Incubation

Well Joan decided not to sit (may be she got disturbed) so we are incubating the eggs in our incubator. We have been storing the eggs (pointy end down) for a couple of days. It is important to store pointy side down because the air sac which the chick embryo uses to breath is almost always at the round side. the chick needs this to breath. Next time you crack an egg from the shop look on the inside of the blunt end for the air sac.

We have given the eggs a wash in warm water to remove and dirt and bugs. We have put the eggs in the incubator at 37.5 degrees Centigrade. We placed a cross on one side of each egg so that we know which side up they are. It is very important to always wash your hands before turning the eggs this means we don't transfer germs from us to the eggs. Obviously in the wild hens don't wash their hands before touching the eggs but as the eggs are coming into contact with humans we need to keep things clean. We need to keep an eye on the humidity in the incubator but as it is quite wet at the moment we dont need to add any water. We turn the eggs 5 times a day so that the chick embryo and its membranes don't get stuck to the shell. In the wild the mother hen will turn the eggs with her beak.