I haven’t done a lot with the eggs, because I thought it was probably better to leave them alone and not be always fiddling. It’s better to leave the lid on, as this preserves the heat and humidity.
Does that sound plausible?
In truth I just didn’t get on with it because I had other things to do. That’s the story of my life – “other things to do”. That’s on my list of things to do – improve my time management.
Fortunately when I weighed them and checked the weight loss they are just about on target. The blue eggs are spot on – weighing 153 g against a target of 152.9 g. The Polish eggs are out by 0.2 g per egg, which isn’t significant. The brown ones are a bit out – 2 g per egg. However, they are bigger and they are from older birds so the shells will be more porous and the expected loss will be higher as a consequence. We will just have to see what happens. In an ideal world we wouldn’t mix such a diverse selection, but they needed to go in when they did to hatch on a Wednesday when we could see them.
That’s the trouble with keeping a small number of birds, you end up keeping the eggs until you have enough and as they age the hatchability declines. I just checked the exact figures – keep them for 7 days and you are OK, after that they start to decline both in terms of hatchability and the health of the chicks you hatch.
It also says (which was something I once knew, but had forgotten) that they will take a little longer to hatch.
Ready to hatch – I hope!
I am now hoping my calculations are right, because if they don’t hatch on Wednesday my life won’t be worth living.
We should have candled them by now too, but I didn’t get on with ordering the right light and I don’t have a powerful enough torch to do the job. Candling is shining a light through the egg to see if it has a developing embryo inside. For now it will have to remain a mystery.
The turning gear is now removed and the humidity turned up to 65% (as you need to keep the egg membranes moist to help the chick get out of the egg).
By Wednesday all will be revealed!
Good luck with the eggs. And what’s that little pile of wool doing there by the incubator?
It’s a rug. Someone came to demonstrate it – I didn’t pay much attention but you weave it round a sort of loom made from tubes with string in them – when you have filled it you remove the pipes and pull the strings tight, then do it again. Sorry to be so vague.
Omigosh. And I thought it was a pile of sheep wool!
Try these links – http://fernhill-farm.kushty.net/ and http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/rep_pdf/1448138550JenHuntereditedreport.pdf
Very interesting woman and a great afternoon (even though it wasn’t really my sort of thing.
Thanks!
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Thanks. 😉