No Chicks

We haven't had any hatching yet. It is the 29th, the eggs 1-13 were supposed to have hatched by the 25th. About half way through the incubation a power pole was moved so our power was out all day, so we took our eggs in the incubator to my grandma and grandpa's house. We got the eggs when the power came back on, but the power went out for a only a few hours the next day so we thought they would be fine if we didn't open the incubator. In the power outage the temperature may have gone down too much and made the embryos die. The chances of 14-31 forming is greater because the power outage was before 14-31 all were put in the incubator.

We candled the eggs, 1-13's embryos were formed but stopped developing around 10 days old so we threw them away. Most of our other egg's embryos were doing really good. We are expecting to have some eggs hatch starting on the 2nd of May. There is a bigger chance of us having some chicks next week because there are a lot more eggs, and most the embryos were forming.

# 27's embryo died :(

We still haven't had any hatching yet, so we are worried that we did something wrong. We have read that if the temperature is to low or to high the eggs can hatch late. It is the 22nd day for 1-5, 21st day for 6-10 and the 20th day for 11-13. Next Sunday we have 18 eggs that could start hatching, those eggs have a bigger chance of hatching because when we candled all the embryos we could see were developing. We are all very anxious to see some eggs hatch, so we have been checking on the eggs at least three times every half hour.

We think our eggs are going to be hatching really soon now because we have seen eggs wobble and we have heard the chick trying to get out.This week 13 eggs should be hatching so we have a bin ready with bedding, water, a feeder, and a heat lamp for when the chicks hatch. We will put chicken wire over the bin so the chicks don't fly out.

2nd candling

We candled our eggs for the second time. This time in the first eggs we put in we could only see a black blob taking up half the egg which is is the baby chick, the yolk took up the other side of the egg. In the chicks final days of being in the egg the yolk is all in the stomach of the chick so when the chick hatches it can go up to 48 hours without eating. In the newer eggs we could clearly see the embryo moving around in the egg. About 90% of the eggs we could see through looked like the embryo was forming. We still couldn't see through the green eggs, the egg's shell is to dark to see anything. Our eggs could hatch any time now, so I am very excited.

Our Eggs Will Be Hatching Soon

In a few days our eggs will be hatching, so we will need to get all the supplies we might need. We will have to get a waterer that we can put marbles in just above the water level so if the chicks fall in they will be sitting on the marbles instead of drowning. We will get a feeder that has holes in the side of it so the chicks can just stick their heads in and eat, we choose that type of feeder so that the chicks don't get in the feed and get dirt and possibly poop in their food. We also will get feed. We will have a heat lamp with a 100 Watt bulb we have to keep the chicks warm between 95 and 100 degrees. We will keep our chicks in a plastic bin with liter in it until the chicks have their feathers, the feathers take 5-8 weeks to fully grow in.

We went on a field trip to an organic farm in September, where all the vegetables were grown organically, and all the animals were fed organic feed.

The picture to the right is where we saw the idea to make a chicken tractor, you can see that the chickens scratch up the soil looking for bugs if you look inside the tractor in the picture. The tractors had a tarp over one half to make shade for hot days, and chicken wire over the other half. I will make a similar version of the tractor on the organic farm, but it will be smaller so it will be easy to move. The chicken tractor will have hinges on the top so the roof can fold over so we can grab the chicks.

Chickens in a chicken tractor loosen and mix the soil up. The chickens droppings act as fertilizer for the soil, and the chickens eat all the bugs and worms in the soil.

The chicken tractor will get the chicks used to being outside, and it will protect them from predators such as dogs, hawks ,and other chickens.

Candling Our Eggs

Last night we candled some of our eggs. To the right is what we saw in the white and brown eggs that have been incubating for a week, we couldn't see through the green eggs though. The eggs that had been incubating for almost 2 weeks we could clearly see the embryo's eyes, we could also see the embryos moving around. After candling the eggs it looks as if we will have a lot of chicks, there are only a few that we can't tell if the embryos are forming.

Here are some examples of what the eggs could look like. All we've seen so far are good eggs. We are eager to see what the eggs will look like at the end of the week.

To the right is a new picture of all our eggs. If you look under the eggs you can see that the eggs sit on cut up egg cartons with a hole in the bottom. The eggs sit on the egg cartons so the air can get to all sides of the eggs, and so they don't roll around and break.

We will stop rotating 1-5 on the 23rd of April. On the second day after you stop rotating the eggs you can hear the chicks chirping in the egg. We expect the eggs to start hatching around the 25th of April. I myself think that 12 eggs total will hatch because that is a little over half of the eggs, besides 14-22 because I truly do not think they will hatch.

We have 12 brown eggs, 9 green eggs, and 10 white eggs.

31 EGGS

Today we have a total of 31 eggs. We stopped putting eggs in the incubator today so now we will start eating the new eggs we collect. Numbers 14-22 were in the hen house and an egg broke on them so they were covered with hay, poop, and dirt because they were so sticky. Some of the bacteria from the things stuck to them might have sank through the shell and got in the egg, so that may effect the embryo. There is a very good possibility that the embryos 14-22 wont form.

I have a favorite egg, it is number 27. Number 27 is the biggest egg I have ever seen, I hope it will be a big rooster. If number 27 is a rooster I will teach him tricks. I will train him to come when I call his name. Right now I am thinking of a name for him.

date	egg #	egg color	fertility test 1	fertility test 2	stop rotation	hatching	removed	color & health
5-Apr	#1	green			23-Apr
5-Apr	#2	white	fertile		23-Apr
5-Apr	#3	brown			23-Apr
5-Apr	#4	white	fertile		23-Apr
5-Apr	#5	green			23-Apr
6-Apr	#6	white	fertile		24-Apr
6-Apr	#7	green			24-Apr
6-Apr	#8	brown			24-Apr
6-Apr	#9	brown			24-Apr
6-Apr	#10	white	fertile		24-Apr
7-Apr	#11	brown			25-Apr
7-Apr	#12	green			25-Apr
7-Apr	#13	brown			25-Apr
12-Apr	14	green			30-Apr
12-Apr	15	white			30-Apr
12-Apr	16	white			30-Apr
12-Apr	17	green			30-Apr
12-Apr	18	brown			30-Apr
12-Apr	19	brown			30-Apr
12-Apr	20	brown			30-Apr
12-Apr	21	brown			30-Apr
12-Apr	22	green			30-Apr
13-Apr	23	brown			1-May
13-Apr	24	brown			1-May
13-Apr	25	white			1-May
13-Apr	26	white			1-May
14-Apr	27	white			2-May
14-Apr	28	white			2-May
14-Apr	29	green			2-May
14-Apr	30	brown			2-May
14-Apr	31	green			2-May