Incubators Anonymous

[Sydney Acres]

Candling update Day 14:
Backyard eggs: 10 set, 9 good. One was clear & probably not fertile
Shipped Eggs: 12 set, 8 embryos good size (2 clear eggs & 2 with blood rings + dead 3-5 day old embryos)
The air cells are about the worst I've ever seen. They all started out detached & some floated 3/4 way around the shell, Now many are fused in place but severely saddle shaped.

My daughter's 4-H experiment is to compare the hatch rate of shipped eggs vs. backyard eggs. Her hypothesis is that the shipped eggs will not hatch as well due to all the bumps during transit. My part of the project was building an incubator & paying for the eggs.

With the first batch of shipped eggs, 60% hatched. It was pretty good, but the backyard eggs were at almost 90%.
With the second batch of shipped eggs, we had 10 make it to day 18, but only 3 hatched. (about 25% hatched) Backyard eggs were 83%.
This time, they’re off to a rougher start. We may end up with our 1st ever 0%.

In each trial, my daughter gathered the eggs around the same time, so they would be the same age. I suppose we could have shipped them back to ourselves, but then we wouldn’t hatch the fun variety. It’s good enough for a 9 yr old’s project.

What a great teaching project!

Once it's done you can ask her if there were any possible faults in the experimental design that might lead to misleading outcomes, and ask her to make a written list. If she doesn't come up with the fact that the shipped eggs came from a different flock, different breed, etc, then you can help her with that one. When 9 year old girls start thinking like a scientist, their potential is limitless!!

 

[Faraday40]

What a great teaching project!

Once it's done you can ask her if there were any possible faults in the experimental design that might lead to misleading outcomes, and ask her to make a written list. If she doesn't come up with the fact that the shipped eggs came from a different flock, different breed, etc, then you can help her with that one. When 9 year old girls start thinking like a scientist, their potential is limitless!!

Thanks. She comes from a science teacher & an electrical engineer, so she wants to become an artist. LOL The good news is that she's advanced in both math & science, loves nature, and enjoys school. I'm sure she'll be fine in whatever she does. Our 3 yr old son, on the other hand, can build extravagant inventions out of Legos, add/subtract, and loves to take everything apart to see how they work. I think he'll end up like his daddy, but he currently wants to be a garbage man. His logic: He'll get to drive a big truck & only work one day a week. That way he can spend more time at home playing with his toys. Kids are fun.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:

then again, an excellent test for future observations, would be to collect eggs, test different packaging methods, ship to yourself (from another town or have a visiting friend take them home and ship), and compare hatch rates between different packaging methods to non-shipped eggs of the same age and origin.

 

[ccr chickens]

That might heal up.  Looks more like a hernia at the navel. 

I had two chicks like this and they both turned out fine

 

[insanity]

Stage 1 complete. 7 chicks 1 still trying and 2 dis.

 

[Pennychickens]

So here goes I have a problem ? sent reading all the storie on this tread I had to order eggs to hatch.so I won hatching eggs on ebay and they will be here Saturday I will let them rest for a day or two and then put them into my incubator very happy and really nerve is about all this.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I have an old Kerosene one that I picked up sight unseen but after getting it decided it was too nice to convert over to power. It sure is neat looking.

How do these work? Not the heat part, how do they rotate the eggs?

 

[gander007]

Alright update ...


Our 23 week old Pullet who hatched her first chicks ...






Is now 25 weeks old and the chicks are progressing nicely ..

 

[Sclark73]

You turn them by hand. This was made long before they had turners I believe.

 

[Arielle]

Stage 1 complete. 7 chicks 1 still trying and 2 dis.

WOw that white chick is truely a stand out!! I've not seen a pure white chick---