Hatching the Chooks

These are the Momma's and the Poppa Chicken. They are Rhode Island Reds from Fairhaven, a town about an hour south of us near New Bedford. I drove down just about 2 weeks ago to pick up the eggs from a really nice family. They are exceptionally excited about their chooks and have a young son who may like to borrow the incubator, so we may work out a trade over the years. He has a lovely rooster (if roosters can be considered so) and I got a good photo of him strutting his stuff.

The eggs went into the incubator late Monday night just over two weeks ago. We've got a Hovabator incubator which holds 48 eggs - although that would be just too many chickens for us so we're only trying for a dozen. The eggs need to be kept at 101.5 degrees (measured at the top of the eggs) for 21 days. The yellow plastic bit into which I'm settling the eggs is an automatic turner, which slowly rotates them so that we don't need to open or touch the eggs with our oily fingers 3 times each day.

This photo shows an egg being 'candled'. We hold it up to a pinpoint of bright light in a dark room to visualize the embryo. On day 6 you can just make out the tiny embryo in the bottom left corner of the egg. Today it would be a bit more difficult to see as the chick takes up most of the space in the shell and is more opaque. I can see their hearts beating though and when I gently roll the egg they rustle around a bit to get more comfortable. They should hatch in 5 days, on Monday night so make sure to check back for photos and a video of hatching chicks!