After much anticipation, we candled the Muscovy eggs last night (it’s easiest to do when it’s dark – there’s more contrast) and were pleasantly surprised to find development in 5 of the 7. The egg with the crack was clear, so likely was infertile. Another egg that we left in was “iffy” – while not clear, it also didn’t show the same kind of vein development the others did. It could just be a bit slower to develop, so we’ll give it another week and recheck. Continue reading “More On Amazing Eggs”
Tag: Incubation
Chickens And Eggs Are Simply Amazing
Most people probably don’t spend much time marveling at how chickens come to be. You know a chicken comes out of an egg, but have you wondered how an egg forms inside a chicken? Have you seen double-yolked eggs, or maybe even triple-yolked eggs, and wondered how that happens?
When a hen first starts laying, usually around six months old (some breeds start earlier and some, later), she’s called a “pullet” and she lays a smallish egg called (you guessed it) a “pullet egg”. These are perfectly edible eggs, but they’re smaller than the ones she’ll lay later, and aren’t really optimal for incubation. Weird things occur when a hen first starts laying – she may, for example, lay soft-shelled, rubbery eggs; eggs with no white or yolk; eggs with no shell; or double-yolked eggs. In addition, sometimes the eggs are strangely shaped: nearly round, oval, lumpy. These anomalies occur because the hen’s internal egg-producing system is working out the kinks.
Day 2 Of Being Cooped Up
Because of the threat of hawk attack, the remaining 6 layers and the rooster have been confined to their coop. They’re not happy about it, and when you think about, it makes total sense. Even if they had witnessed a hawk attack on a flock-mate, they probably don’t remember it now. All they know is that they’re stuck in their nighttime quarters and they’d rather be outside, scratching, running around, and doing their chicken thing.
In researching how others had resolved issues with hawks attacking chickens, a couple of posters had indicated that some states issue depredation permits. It sounded sketchy to us, so we reached out to the KY Fish & Wildlife agency about the predation – they advised that all hawks are federally protected in KY under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and that killing a hawk is a federal offense. The agency helpfully recommended that we keep the chickens confined for a few days so that the hawk would lose interest (good to know we were already on the right track!). Kudos to KY Fish & Wildlife, too – they are very responsive and genuinely seem to want to help citizens who are losing livestock due to predation (within the parameters of applicable law, of course).
Ava Has A Haystache
After the unsuccessful attempt to breed the NZ does last month, it looks like we may have at least one kindling at the end of the month. Today, we spied Ava sporting a “haystache”, which is usually a sign that a doe is pregnant. It’s pretty early (she was bred a week ago), so there’s a possibility this could be a false pregnancy.
We’ll keep an eye on her and Loretta (bred at the same time) and bring them indoors to kindle when they’re closer to the big day. Better to assume pregnancy and be wrong than to dismiss the signs and let these first-time mothers kindle out in the cold.
Incubating Duck Eggs and Warmer Days
We candled the Muscovy eggs last night and of the 7, saw 2 that concerned us. One was damaged – there was a tiny impact point and a crack that spanned about half the egg. Not good. Since we didn’t have any plain wax for sealing the crack, we painted it with nail polish. Sounds weird, but some people claim they’ve successfully hatched cracked eggs this way. Worth a try. Note: only “five free” polish was used (no Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate, Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, or Camphor). Continue reading “Incubating Duck Eggs and Warmer Days”
The Duck Eggs Arrived…Finally
The Muscovy eggs ordered last week were shipped by the seller on Monday by Priority Mail. Unfortunately, they were mysteriously delayed in transit and didn’t arrive at the local post office (and strangely, went to a different PO, rather than the one to which we’re assigned) until today. We’ve been watching the tracking carefully, so as soon as we saw that they had arrived at the local PO, we called and asked them to hold the package for pickup.
The package was in good shape, and the eggs were carefully wrapped, individually, first in paper towel, then bubble wrap, and placed in a box, which was placed in a bigger box and surrounded by paper to cushion the eggs. The eggs appear to all be unbroken.