MarlyMonster
Songster
- Oct 24, 2018
- 580
- 1,501
- 167
Hi all you lovely people!
I have been lurking here for a while now and been reading all the wonderful tips and advice everyone gives each other so I finally decided to join!
A little bit about me.
I'm a 23 year student from the Netherlands, currently living in Canada, and about to move to the UK. For the longest time I was absolutely terrified of chickens (bad incident when I was 3) but in the recent years in Canada and attending school for pre-vet I've been forced to overcome that fear.
During an animal behavior class at the school I was attending one of our projects was to train a chicken using the training methods we learned in class. While I had been around chickens before this was my first REAL close-up interaction with them. And when they're all fluffy and cute, they aren't so scary! Me and my Rhode Island Red girl, Stella, quickly became close as we worked on her skill of color differentiating. After the class was over I tried to adopt her but unfortunately school has rules about that and wouldn't let me. She remained at the school farm along with the rest of the chickens the other students had and became the new laying flock, so at least she's living a good life!
Skip forward a year and I'm home in Canada again because school became too expensive and I was also starting to drift towards a different degree, since it turns out I suck at science...
So, my new focus is animal behavior! I'll be moving to the UK for school next year since I'm still a EU citizen and it'll be a lot cheaper.
Now, get ready to hear something crazy lol.
I farm/pet sit for people in the area to keep myself from going crazy while living with my parents again. One of my customers is this amazing woman that has the greatest hobby farm ever! She's got a little bit of everything, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and even a few ducks.
When I was taking care of the gang one morning I noticed an exceptionally small egg inside one of the nest boxes. My fascination grew when I took it home and learned it was a so-called 'fairy egg'. My scientific mind sprung into action and I decided to try to see if I could hatch it! So I made a DIY incubator with a plastic container and a heat lamp, and gave it 6 days. After that I opened it and it turned out to just be albumen, but something much worse came out of this...
I decided I wanted to do a research study about fairy eggs and their hatchability (not a word I know but work with me here)!
After much research and asking hobby chicken owners about these cute little eggs I realized the chance of getting enough together for a study were slim
However, in my search for information about fairy eggs I started reading about other unusual eggs a chicken can lay, and one of those is a double yolk egg, or twin egg as I like to affectionately call it.
So my research took a completely different turn! I decided that instead of studying fairy eggs, I would study the hatchability of twin eggs!
Now I'm aware of the complications with twin eggs so I don't need the warnings about them probably never hatching, I'm aware of that and have thought of a solution! However I'm not ready to share this solution yet until I start testing it but I will post it once I start
By total coincidence my search for double yolk eggs lead me to hatcheries in the area, and one of them happened to be a muscovy duck hatchery. And while all others had disappointing news about the almost non-existance of twin eggs in their facilities, this guy with the ducks said he actually gets them quite frequently but just doesn't hatch them for obvious reasons! AND, he was super interested in my experiment so he's totally game to help me get whatever eggs I need! YAY!!!
So as of today I've been frantically researching the process of hatching muscovy eggs in an incubator, which led me to you lovely people! I read a great guide someone posted about hatching muscovy eggs, and I just finished reading the tread about a lady hatching eggs for the very first time that were also muscovy eggs. She received such lovely comments and so many nice people offered their insight when she needed advice, I figured my best bet to succeed in my research is to ask poultry owners directly!
So I hope you guys enjoyed reading my very long story about myself, because I'll definitely be posting lots more things in preparation for my research, as well as during the different experimental phases!
Thank you so much in advance for being such a friendly and supportive community and I hope I'll be able to do you proud!
Love,
Marly
I have been lurking here for a while now and been reading all the wonderful tips and advice everyone gives each other so I finally decided to join!
A little bit about me.
I'm a 23 year student from the Netherlands, currently living in Canada, and about to move to the UK. For the longest time I was absolutely terrified of chickens (bad incident when I was 3) but in the recent years in Canada and attending school for pre-vet I've been forced to overcome that fear.
During an animal behavior class at the school I was attending one of our projects was to train a chicken using the training methods we learned in class. While I had been around chickens before this was my first REAL close-up interaction with them. And when they're all fluffy and cute, they aren't so scary! Me and my Rhode Island Red girl, Stella, quickly became close as we worked on her skill of color differentiating. After the class was over I tried to adopt her but unfortunately school has rules about that and wouldn't let me. She remained at the school farm along with the rest of the chickens the other students had and became the new laying flock, so at least she's living a good life!
Skip forward a year and I'm home in Canada again because school became too expensive and I was also starting to drift towards a different degree, since it turns out I suck at science...
So, my new focus is animal behavior! I'll be moving to the UK for school next year since I'm still a EU citizen and it'll be a lot cheaper.
Now, get ready to hear something crazy lol.
I farm/pet sit for people in the area to keep myself from going crazy while living with my parents again. One of my customers is this amazing woman that has the greatest hobby farm ever! She's got a little bit of everything, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and even a few ducks.
When I was taking care of the gang one morning I noticed an exceptionally small egg inside one of the nest boxes. My fascination grew when I took it home and learned it was a so-called 'fairy egg'. My scientific mind sprung into action and I decided to try to see if I could hatch it! So I made a DIY incubator with a plastic container and a heat lamp, and gave it 6 days. After that I opened it and it turned out to just be albumen, but something much worse came out of this...
I decided I wanted to do a research study about fairy eggs and their hatchability (not a word I know but work with me here)!
After much research and asking hobby chicken owners about these cute little eggs I realized the chance of getting enough together for a study were slim
However, in my search for information about fairy eggs I started reading about other unusual eggs a chicken can lay, and one of those is a double yolk egg, or twin egg as I like to affectionately call it.
So my research took a completely different turn! I decided that instead of studying fairy eggs, I would study the hatchability of twin eggs!
Now I'm aware of the complications with twin eggs so I don't need the warnings about them probably never hatching, I'm aware of that and have thought of a solution! However I'm not ready to share this solution yet until I start testing it but I will post it once I start
By total coincidence my search for double yolk eggs lead me to hatcheries in the area, and one of them happened to be a muscovy duck hatchery. And while all others had disappointing news about the almost non-existance of twin eggs in their facilities, this guy with the ducks said he actually gets them quite frequently but just doesn't hatch them for obvious reasons! AND, he was super interested in my experiment so he's totally game to help me get whatever eggs I need! YAY!!!
So as of today I've been frantically researching the process of hatching muscovy eggs in an incubator, which led me to you lovely people! I read a great guide someone posted about hatching muscovy eggs, and I just finished reading the tread about a lady hatching eggs for the very first time that were also muscovy eggs. She received such lovely comments and so many nice people offered their insight when she needed advice, I figured my best bet to succeed in my research is to ask poultry owners directly!
So I hope you guys enjoyed reading my very long story about myself, because I'll definitely be posting lots more things in preparation for my research, as well as during the different experimental phases!
Thank you so much in advance for being such a friendly and supportive community and I hope I'll be able to do you proud!
Love,
Marly
BYC is a helpful site providing all the information you need to know about poultry! There is always space for more members on the BYC roost!
Good luck at your new school! Post pictures if the twins ever hatch too! Hope you enjoy it here as much as we all do!
