Incubation experiment

[Knighstar679]

I am not sure if anyone would be interested in this experiment but I decided that while I am off work I will do a little egg hatching. With that same thought I wondered if spraying a duck egg with vitamin b would increase the vigor and health of the egg as it grows during incubation.

so I started with eight eggs all from the same duck a Black East Indie. I weighed all of them and labeled half as control and half as test. Then I went and made a warm solution of water (16oz) and 1/2 ml of the liquid vitamin b complex you get at tractor supply.

Each of the eggs in the test group got sprayed front and back and allowed to air dry. After that I went and put them in the incubator.

I will be lightly misting all the eggs with water starting on day nine. The test eggs will get misted with the vitamin be solution.

I got the idea for it by stumbling across an article where they either misted or submerged chicken or quail eggs in a vitamin c solution. But they did not it seem test on duck eggs.

I decided to switch to the vitamin b complex because so many ducklings struggle with needing vitamin b niacin for many things. I thought this might be a good way to see if exposure to it in egg form might effect anything.

Let me know your thoughts or questions.

 

[NatJ]

I would have assumed that putting things on the outside of the egg would have no effect, but then I remember that toxins can seep in through the shell, so maybe vitamins would too?

I never thought to wonder before, but now I'm quite curious about the results!

 

[Knighstar679]

When I did my one week candle sadly I ended up down to two eggs. One test and one control. So it won’t give me the results I was hoping for but I am continuing forwards.

 

[NatJ]

Oh, that's disappointing

 

[Knighstar679]

Oh, that's disappointing

All isn’t lost but it doesn’t give a true sense of results with just the two eggs.

 

[Knighstar679]

Here are day 10 candling pictures. The test egg seems to have larger veins and was more active. The test egg is being sprayed with the b complex water every three days since day 4

 

[JaeG]

That is interesting, and I can see a difference in the veins too. I'd love to experiment but we only have ducklings at the moment.

 

[Knighstar679]

That is interesting, and I can see a difference in the veins too. I'd love to experiment but we only have ducklings at the moment.

I only have one laying hen right now so it makes it hard. I am saving up some eggs to do more experiments on but I want 12-16 eggs for it this time around.

 

[Knighstar679]

So I did my 5 day candle. I am pleased to say that experiment version 2 has had better result. I set 12 eggs this time, 6 randomly selected to be control eggs, and 6 others as test.

The test group was sprayed with a vitamin b complex spray. One spray on each side. It was allowed to dry then set in a nurture right 360 for incubation.

I applied a spray again at day 3.

On day 6 I took all eggs and weighed, candled and measured the growth size of veins.

Here are the result;

egg. Weight. Size.
CT1. 49g. NG
CT2. 47g. 3.5cm
CT3. 49g. 4cm
CT4. 49g. 3cm
CT5. 53g. 4.5cm
CT6. 53g. 3.5cm

ET1. 51g. 4.5cm
ET2. 50g. 4cm
ET3. 46g. 4cm
ET4. 48g 4.5cm
ET5. 50g. 4.5cm
ET6. 53g. 5cm


control group average weight 50 grams
control group average size 3.08 cm

experiment group average weight 49.66 grams
experiment group average size 4.41cm

it seems as of day 5 that the experiment that vitamin b complex seems to assist in good growth in early development of incubating duck eggs.

the plan is to spray and measure eggs every 5 days.

I have some candle images that aren’t that great but will post them if it is something people are interested in.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!