Adventures in egg incubating

DAY 18!! 

Scroll down to the bottom for the lastest update!

WHOA it's been a long time since I updated *sorry* but I've been posting daily progression of our incubating silkie eggs and I thought this would be a cool place to share it.

I used to have chickens before we had kids, I guess I was the broody one, we had them again last year but I busted up my back and we wound up re-homing them because Mike *husbandperson* was over stretched in his daily duties with my being a cripple as it was, the chickens just added to it.

ANYWAYS, a few months ago we decided we would get some chickens, we started with day olds, well, I think they were more like five day olds, polish crested, they were ridiculous and lived in a makeshift brooder in my bathroom. Every morning Winter would wake up asking how they were and making sure they had their morning snuggles, we had a hard time leaving the house because she wanted to hang out in the bathroom all day. When the very distinct chicken smell became too much to  bear, they moved into the shed, and Winter would have slept in there too had we let her. Since then we have re-homed the crested rooster, his name was potato.

It got warmer and we moved them into the chicken tractor in the garden...Winter still got up daily to go see them, I managed to get my hands on a pair of Silkies, one rooster one hen, they are the sweetest snuggliest most ridiculous birds ever, we adore them, after the silkies I got 4 guinea fowl, we use them as an alarm system for predators, they make a horrendous noise when threatened, and during the day they groom the chickens, so any threat of mites or ticks is prevented with the guinea fowl, good that they're useful as they are the DUMBEST animal on earth. Seriously, remember that game Lemmings in the 80s? They're THAT stupid.

So now we have 4 araucanas who lay lovely green eggs (well, they did, now they're all hypersensitive about being moved to a new home and I'm waiting for them to get used to it so they can lay again, 12 birds and not a single egg isn't really great numbers, so we're waiting for another enclosure to be built for the silkies, oh wait, on Sunday we picked up another silkie hen, and the enclosure they're currently in is too small for the birds to sleep in, it was meant for 2 and we built an extension, so as far as a run goes, they're golden, but sleeping, some sleep on top of eachother, well, at least it's warm.

We will ultimately have three enclosures, one for the silkies and a guinea fowl, one for the auricanas and two guinea fowl, and one for the polish and likely another hen mate and guinea fowl. The silkies will be separate as to not mix the breeds if I'm incubating eggs.

Let's stop for a second so I can name all the birds, well, I can relay the names Winter has bestowed upon them...
 Polish crested: Annie and Potato
 Silkies: Buckle-up, Cedar (rooster) and, wait for it "Star with three magic wands and three moons"
 Araucanas: known as "the supremes" or Squirts, Bottle, Sock, and Unicorny.
 Guinea fowl: Emilee (incidentally the same name as our pug) , Toenail, Silk and Acorn

Ok, so I pulled a silkie egg to incubate, then another, then another, one turned out infertile so it got turfed. Strangely enough, the day I pulled the first egg, Buckle Up went broody, so she was hoarding the araucana eggs, I have since suckered her into using a golf ball, a golf ball that says "practice" across it so if she could read, she would know she was being duped.

Fluffy butted snuggle face. 

Before the egg is laid:

• The egg is fertilized
• The zygote divides and begins to grow
• the cells segregate into groups of specialized function
• the embryo nearly stops growing between laying and incubation.

Here she is face first so you can see the amount of cute we're bound to see upon witnessing her babies hatching, or "patching" as Winter says

Day one in the incubator, I grabbed the eggs on September 19 and 20 so in 16 days we will see the first chick if all goes accordingly and I don't bust an egg while trying to document it's progress.

this is day 1 of the candling, and day 2

this is day 1 of the candling, and day 2 looks pretty much the same so I'll spare you. In the photos you'll see some writing on the eggs (The date) and an X and an O, marking the top and the bottom of the eggs so I can rotate them daily, this keeps the chick from fusing to the shell

During incubation:

• The area pellucida and area opaca of the bastoderm develop

Day 1 - 2

things start to develop quickly, as chicken egg gestation is 21 days!

