Incubating in my bra: An experiment.

[MargaretYakoda]

Just to get these questions out of the way: Yes. I'm weird. And well-endowed.

OK so, on a whim I put two eggs in my bra early in the morning on December 16, 2013. I kept them there for 18 hours before taking one out to check if it was fertilized. See.. we're new-ish to this chicken keeping thing, and I wanted to know if our Roo, Bob, was fully loaded or if he was shooting blanks. When I cracked the egg Monday night there was an obvious bulls-eye. Then I was struck with the idea that the second egg was also probably fertile, and if I put it on the skep it would stop developing. Oddly, this thought does not normally occur to me when I gather the eggs, but this one had already been tucked next to my chest for hours and it seemed different somehow.

I remembered something about pioneer women hatching eggs in their corsets when times were harsh, so I thought maybe it could work. At the very least it will give me experience candling. And, of course, I checked BYC to see if I was the only oddball to try this, and I have found one thread, which mentions Chinese women hatching rare breeds in their cleavage. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1825/egg-in-bra-moving-but-its-day-24/10

One question on that thread concerned how the physics of holding an egg in a bra works when you're sleeping or just going about your normal day. Well, I am wearing an Enell sports bra. That bra has a LOT of support without squishing my boobs totally flat. I don't normally sleep in it, but have done so for the past two nights with no obvious ill effect on the egg. I place the egg either under or between my boobs and they shift around it and act like an extra protective layer. I am able to sleep quite well and barely even notice the egg. I do shift in my sleep, and I imagine that takes care of turning it while I'm sleeping. If I turn, so does the egg, right? During the day the egg occasionally feels a little itchy, and I use that as a hint it's time to shift it. I try to remember to shift it at least once an hour. At night I am sleeping on top of an electric blanket set to medium, and during the day I wear a sweater, with a hoodie sweat shirt over that to minimize drafts.

At this point the egg has been in my bra for 58 hours. I intend to update here often. I am even considering keeping at this experiment until it succeeds. I mentioned I was weird, right?

 

[foreverlearning]

I keep invisioning the chick hatching and saying "Are you my mother?"

Great, now I see kids in gas masks...

 

[Sjisty]

Okay, I'm subscribing to this thread - love it!

I hatched a cockatiel egg in my cleavage once. It was hatching day and the mother had abandoned it. I just popped it in my bra and went to work. It was interesting to see people's expressions when my boobs started chirping! That little cockatiel lived with us for 21 years.

 

[SampyArctica]

Reminds me of a book I read my girls all the time, "Are You My Mama?". About a duckling wandering and asking all the animals if they were his mother.

All I can think of is Doctor Who and the masked children, "Are you my Mummy?"

But on topic - definitely interested to see how this turns out!

 

[Taco]

I heard Dolly Parton hatched a dozen Ostrich eggs this way. I think Simon Cowell has been doing this for a long time.

 

[enola]

I keep invisioning the chick hatching and saying "Are you my mother?"

 

[Amerauchick17]

Great, now I see kids in gas masks...

Haha, doctor who fan?

 

[MargaretYakoda]

Oh good still working

and what only about 12 more days to go

I got's to check this everyday

gander007

OMG it would be only 12 days if Abe were to hatch on schedule. Almost half way to that mark already! Wow.

That's a big IF though. Last time I candled him I wasn't sure if there was any new progress from when I reported here. I'm not sure, but I suspect Abe has quit on me. I'm very new at all this, and I've never really candled before this experiment. And, of course, most hatches are only candled two or three times before lockdown, so the fact that Abe looked almost the same two days in a row may not mean anything at all.

On Christmas Eve I got a copy of Janet Stromberg's "A Guide To Better Hatching." I had ordered it hoping to read all the wonderful information it supposedly had on ancient techniques of body hatching in China and other places. I was disappointed, to say the least. Four pages at the back, with no citation, only conjecture and poor illustrations gleaned from old magazines and county extension handouts prior to 1950. One illustration in particular, an artist's interpretation of a Chinese man wearing a coat with masses of eggs in the pockets is less than useless from a research standpoint. However, the idea that there are some ancient incubators that use the heat generated by sheer masses of eggs developing was interesting.

That said, there's still some good information in that old book. For example, germ growth in the blastoderm starts at 68 degrees. 80 degrees is a high enough temperature to support some growth of the embryo, even when it's not enough heat to continue that growth for very long. When a hen is sitting on eggs, the eggs are only in contact with the hen on one side. The other side has got to be pulling some heat out of the egg. Of course, the hen's internal temperature is 107 degrees so... There's that.

Stromberg says that there's a high risk of deformities in chicks who are incubated at either a too high, or too low temperature. She indicates that a multi-stage incubator can be set as low as 96 degrees, but I think she meant that was only for the last few days of incubation. Most incubators, according to Stromberg, are set at about 99.5 degrees for the duration of the hatching. This, however, doesn't take into account the effect of the humidity on temperature. Stromberg has some charts that show the wet bulb reading for a successful hatch is closer to 90, with 94 degrees recommended during lock down.

So, (and here's the fun I'm sure some of you folks are here to read) I'm guessing (and it's ONLY a guess at this point) that the skin in my chest area is especially humid, particularly considering the fact that I'm wearing a sweater and a sweat shirt, and the eggs themselves have a bit of wool between themselves and my bra, the temperature in that area - which runs at an unvarying 97.7 degrees, is probably going to be just fine. The bigger issue may be keeping myself (and thus the large end of the eggs) upright during the crucial times when the chicks turn themselves to be ready to pip.

One more note on Stromberg's take on the history of body hatching: She concludes with this "Incubation by body heat is a crude possibility but we are sure that few of us could exercise that much patience" Which I will counter with this thought: Throughout history the women of many families have too often had to resort to whatever worked to keep the wolf away from the family's door. Often, also, they were in charge of garden and hen house. And, as a group, women's histories are very often overlooked and untold. So, with that, I would like to propose a new idea: That in historical times body incubation was done a great deal more frequently than we now imagine. When faced with four or five hens who won't brood, I can easily imagine the average pioneer woman giving this sort of thing a try, if only out of sheer desperation!

Also? Challenge accepted Ms. Stromberg! Challenge accepted!

 

[Sarevan]

I think this thread is awesome! Waiiting to see what happens.


We have a family story during the 30's (depression) someone stole the brooody hen from the coop. A Great Aunt and Great Grandma found the unattended eggs and put them in their bras. Even made egg pockets in the bra. Between the 2 of them all the eggs hatched. I didn't believe it until I saw the writing in an old journal. Oh this was in Wisconsin Minnesta border duuring dead of winter too. So dern colld.


So you go girl! I wanna know how things turnout!!!!

 

[tommysgirl]

What will you name the chick?

If it is a cockerel I would think BUSTer would be good

I have a friend named Tita, that may work for a pullet