I had meant to blog earlier about candling our eggs ... however as often happens life seems to have got in the way (and loss of it, poor Emily.) Thanks to all for the lovely comments BTW on my last post.
It's not as if we weren't candling, in fact I was so impatient there was no way I could wait a week so we had a look on day 4! and day 6 .... and day 8 ... and day 12.... and tonight -day 14 ! Apparently it doesn't harm the eggs, they don't spend long enough out of the incubator to lose heat so lots of people (impatient ones like me!) candle them often as the development is pretty amazing.
There is a lot of info on the internet about candling, so I won't go into it too much here, but basically it involves shining a light through the egg to see whats going on inside. It needs to be done in a fairly dark room, with a torch or lamp that can concentrate the light through the egg -not around it. We used a normal torch and it worked fine.
Unfortunately I haven't got any photos as they wouldn't work well, but even at day 4 we could see a dark mass inside (on non-fertile eggs there is just light). We could even see the eye which is one of the first things to develop. At day 4, it seemed there was maybe 10 out of the 12 developing, though some were more obvious than others. From day 6 onwards, there has been 8 developing out of the 12, which is a pretty good rate. Wyandottes are rose-combed which lowers the fertility rate (strange but true) so I wasn't expecting all of them to work, but hopefully these 8 will make it to the end.
Tonight (day 14) there is not much left to see. The chick has grown into most of the egg, so its very dark, with just a small space left to grow into, and the bigger end of the egg has an air sac which lights up really well.
As I mentioned in my original post I have mix of silver-laced (3 left), gold-laced (1 left) and blue-laced-golds (4 left). BLG parents have chicks of BLG's, gold laced, and splash (which is gold/white with blue) so I'm very interested in what is going to come out!
There is still another week to go, fingers crossed that the remaining 8 will all make their way out of those shells, and that they will all be hens!
8 comments:
That's a fantastic rate, I'll figuratively keep my fingers crossed that all of those 8 hatch for you. Wyandottes are lovely birds, so I'm looking forward to seeing cute chicken shots next week.
Oh, I so hope they all hatch!
Looking forward to wee chickie photos :-)
I am psyching myself up to rehome my Isa Browns, might need to save a few eggs first though.
Hubby's question was what will I do with any cockerels that hatch. What are you going to do with yours?
Hmmm greenfumb.... I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for 8 hens! Seriously, not sure. Chances are half will be roosters though. Either sell if we can or give away if we must. I would like to keep one for breeding later if their temperament is ok, and not too noisy. Mick says Wyandottes are relatively not bad for crowing all hours. Our council is ok with roosters except if neighbours complain to them, not sure how we'd go.
I couldn't be self-sustaining as many do and use them as 'meat-birds' - I'm too soft! If we had to be self-sustainable I'd be vegetarian for sure! Haven't eaten chicken for a long time... seems a bit weird now....
A chook can supply you with one roast dinner, or years of fresh eggs :)
I'm with you, I never eat chicken by choice - unfortunately it's the only meat Teen 2 will eat so we do have it sometimes. Don't tell the girls :-(
Did you notice that Mick lives several kms from where the roosters are? Might be a bit optimistic, my girls are very vocal.
Is it day 18 yet? Have you heard them cheaping in their shells? Are they rolling around in the incubator yet?
Gosh it must be getting close. I can't wait to see who arrives. :)
About roosters, have you asked Mick if he takes them back? Every breeder is different, but I offered the guy I bought my GLW eggs from, first option of the roosters before I advertised.
He said he often gets requests for roosters, but as he never keeps more than he intends to breed with, it's helpful if he can track down other unwanted roosters from his fertile eggs.
Micki may not take the roosters off your hands, but he may have a list of people looking for roosters which aren't day old's.
Being a Wyandotte, roosters are easier to sell or return to the original breeder, as they're a breed well sort after. So just contact Mick to find out.
You'd also be surprised how much breeders appreciate seeing how their stock matures. Sometimes they loose their breeding roosters unexpectedly, and appreciate those who buy their fertile eggs, calling back with spares.
Oooh how exciting. I am still amazed at how incredible the development of a chick inside an egg really is...I mean truly it's so amazing!!
I would be candling them as often if not more so than you...I'm just terrible with things like that.
Sounds like some truly beautiful birds are coming your way...wayandottes are stunning!
hello!! I'm sorry I didn't get back to you again about the brooder box - my email is chooksrus4 at gmail dot com. Come and get it today if you like or during the week. Very exciting for you - I know the feeling of waiting for them to hatch - it's unbearable!! I nearly put one in the compost, thinking it was past due and when I picked it up it peeped at me and I nearly dropped it! He turned out to be a rooster so we couldn't keep him but we enjoyed hatching him! Good luck
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