Comments on: The Birth of a Chicken

By: vanalpaca

vanalpaca — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:29:25 +0000

This is very informative and educational. Too bad the photos are not labeled as to days of incubation. Then it would be better. Many of us trying to raise and incubate chickens have the eggs ‘fail to hatch’. There are many many reasons, including power outages, temperature disruptions, the eggs stopping development on their own at a certain point.

I just cracked out a ‘dud’ egg before lockdown time. I had checked each one for a ‘heartbeat’ by filling a bowl with water at 1 degree over the incubation temperature to prevent the water being sucked through the shell. I took one egg at a time out of the incubator and placed it into the bowl so that it would float. If it ROCKED on it’s own, that was the heartbeat of the live chick. If it sunk or did nothing, it was a dud with no live chick.

The dud I cracked open had about a day 5 chick in it and the yolk was busted. Don’t know why it didn’t grow, but I didn’t kill it. Even bacteria can get to a growing fetus in an egg and stop the progress.

This set of photos allowed me to identify at what day this egg stopped developing and I can check my records to see if it was temperature fluctuations that caused it (which I can control better) and maybe improve my hatch rates.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:37:36 +0000

Did that certain chick really survive the whole process?If so, was it a normal chick, or did it have some abnormalities, such as wing or other body part deformations?

By: holly

holly — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:33:24 +0000

Sharron, that same thing happened to my chick and I realized I didn’t have enough warmth on It so that might have been the reason they did’nt work.

Holly

By: sharron

sharron — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 11:42:35 +0000

i have just done the same has its been over time they should have hatched only to find mine dead not sure why as it is perfectly formed would like to thank you for the pictures.

has for people not agree to this is wrong by understanding things like this helps with breeding an reproducing to keep the world going.

if anybody has any ideas has to what might have happened to my chick please let me know.

sharron

By: Silkie Chick

Silkie Chick — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:10:37 +0000

To all of you saying ‘How cruel’ and making comments about how disgusting it is, if it weren’t for those photos, and many more photos like it, myself, and alot of other hobby chicken breeders would not know the developement stages of our expectant chicks.

To say the things you have all said is blantant ignorance. Right now I have a chick I have accidently cracked open(thinking it was already dead) only to find that it is still moving. I am not yet ready to let it go without doing all I can to help it.

These photos(and the many others like it) have shown me(and many, many other people) what development stage he is at so I can figure out if I can save him or not.

So excuse me if I am a little too grateful for these photos :- )

Thank you so much to whomever posted these, I cannot thank you enough.

By: star

star — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:38:56 +0000

… wait how many chicks were killed? 15? 16? 18?
6A9 you guys confuse me.

By: Kay

Kay — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 21:58:38 +0000

Oh yes, it’s “inhuman” to kill a chicken embryo, yet it’s perfectly acceptable to kill a HUMAN embryo. And of course, commenter 30 wants us to believe that all abortions are done to “save the woman’s life” or abort a 9 year old rape victims baby. Never mind that the abortion industry’s own statistic shows that’s not the case with the overwhelming majority of abortions. But apparently the logic is that it’s okay to murder 99 inconvenient babies as long as one defective or traumatically conceived baby also gets killed! I’m a rape and incest survivor, quit USING ME to push your baby killing agenda, asshole.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:54:11 +0000

wow these is cool. how did you do that?what did you call it haha nu?please reply

By: Al

Al — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:56:57 +0000

Interestingly enough i have 2 brooders and an incubator on the go with 15 eggs, I have searched the net looking fro something better than the badly drawn stages of incubation, although a little barbaric the series of photos are informative and when candling my own eggs give me an idea of the stage of incubation.

By: bird lover

bird lover — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:10:48 +0000

Aww cute chick,poor other birds!…
They didn’t even have a chance!:’(