Posts Tagged ‘incubate leghorn eggs’

Keeping Chickens Newsletter subscriber Tammy Peck first got interested in keeping chickens when she looked after a neighbours flock for a few days. After a little bit of research into hatching her own eggs she ordered a small chick-bator incubator – and could hardly wait for it to arrive

The incubator was set up a couple of days prior to putting in the eggs so the temperature could get regulated. Tammy’s neighbour let her have 3 nice-sized eggs for her new hatching project. She put an X on one side of the eggs and O on the other side of the eggs. Only two eggs would comfortably fit in so one had to be left out. The eggs went in and were turned twice a day (morning and night) for 18 days. On the 21st day like clockwork, one of the eggs started to hatch. 14 hours later and the chick was still trying to come out. The hummidity must have been slightly off and it had become stuck to its shell. Larry, Tammy’s neighbour, came over and used a spray bottle with warm water to spray the chick and its shell very, very carefully to help get the chick work its way out. It worked and the total hatching time was 20 hours

Just hatched!

White Leghorn chick at 2 days and 6 days old

‘Pippin’ at 16 weeks old

Although there was a bit of peeping from the second egg it unfortunately was not ready or strong enough to start to break the shell and so sadly it did not make it.