Chicken Sono!!

We are SOOOO excited we could BUST!! I decided that just before 'lockdown', I'd candle all the eggs and see what we could see. About 3 days before hatch date, incubation instructions state to stop turning the eggs, add water to the troughs for humidity, close the lid and DO NOT OPEN 'TIL CHRISTMAS After Hatch. This was Sunday, March 6, 2011 for us.

Candling, if you read earlier posts, is when you shine a bright light on one end of the egg, which allows you to see what's going on inside. I thought it a perfect send off into 'lockdown.'

To candle all 18 safely without damaging them, I wanted to be very organized. I set up the 'candle' [lamp w/ cardboard and foam], egg carton, 'refrigerator control egg,' and kids lined up sitting down quietly. We had some friends over, which made it extra special. I took 6 or so eggs at a time [in 3 batches, using the egg carton]. The eggs are numbered, so we could mark down what we saw in each egg:

This is our 'candle' a desk lamp w/ strong light and 'egg' surface.

The bright bottom is the air sack. You can see some veining and lastly, the dark stuff is a baby chick. Most of them actually moved too! It was too cool.

Our results: Out of 18 eggs.

10 had moving, living chicks

6 looked like the dark mass and air sack, no veining or moving [might just be dark colored eggs]

2 looked underdeveloped and so probably died early on

Not a bad % for our very first hatch. We'll have to see what actually hatches though, because you know what they say about counting chickens. . .

Stay Tuned!