Wednesday 21 March 2018

Day 18 of incubation

The eggs started at 1477g and are now 1308g so they have lost a bit over 11%.
We are aiming for between 10 and 13% in total so should be good.
I candled them again, and only 7 look like they contain chicks.
You can see the difference between an ‘empty’ egg and one with something in it is very big for eggs with as light shells as these. The something is hopefully a chick though occasionally it can be horribly rotted matter. None of them smell so I am hoping for chicks.

Egg with nothing in. The darkish patch is the yolk. You can see the air cell just about in the big end at the top.

Egg which hopefully has a chick in it. The big end with the air cell is at the bottom here. You can see the whole egg is dark compared to the very light glowyness of the other one.

This is not a good rate of growth from the eggs at all. You normally hope for around 80 or 90% (this is 25% and some will fail during hatchng too most likely). These were sent in the post which doesn’t help and were not as new as they could have been because of storms and snow stopping them being posted.

The eggs are now in what hatchers call ‘lockdown’ which means they are not being turned any more and the incubator shouldn’t be opened until all the eggs are hatched. They should start on day 21 (Saturday) and it could take a day or so to all get out. I have turned the humidity up to 60% now and plan on 70% on day 21 until they are all hatched.


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