Mama Dani's Musings: Growing our flock: Hatching Eggs

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Growing our flock: Hatching Eggs

About a week and a half we got a borrowed incubator from a friend. We got it all set up and let it run for a day to make sure it was in good working order. The plan was for this to be a homeschooling project along with growing our flock. However I might just be having more fun than the kids. ;) My friend Andrea, from Cluck Dynasty, gave us a dozen hatching eggs. Before introducing you to the eggs, I'd like to introduce the parents.

The mothers:

Rosie: not sure what her lineage is, Rhode Island Red cross??

Buffy: Red Star crossed with Ameraucana??

Midnight: Black Australorp/Ameraucana cross

The father:

Westly: Black Copper Maran

They have another rooster but there's hardly a chance he's the father of any. Too bad though b/c he's adorable!!

Cotton: Bantam Cochin Frizzle

The eggs:

Before setting the eggs I candled and marked the air cells. I also marked an X on one side of each egg and another letter for identification on the other side.

The brown eggs are Rosie's, the grey-blue ones on the left are Midnight's and the blue ones on the right are Buffy.

At the end of day 2, I candled all the eggs again. Rosie's eggs are hard to see in but all the rest had this circle in the middle of the yolk. By then the eyes,head, ears and heart already started developing.

I candled the eggs again on day 4. Every one of them had veins!! It was difficult to photograph but so exciting to see! By then their noses, tongues, legs and wings all developed.

Today is day 9. By now, their genders have been determined. Their beaks and feathers have begun to form. And the digits on their legs and wings have become visible. As of today, the embryo has begun to look like a bird. Last night I candled all the eggs once again and marked the growth of the air sac. All air sacs are growing nicely. Some of the embryos were hard to see but the lighter eggs showed me something very exciting; movement!! I watched several little tiny embryos swimming around in their eggs.