- Apr 14, 2011
- 198
- 2
- 101
Hello all. I am attempting to hatch my first ever chicken eggs. I began with six eggs of which two developed into embryos. We are now anxiously awaiting their arrival (and praying that we will be fortunate enough to have it go well given we have so few).
I am doing this as a project with my daycare children. I am particularly facinated by the development.
We collected the eggs from a farm on April 3rd and began incubating that night. I made the mistake of not running the incubator (homemade) for a couple continuous days prior to adding the eggs so the temps were all over the place at first. I actually had to sleep with the eggs to make constant adjustments! So my first question is, is it safe to count the days of development based on when I got the eggs in there? Is there a way to tell how on-track or delayed they are by size when candling?
Right now, it's been 11 days since I put them in. When I candle, I see an air space, veining that extends from the air space, the eye and shadow of the moving chick about 1/3 down the egg with it's C shape pointing toward the airspace-- head and tail toward airspace and back curved away. This may be a dumb question but is there a proper placement or position of the embryo? I ask bc these embryos don't seem to be positioned in the same way as the drawings I see (on the side and further down the egg)?
Below the moving embryo is a dark area and there is s more translucent area at the pointy end of the egg.
The second embryo is much harder to see. The placement is similar but it is as though its deeper in the egg; more central. I rarely see it and often only know it's there due to flutters of tissues. Is that normal?
It's really fascinating to watch but nerve wracking wondering if they will be okay and hatch.
Do the majority of chicks survive once they are this far along?
Tia for the info!
I am doing this as a project with my daycare children. I am particularly facinated by the development.
We collected the eggs from a farm on April 3rd and began incubating that night. I made the mistake of not running the incubator (homemade) for a couple continuous days prior to adding the eggs so the temps were all over the place at first. I actually had to sleep with the eggs to make constant adjustments! So my first question is, is it safe to count the days of development based on when I got the eggs in there? Is there a way to tell how on-track or delayed they are by size when candling?
Right now, it's been 11 days since I put them in. When I candle, I see an air space, veining that extends from the air space, the eye and shadow of the moving chick about 1/3 down the egg with it's C shape pointing toward the airspace-- head and tail toward airspace and back curved away. This may be a dumb question but is there a proper placement or position of the embryo? I ask bc these embryos don't seem to be positioned in the same way as the drawings I see (on the side and further down the egg)?
Below the moving embryo is a dark area and there is s more translucent area at the pointy end of the egg.
The second embryo is much harder to see. The placement is similar but it is as though its deeper in the egg; more central. I rarely see it and often only know it's there due to flutters of tissues. Is that normal?
It's really fascinating to watch but nerve wracking wondering if they will be okay and hatch.
Do the majority of chicks survive once they are this far along?
Tia for the info!
