Understanding Egg Development
Betsy Trice: The pip is the very first crack in the shell that you’ll see. And the chicks create this from something called an egg tooth. It’s a little hard growth that’s on the tip of their beak. And you can actually see this on a day old chick. This little kind of pointed portion that eventually will fall off.
But that pip is the very first crack in the egg that usually happens about a day before it’s gonna hatch, like day 20 maybe 21. And then it will start to crack completely around the egg until that shell. Cracks open and the chick can emerge. And really at that point, if the chick is healthy nothing should be done.
It’s best just to leave it alone. Nature will take its course if everything is going as it should, and the chick is good and healthy.
Jessica Mitchell: We’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, Brinsea. That’s B R I N S E A, chick [00:01:00] incubation specialists. They’ve been focusing on egg incubator design continuously since 1976, resulting in egg incubators, chick brooders, and incubation accessories. They offer unparalleled practicality, reliability, superior hatch rates, and healthy chicks. Innovation you can trust.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News, for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Betsy Trice: My name is Betsy Trice. My husband and I have Peacemeal Farm in Haydenville, Virginia, where we raise pastured poultry. We raise free range hens for [00:02:00] eggs and also for meat.
And I graduated from University of Arkansas with a poultry science degree.
Josh Wilder: So we’ll start with the basics. So egg structure. What are the main parts of a chicken egg?
Betsy Trice: So the chicken egg comprises, the shell is just the protective layer, the protective coating. And inside the yolk is actually really like food for the offspring, food for the chick. There’s a tiny section in the yolk. That is that little white spot that you see when you break a egg open.
That little white spot is the germinal disc, and that’s actually what becomes the chick. And then the remainder of the yolk is basically the food for that chick. The egg white, the albumin is just creates like a nice cushion within the egg to protect the yolk.[00:03:00]
Josh Wilder: As far as the air cell goes, why is that little pocket important and how does it help the chick right before it hatches?
Betsy Trice: The interesting thing about the egg cell or the air cell in the egg is that it is not there when it’s hatched, but the body temperature of the chicken is much higher than ours.
The hen’s body temperature is 106 degrees, so when the egg is laid, the outside temperature is a lot cooler, so the inside of the egg shrinks and it actually pools a little bit of air inside the egg to create that. That air cell. That air pocket. And that is critical, especially in their very end cycle of the chick development, because that’s their first breath of air before they start to break out of the shell. [00:04:00] And it’s in that larger end of the egg.
Josh Wilder: Okay. And going into the blood vessels, can you describe the circulation during the development?
Betsy Trice: It is usually around day four that, that you can visibly see those blood vessels develop. That’s about the same time, day three, day four is when you can actually see a heartbeat. And then those blood vessels fuel the development, everything else just jumpstarts from there.
Josh Wilder: And at what point would you wanna start candling?
Betsy Trice: You could do it a probably about day four or five.
Josh Wilder: And what are you looking [00:05:00] for when you’re candling? What part of the development?
Betsy Trice: So you’ll see an unfertilized egg will look pretty much clear. It will start to get cloudy. You see a darker section of the egg, and that’s where the development is occurring. So it’s like blocking out the light and the light’s not able to move through the egg and that’s the determination within the first week, whether the egg is fertile or not.
Josh Wilder: Moving on to the yolk sac, why does the chick need to absorb the yolk sac right before hatching?
Betsy Trice: It is important for that energy boost. It expends a lot of energy to get out of that egg. But also once it hatches the chick usually isn’t out to roam and [00:06:00] gather its own food for a couple days.
So absorbing that yolk sack basically gives it all of the nutrition it needs for a few days. So it’s got that buffer period. Until the chick like, emerges out from mama hen if there is one or taking taken out of the incubator until it actually eats and has access to hard food.
Josh Wilder: Can you talk about why it’s necessary to turn the eggs during incubation and what happens if they’re not turned correctly?
Betsy Trice: The turning of the eggs is really important and it usually needs to be done at least three times a day. But this is really important so that the chick doesn’t get stuck to the inside of the shell of the egg.
So every time you turn the egg it rotates it. So it doesn’t just get stuck on one side. [00:07:00] And the easiest way to know that you’re rotating it is if you take a pencil and just make a mark on one side of the egg so you’ll always remember how much you’re turning it and when you’ve turned it.
