My cochin eggs are fertile!! Finally!!!

[NapsWithChickens]

I've been buying fertile hatching eggs for a while... until I fell in love with giant cochins. Now I have 4 sets of breeding birds - each set is 1 roo with 3-5 hens - and I've been waiting and waiting and WAITING for the girls to begin laying... and for the boys to do their jobs... and today I got my first fertile egg!

So that's the good news...

The bad news is that the egg looked funky to me... it had a line looking like a crack going around the egg... and it was also slightly bumped out... which made me think that the egg was swollen with bacteria and ready to explode. Today was day 9 and when I candled it I didn't see any veins, but the egg looked to be developing... full... airsack clearly deliniated... But I didn't want to take a risk with an egg that might explode over every other egg in the incubator....

So I took it out to the compost pile and opened it. Dang. Little developing chick baby... ~sigh~

I have four other eggs that are at about day 5 in the incubator... I can't WAIT!!!! (These are from a splash giant cochin roo over a barred frizzle cochin hen ~ should result in 50% frizzle chicks, the pulllets should be all blue and the cockerels should be blue barred.)

 

[Cornychick]

Congratulations!!!

Next month will be my 1 year anniversary with chickens. Last september, I got some banty cochin chicks from the local feedstore and one of them has started laying. Last night I put one of them in the bator with some shipped eggs to see if it developes. I know. I could have just cracked it open and looked for the bullseye, but it will be more exciting this way!

 

[Derrick]

I was at the fair this past weekend and my 13 y/o fell in love with the Giant Cochins. He wanted me to hatch some of those big black birds because they were so "cool"...

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

I finally have some Blue Cochin eggs in the bator but finding only half end up fertile. Have heard that they are so fluffy that they have a hard time making a connection during breeding and you should trim the feathers around the vent. Anyone heard that? Should the roo be trimmed too or just the hens? Good luck with your cochins. They are gorgeous birds. Just love mine.