At home: And there was life......

Seven days ago, Sam marked up his eggs for the incubator. He has been studiously turning them daily, just as the chicken would on her nest.

This evening Sam got the 'candling torch' out with the intention of sorting out his living eggs from the 'no sign of life' eggs. Usually at this stage, the sign of life has appeared. In our eggs, this is detected by the veins spreading outward across the yolk. At this very early stage the chick has just begun forming nearly all its body parts. In fact, miraculously, its heart began beating on the second day in the incubator. We found this article on chick development by A. L. Romanoff on the Cornell Rural School Leaflet. We found it both amazing and so interesting!

Chickens begin the cell division in their eggs before they have even laid the egg. The group of cells are seen as the little white blob on a yolk when you crack an egg open. I always keep the eating eggs in the fridge to stop accidental incubation. Incubation can occur in temperatures of about 37 degrees upwards, so a warm kitchen is a good place to start things off!

Sam's eggs seem to be mostly alive. He has reluctantly taken out a couple of clear eggs. Its amazing how optimistic Sam is about life where there is no sign of it. Thats a good trait to have I think. x