But the turning should stop about three days before hatch. That’s when all of the feathers have developed. There’s no risk of it sticking to the egg anymore. And that’s when the chick is getting into position to hatch. So those last three days after day 17, it should be left on its own to get into position and it’ll be just fine.
Josh Wilder: And around then is when they would be absorbing the yolk sac to boost their energy.
Betsy Trice: Yeah, exactly. Yeah so then they’re really taking up the whole portion of the egg, whereas before that, yeah, you’ve got the yolk sack is still in there floating around, and that’s what’s competing with the chick as you turn it.
Josh Wilder: Talk a little bit about the role of [00:08:00] humidity in the process and what simple observation tells folks about, needing to adjust the water,
Betsy Trice: The ideal humidity in the incubator is like 50 to 55 degrees for most of the development. And usually in the incubator there’s a water channel that you would keep filled. And there’s also a hydrometer that you can use to monitor the humidity. The final three days you should stop turning the eggs.
About day 17, 18, the humidity should be increased up to 75%, and this helps the chick along so it can hatch out of the egg.
Josh Wilder: Does that help soften the shell also for hatching?
Betsy Trice: It does a little bit, yeah.
Josh Wilder: If you can describe what pipping is and what you should do once you notice an egg starting to [00:09:00] pip.
Betsy Trice: So the pip is the very first crack in the shell that you’ll see. And the chicks create this from something called an egg tooth. It’s a little hard growth that’s on the tip of their beak. And you can actually see this on a day old chick. This little kind of pointed portion that eventually will fall off.
But that pip is the very first crack in the egg that usually happens about a day before it’s gonna hatch, like day 20 maybe 21. And then it will start to crack completely around the egg until that shell. Cracks open and the chick can emerge. And really at that point, if the chick is healthy nothing should be done.
It’s best just to leave it alone. Nature will take its course if everything is going as it should, and the chick is good and healthy.
Josh Wilder: And why is it important to leave the chick alone?
Betsy Trice: It’s best to let ’em [00:10:00] hatch on their own because they have this strength to do it.
And if you help them along, they are more than likely inferior to begin with. And allowing them to do it on their own is just better for their development and creating like a strong start with their body.
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Josh Wilder: So in your setup are you incubating yourself?
Betsy Trice: We do not [00:11:00] incubate. For our meat birds, we buy day old chicks from a hatchery and our egg layers, we usually will buy pullets. This year we bought day old chicks from a hatchery. And we’re brooding them ourselves. We do, however, have an occasional hen that will go broody, meaning she stops laying eggs and she wants to hatch her own.
So we will, we’ll separate her from the flock. And let her be a broody hen and we’ll put some fertilized eggs under her. And if everything goes as planned, she’ll hatch them out.
Josh Wilder: Do you just incorporate the new chicks into your flock?
Betsy Trice: Yeah, once, once they get old enough. So yeah, we usually separate her. So she will, sometimes at Rudy hen we’ve noticed she wants to sit, but she’s gotta get up, and drink and eat food.
And we’ve noticed that sometimes she will go [00:12:00] back into the wrong nest and sit on other eggs, so as not to confuse which eggs are the fertilized eggs. The ones she’s incubating will put her in a completely separate pen. So we can leave her alone with feed and water. It also just keeps those eggs safe from the rest of the hens in the flock.
And we will let her raise them. Usually up until a couple months old, they’ll learn to forage and free range with her. And then once the chicks get, get big enough, we’ll incorporate them into the other flock.
Josh Wilder: And how large are your flocks?
Betsy Trice: Our egg laying flock is about a hundred hens.
Josh Wilder: Okay. How long have you been keeping.
Betsy Trice: We’ve had chickens or we’ve had our egg laying flock, I’d say for at least 12 years. We usually get [00:13:00] a new group of hens every year. Since we sell the eggs, we do try to keep the hens in high production. And the highest production for a hen is really that. That first year. So after that, they’ll still continue laying for, for years.
It’s just gonna really slow down. So after that, we usually sell them to other folks who just want backyard production, that they’re not as concerned with having like really high production rates. And then in the spring we’ll start all over again with a new flock of hens.
Josh Wilder: Do you keep a variety of breeds or do you, have you decided on your favorite for your region and for high production?
Betsy Trice: We have been for as long as I can remember just using the red hybrid layer, and it goes by a number of different [00:14:00] names depending on the breeder that’s hatching ’em out, but Red Star and Golden Comet is another breed. But both of those are just the hybrid Red Egg layers.
