How to HATCH CHICKS in a Homemade Incubator
(Page 5 of 6)
March/April 1975
by Vikki & Ted Purve - Smith
Relative humidity is measured by a hygrometer. You can purchase one at a hardware store or make your own from two identical thermometers with exposed bulbs. Mount both instruments on a piece of wood at the level of the eggs' midlines, so that the bulbs overhang. Sew a strip of cloth approximately an inch wide and three inches long into a tube, turn it inside out and tie one end over the bulb of one of the thermometers. Submerge the other end of the fabric in a small vial or other container of water. When the bare thermometer registers 100° (the correct incubator temperature measured at the center of the egg) the dampened instrument should read 7° to 11 ° lower.
RELATED CONTENT
A beginner's guide to raising rabbits, including a rabbit barn, pens, feeders and waterers, breedin...
Country Lore: How you can keep all your fresh eggs for winter use....
Country Lore: A helpful hint on detecting rooster eggs...
Tests show free-range eggs are more nutritious and have half the cholesterol of supermarket eggs....
Mother's staff experimented with various methods of storing eggs with no refrigeration and for a lo...
VENTILATION
An incubating egg requires oxygen to live and develop, and it produces carbon dioxide and several poisonous gases. Therefore, good circulation and ventilation are essential in the On the other hand, excessive drafts will cause changes in the eggs' temperature and too much evaporation of moisture so there's no need to overdo it. A proper schedule of opening the incubator to turn the eggs frequently allows - all the change of air that is needed.
HATCHING
By the 12th or 14th day of incubation we could actually. see the formation of the air cell by holding an egg before o strong light (this operation is called "candling"). On the 20th day, we got anxious about our first batch and picked them up to try to determine whether they were indeed alive. We held them against our ears and sure enough!-there were the chick, inside, picking at the shells and cheeping. Like children
Christmas, we couldn't wait to open our presents so with helped the process along by breaking through the tops of the eggs. This may not be advisable but we didn't lose any babies (All authorities know of recommend letting the young bird find their own way out. "A chick that has not strength enough to work its way out of the shell will not be worth anything after it gets out; while attempts to assist it are likely to do more harm than good, by prematurely rupturing the blocs vessels of the allantois, which corresponds in this respect to the afterbirth in animals, and this may cause the chick to bleed to death," says CF Thorne in The Complete Poultry Boot, 1886. -MOTHER )
When a chick hatches, its head-as we've already mentioned-must be directed toward the air cell inside the egg. Its first real voluntary action will be to push its beak into this space to receive the first breath of life. The broken amnion membrane next slips around the young bird and frees the yolk, which remains attached to the chick. The prisoner then begins to break the hard outer wall with its beak, turning counterclockwise within the air cell, until it has broken off a cap of shell through which it emerges. This event is called "pipping".
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
6 |
Next >>
