Ready, Set, INCUBATE!

I'm an admin/member of a local barnyard group on Facebook for my area. Almost 400 crazy chicken lovers JUST LIKE ME! We chat about our chickens and other barnyard critters and hold regular flock swaps and get-togethers. It has become an amazing community of advice, guidance, and playful banter. I've grown to love these folks. They understand my special kind of crazy. They encourage it, actually.

I said I wasn't going to be a 'hatcher'. “I don't need to incubate my own eggs” I said. And then the cute pictures of just hatched baby chicks continued to show up in my group feed and my own desire for more colored egg layers for my homestead got the best of me. “I'll just hatch one time” I said. “It'll be a good learning experience for the kids” I told myself. So I ordered some pretty dark chocolate colored hatching eggs and borrowed an incubator from a friend and that’s how it started.

On June 24th I set 7 fertile Black Copper Marans eggs in the Brinsea Mini Advance incubator. I was terrified I was going to do something wrong but I was assured that it was practically fool-proof. I set the day counter to 21 days, made sure the temperature was at a steady 99.5 degrees F, turned on the automatic egg turner and filled one of the two water wells and wished them luck.  

After that it was mostly a waiting game. I just had to make sure that one of the water wells stayed filled in order to maintain the correct humidity for the eggs and that was it. The Brinsea did the rest.  

On day 18 the eggs went into 'lockdown'. Lockdown is the period of time from day 18-21 where you increase humidity levels and stop turning eggs so that they begin to hatch.  On this day I filled both water wells full, removed the egg turner and lined the bottom of the incubator with a paper towel.  On day 20 I could hear little cheeps coming from inside the incubator and began to see little pips or cracks in the eggs.  Day 21 was hatch day. My kids and I spent pretty much the entire day with our noses pressed to the incubator. It was amazing watching these little ones emerge from their shells. 

Six of the seven eggs hatched. We knew early on that one of the eggs didn't appear to be developing properly but I didn't have the heart to toss it.. just in case.  We used a process called Candling to catch sneak peeks inside the eggs on day 7, 15 and again just before lockdown.  By shining a really bright light you are able to see inside the egg. The shells on my hatching eggs were pretty dark but with a bright flashlight in a dark room I was able to see the air sac in all of the eggs except for one.  The one 'dud' egg appeared the same under the bright light as one of my non-fertile eggs did. Here is a link for some photo examples of candling chicken eggs. Candling Chicken Eggs  

I said that was it. I wasn't planning to hatch any more.  My friends in the barnyard group just laughed. They knew.  Not even a month later and here I am, setting another batch. But I have good reason. 

OLIVE EGGS! 

I found these beauties from Eight Acres Farm. They were shipped and I received them yesterday and I set them in the incubator this morning.  

I've set all nine eggs in the incubator. Since I'm adding more than 7 eggs, I will not be able to use the automatic egg turner for this hatch. I will be turning the eggs several times per day by hand.  I have marked the eggs with x on one side and o on the other and numbered each egg so that I can keep track of their development as they progress. 

So that makes today Day 1 of another hatching adventure. I can stop anytime I want. *wink*

 

This post is linked to the Down Home Blog Hop, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop

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