They just arrived!

[LizStreithorst]

I'm a first timer at hatching my own so I'm pumped. One arrived with a crack but the lady sent 4 extras! I have them in cardboard egg cartons for a few days before I put them in the incubator my borrowed incubator. my Bielefelder eggs will arrive tomorrow. I'm going to have a ton of chicks when they hatch. at least I'll be able to tell the roosters from the pullets as soon as they hath.

 

[sourland]

Are you going to incubate the cracked egg ? If so you might want to seal the crack with wax and keep an especially close eye on that egg as it may become rotten.

 

[LizStreithorst]

I gave it to one of the dogs but he didn't eat it. It's still on the living room floor. I don't have wax but it's just a surface spider web crack. Is it worth giving it a try? How will I know if it starts to rot? will it bleed stuff from the crack? I sure don't want it to blow up on all the good eggs.

 

[BjaJra826]

Cracked eggs are really hard to incubate and might not be worth it. I had an accident with an egg shell crack during incubation, but that was at day 20 so the chick was okay. I generally only let my mail order eggs rest 12-24 hrs cuz I get so excited. You are going to want to candle your eggs ( I use a cellphone flashlight) at various points in incubation to check for life and weed out bad eggs. Happy hatching!

 

[LizStreithorst]

It doesn't matter. I went to rescue the egg and another dog was carrying around in her mouth. She's an egg stealer and the reason I need to build raised nests to the outside of my hen house before these eggs turn into layers. I can do carpentry, but not well.

 

[LizStreithorst]

Y'all sure are nice. Everyone remembers how exciting the first time was. Nobody said an unkind word about me being so unsure of myself.

I know about candling the eggs and I have a close neighbor who will help me interpret what I see. She's the one who loaned me the incubator.

 

[BjaJra826]

The best candling I ever I was able to catch on camera. You could see toes and legs kicking. I love watching them develop! The second best one I ever had was a duck egg where at day 6 you could see the heart beating. I really want to hatch this spring, but am under strict orders from my husband not to because he thinks that 17 chickens and 7 ducks is plenty lol. I disagree but I also have trouble wuth chicken math lol!