...but that one spells it out.

My flock lays a few different eggs. Some are like the elongated ones you posted. Then I have a sex link that lays a large dark brown eggs, similar color to your picture, and my queen hen lays a jumbo light brown egg. Then three hens lay brown eggs with spots. One of the spotted eggs are smaller than all the other chicken eggs. However, I have been hatching these eggs for the last two months. The size of the egg does not effect the development of the chick. Although the egg size will determine the size of the chick coming out. But even though I've had small chicks, compared to the larger eggs hatched, they all get along quiet well and grow quickly. I use a long feeder and round feeder to ensure all the chicks have room to get at food.

 

[ScottKelly1974]

Aart and Forrest Gump, we agree that handling can have it's negative consequences... But for this series of eggs, I'm more hoping that i get a high success rate where it is expected not to be. By using older odd shaped porous eggs, daily handling, and a ~50 dollar incubator, we realize the odds are slightly against us.

Also i agree that candling more than weekly is kind of a waste. After five videos with minimal change and dimming views, I'm not sure we'll make videos all the way til the end but I'm still going to try!

Lastly i agree with the fact that these are technically not "true" olive eggers until they hatch an olive egg, but "barnyard chicks with a possible bcm father and random hatchery green egg laying mother" just didnt give the idea i was going for. I'll definitely let my friends who i share the chicks with know that there will be a surprise colored egg out of each one in a few months.

When it comes to canceling, I candle to check if fertile, then they go into the incubator. I don't candle until the few days, usually when I move them from the egg turner incubator to the plastic incubator (it's easier to clean than the styrofoam) for hatching. It is at this time I will check each egg (soon to hatch) to see if they have developed or not. So until I'm expecting them to hatch in the next three days, I don't know what their state of development is or even if they are developing. Also once a week I open the incubator to add more water to the system. Other than that I just let them stay in to develop.

 

[SavKel&RynKel]

My flock lays a few different eggs. Some are like the elongated ones you posted. Then I have a sex link that lays a large dark brown eggs, similar color to your picture, and my queen hen lays a jumbo light brown egg. Then three hens lay brown eggs with spots. One of the spotted eggs are smaller than all the other chicken eggs. However, I have been hatching these eggs for the last two months. The size of the egg does not effect the development of the chick. Although the egg size will determine the size of the chick coming out. But even though I've had small chicks, compared to the larger eggs hatched, they all get along quiet well and grow quickly. I use a long feeder and round feeder to ensure all the chicks have room to get at food.

Do the smaller chicks mostly become smaller hens who also lay smaller eggs? Or do they eventually catch up to their larger "counterparts"? (Cousins?)