They’re red sex links meaning the feather color correlates to the sex gene, so it’s really easy for the hatcheries. Who know the red chicks are hens, and I believe the males are black. But you can determine the sex of the chick just by their feather color. Those are the most, that’s the most popular breed for folks who are doing free range egg production this year.
This fall we’ve actually gotten a different breed of chicks in that we’re brooding for the spring. These are not gonna be as high production but they are more of [00:15:00] a dual purpose breed. They’re actually called they’re called Rhode Island Blues.
And they’re Rhode Island Reds crossed with black oort, which are both good egg producers, but they’re also dual purpose. So this is a hybrid between those two layers. So I’m hoping that we’ll still get a decent egg production but they’ll just be more healthy and heartier in our free range pasture production.
But this is our first year. Trying out that breed and moving a step back from this super high production hybrid layers.
Josh Wilder: So are these the same birds you’re using for your meat production? What’s your operation on that end?
Betsy Trice: Our meat birds, we raise a breed called Freedom Ranger, which comes from Freedom Ranger Hatchery.
It’s a hatchery in Pennsylvania, [00:16:00] and they go a little bit slower than the Cornish Cross. So the Cornish Cross is the conventional meat bird broiler. It grows incredibly quickly. Usually they can be processed in seven to eight weeks. For meat. The Freedom Rangers, they grow a little bit slower.
We process our process ours at 10 weeks, but we do feel that they’re healthier and heartier birds, they do a lot better on pasture and we feel like their meat tastes a lot better as well. And that, that extra few weeks of growing, I feel like gives more flavor to the meat.
But yeah, in order to get a nice tender meat bird growing, specifically a meat breed is really important. Even dual purpose [00:17:00] layers, they’ve got a decent amount of meat on them but they grow incredibly slowly compared to the meat birds and. They have a wonderful deep flavor since they’re older, but the meat is gonna be tougher.
It has a lot more flavor. It just has to be cooked different. But for our chicken meat market, going with a specific meat breed is really important, and the Freedom Ranger is the one that we prefer.
Josh Wilder: So do you have a set protocol for what you do with your hens once they stop laying? Do you process them since they’re dual purpose, or is it kind of case by case?
Betsy Trice: It’s case by case. It depends on the year. If we have the freezer space then we’ll process them and sell them as hens.
So we definitely advertise that it’s a completely different product ’cause in order to be nice and tender, [00:18:00] they have to be cooked down in a crockpot. Some people are really looking for those stew hens. So sometimes we’ll process ’em and sell as stewing hens. Other years since they still have a good, productive life, they’re just not gonna produce at high volumes. We’ll sell ’em. We’ll just put the word out there to folks in the area that are looking for backyard chickens to add to their flock to produce eggs just for their family.
And so we’ll sell ’em that way.
Josh Wilder: Okay.
All right. I appreciate it. Is there anything, that comes to mind that for our audience who might be interested in, establishing an operation like you have or, wanna learn more any resources or suggestions you might give them,
Betsy Trice: I would suggest if anyone [00:19:00] wants to get into.
Raising either eggs or meat birds to sell. Then the best organization to get networked into is apa, which is the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association, A-P-P-P-A. And it has a great network of producers. And once you become a member, there’s just plethora of information and articles that you have access to, that’s really helpful, especially when you’re like ramping up from backyard production to market production.
Josh Wilder: Yeah we partnered with them actually on a course talking about a lot of production considerations a few years ago, and a lot of great information.
Betsy Trice: Nice. Yeah. There’s a ton that they have.
Josh Wilder: Great. Thanks for your time.
Jessica Anderson: Thanks again to Brinsea, our sponsor for this Mother Earth News and [00:20:00] Friends podcast episode. You too can experience the Brinsea difference and maximize your hatch rates with Brinsea incubators that monitor temperature and humidity and are made of antimicrobial materials.
Brinsea ships worldwide and provides stellar customer support to answer all your questions. Hatch your chicks with Brinsea, the leader in innovative incubation research. Learn more at Brinsea.com. Again, that’s www.Brinsea.com
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.motherearthnews.com/podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs. com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Alyssa Warner and myself, Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is the song Hustle by Kevin [00:21:00] MacLeod. The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.
Jessica Anderson: Until next time, don’t forget to love your Mother.