• at 18 hours: the alimentary tract appears
• at 19 hours: the brain crease begins to form
• at 20 hours: somites appear
• at 21 hours: the brain and nervous system begin to form
• at 22 hours: the head fold begins to form
• at 23 hours: angiogeneic clusters appear (heart tubes)
• at 24 hours: the eyes begin to form *squee*

day 1-2

Day 3

• The head begins to turn onto it's left side
• The tongue starts to form
• The amnion completely surrounds the embryo
• The tail has appeared
• Wing and leg buds are visible

day 3

Day 4

• The somites extend to the tip of the tail
• the toes begin to form
• the allantois is visible 

day 4

Day 5

• The reproductive organs begin to form *please be girls*
• The bones of the legs begin to form
• The crop begins to form

Day 5

Day 6

• The beak becomes visible
• The wings bend at the elbow
• The allatois begins to fuse to the chorion
• The gizzard begins to form
• The intestines beign to loop *oh great*

Day 6

Day 7

• a row of feather germs appear on the tail
• the sclera of the eye begins to form (sorry about the daily flashlight)
• feather papillae appear on the thigh
• the leg now bends at the knee

day 7

Day 8

• Three rows of feater germs are visible on the tail
• The inner eyelids begin to form
• The egg tooth (small bump on the tip of the beak) begins to form
• The bone marrow cavity of the femur begins to form

The candling is still showing a silhouette of a chick but soon it'll become harder to see as the chick will start to fill the entire egg cavity!

Day 8

Day 9

• The upper eyelids begin to form
• The knee caps begin to form

day 9

Day 10

• Claws begin to form
• The comb is now visible
• Flight feathers appear
• Feather tracts appear over sternum
• Lower Eyelids Develop

The chick is getting a little more difficult to see as she grows, but the pronunciation in veins is amazing, Also, I get the feeling that chicks hate being candled.  11 more days!! SQUEEEEEEE!!

Day 10

Day 11

• The toe claws begin to curve downward
• The bottom of the feet get their pads
• Feather germs on the back and tail look like long tapering cones
• The beak begins to harden
• The comb appears serrated
• The embryo begins to draw calcium from the eggshell to grow her bones and teeth, just kidding, chickens don't have teeth :P

Day 11, good profile there!

Day 12! 

• Scales appear on lower legs
• The embryo grows and moves like crazy
• The ribs begin to ossify (turn into bone)

day 12
  

Day 13

Not much to look at as she's filling the entire cavity, She's getting harder to candle and is a little more lethargic, likely from all that growing, I'll keep taking pics though, times like this makes me wish I still worked in a vet office to use the xray, no wait, I take it back, I don't wish I still worked in a vet office.

• The fingers of the wings are now covered with papillae
• The left and right collarbones now fuse to form the wishbone

Day 13

Day 14

• The Embryo turns its head towards the blunt of the egg, where the air pocket is
• The skull has become to ossify (turn to bone)

Day 14

Day 15

• The scales, claws and beak are becoming firm

Day 15

Day 16

• The embryo turns it's head towards the air pocket at the blunt of the egg
• The chorioallantoic cavity lines most of the inside of the surface of the egg shell (the membrane around the fetus

Day 16

Day 17

ZOMG! How exciting! Whoa! Look how big the air pocket got! So odd how accurate the daily development is! Today is day 17 and the beak is clearly and very turned towards the air cell! Tomorrow the beak will break through the membrane but I think this chick is an over achiever because it looks to me like its already happened!! FRIDAY!! As celebration and a nod to my clear excitement I'm not even going to do any bullets! KA POW! Nice job chicken little!

Day 17

Day 18

• The beak breaks through the inner shell membrane
• The lungs begin to fully function, as I can PROVE as I have video evidence! 

And the video! 

Stay Tuned...