 |
| Egg gone bad. |
Candling complete. I was very pleased with the results. I only lost three since the first candling nine days ago - one Rhode Island Red, one Jersey Giant and one of the mystery eggs. Two of them were complete misses - I should have identified them before. One was a great example of how the hen just stopped growing. There was a blood ring and everything. The other two just looked liked a scrambled egg on the inside when I opened them. I have 36 eggs still going strong. Hatch rates are expected at around 65-70% for home growers. At that rate, I'll have 25 successful chicks. Of that, about half will be roosters. So 12-13 hens when all is said and done. Hopefully I'm dead on with the statistical averages.
It was really neat candling the eggs at this point. I could see the hearts beating on quite a few of them. So I hope I don't kill (m)any between now and the weekend.
 |
| Candling |
Here's a link to what a good egg looks like on day 18. I tried to take pictures, but my camera wasn't good enough. I should have had my brother's girlfriend come over - she does great shots with low light.
Lock down officially started after candling. Lock down means no more opening the incubator until the hatch has completed. I took the eggs off the automatic turner, added fresh water, and threw in a couple of wet paper towels under the grate. The humidity level is on the rise. I should be at 75-80% for the next few days. At this point, the chicks will start to position themselves into their hatching position, finish sucking in the yolk through their umbilical cords and get ready to meet the world by the week's end.
No comments:
Post a Comment