We have had a busy last couple of days taking care of the new hatchlings. Saturday was the beginning of 12, yes 12 chicks hatching. We were able to Zoom it for many to see. It hatched about 1:00 Saturday afternoon. The rest of the day, we only saw many little dents in the eggs. Saturday night, I woke every couple of hours to check on the hatchlings. The first time I woke, there was one chick, the second time I woke there was another, and when I rolled out of bed at 6:30 there were two chicks! Between 6:30 and 7:30 two more hatched. During Sunday, 4 more hatched! As I write this on Monday, what I believe is our last chick finally hatched. We are up to 12 chicks! That is the most we've ever had. We started with 22 eggs, which is the most I've ever started with. Here are some videos and photos from the weekend.
Candling the eggs is a way to look inside the eggs. We got the room really dark, then took out one egg at a time to shine a bright light into the egg. We found that the lighter the color of shell, the easier it is to see. We found some strong veins in many eggs and the highlight was watching movement in one of the eggs.
Since Day 1, lots has been happening inside the eggs. On day 1, the head, brain, and eyes begin to form. Day 2 the veins and heart begin to form and the heart begins to beat!! Day 3 the beak, wings, and legs begin to form. On day 4 the tongue begins to form. Day 5 is when the embryo becomes a male or female. Today we placed the 22 eggs in the incubator. We were able to get eggs from two different farms in hopes to increase our hatch rate. This year, I decided to weigh each egg before the start of its incubation. All eggs ranged from 1.8 grams to 2.4 grams. I will weigh them again on day 19 when we go into lockdown. I wonder if the weight will change? |
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