Friday, April 25, 2008

Egg update

Today is day 14 for the eggs. Last week I candled all of them. I found the brightest, small flashlight I could, and shined it through each egg to see if they were developing properly. Because the eggs are brown and the shells are thick it was a little tricky to do. I had to turn each egg around a couple of times and move the flashlight up and down but eventually I got the hang of it. Three of the eggs I could see right through, so my guess is that were never fertile to begin with. They were eggs from one of the White Plymouth Rock hens, and both of my White Rocks are my big free rangers so I don't think the rooster gets to them as much :) One of the other eggs-from a Barred Plymouth Rock- had a very small blob inside of it, maybe a bloodspot. The embryo probably died the first or second day because I only saw a couple of blood vessels and the rest of the egg was transparent. The rest of the eggs were filled with blood vessels and had a prominent air sac at the top, right where it is supposed to be. The middle was too dark for me to see anything, but obviously that is where the embryo is. Some people have been able to see the little chicks heart beating when they candle, but I couldn't see nearly that well.
We only have a week left, I am so excited! This is our first hatch and I really want those little babies to do well. Here is a pic of Mr. Rooster, the big daddy of all of these little embryos in the bator!

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