![]() The eggs under the chickens actually began hatching two days before the full four weeks-and the incubator eggs didn’t begin hatching until two days after their due-date. The chickns net result wasn’t as good as the previous year because there were other hens who wanted to brood (see below), but eight of ten live poults came from the chickens, while only two poults survived the second incubator hatch. Therefore, when 15 eggs went into the incubator, we also put 12 eggs under four broody hens in the chicken house. This year we no longer trusted the incubator when we began a second round of hatching. But the chickens not only sat, they hatched out 100 percent! We had so many broody chickens, but no broody turkeys, early last springtime that I put seven eggs under two of the broody hens for the “fun of it.” Because chicken eggs only require three weeks of incubation, I didn’t think they would sit the four weeks that turkey eggs require. Such drama on the farm!īut the broody hens have also been our heroines other times these past two years. You would have enjoyed watching us running those precious eggs out to the chicken house for the broody hens to sit on! The embryos were still alive when tucked back in the incubator and candled later that day. There were technical difficulties with the incubator both times that may have been factors – the turning-bar for the eggs wasn’t working for two days on the first hatch and the electricity actually went out during the second brood. Four poults survived the first hatch and there are only two healthy babies from the second. We just completed our second incubator hatch of turkeys, and neither could be considered a success. Mother hens have proven more reliable than our incubator this year.I love getting in on the miracle of this new life! ![]() It takes less than 30 seconds to look at each egg, and leaving the incubator open that long is equivalent to the mother hen leaving the nest for food and water. After that it’s possible to see a wing or a head move. After two weeks the blob is bi-lobed and moving. I think this is as thrilling as a fetal ultrasound! After one week there is the marble-size blob. I’ve discovered that holding the egg with one hand, while cupping the other hand around the egg, allows me to see the actual movement of the embryo. Eggs are candled the first week to see if vessels are developing, and later to check the size of the air-sac. I cut an oblong hole in the box, barely the size of an egg, to hold the egg against and get a shadowy picture of what’s inside.
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