The battered red-faced pick - up hand truck bucked its way up our drive , pulling into our parking lot with a puff of pitch-dark exhaust . Its driver , an older gentleman in well - wear overalls with a beard Santa would begrudge , knocked on our door shortly after . He ’d seen our farm ’s sign on the road and want to buy a dozen eggs . No job ! Which would he favor , brown , blue , a mixture of the two ?
He require to bribe a dozen egg for his setting hen hen so she could brood some chicks . job !
“ But you ’re a poultry farm , are n’t ya ? ” he outcry when I respond with regret that no ballock were useable . Why , yes , we are , sir . But there ’s a lot more tohatching eggsthan simply collecting them from the nestbox .
Fertility Factors
The Mating Game
Our boy are definitely disinterested in their female counterparts during the cold months . ( No , there ’s no chicken equivalent of football game season . ) In the leap , however , a rooster ’s fancy turns to thoughts of love life — and not thinly . When I see our males repeatedly “ romancing ” our hen — and our hens laying consistently — I know it ’s time to schedule a fertility cheque . Being in Michigan , I do n’t test any earlier than April : eggs output is much dormant then and the boy might as well be .
Choose Wisely
shooter shapes , golf balls and other geometrical oddity in egg make awesome conversation starter but give chicks a somewhat hapless start to life . Select text ellipse to provide those potential babe with plenty of outer space to grow . That old wife ’ narrative about pointy nut yielding cockerel and rounded eggs leave in pullets ? cut it . Egg shapedoes not tempt chick gender . Egg cleanliness , however , does . Dirt and fecal affair hold bacteria , which can pass through the holey shell , contaminate the embryo within . Your best bet for a plus fertility test pop out with clean , well - formed eggs .
Keeping Time
Not quite ready to test ? You canstore your dream up eggsfor up to 10 days before fertility get to degenerate . A unruffled , humid pip with an ambient temperature of 50 level F is ideal ; we keep our eggs under our cellar stairs . Store the eggs point down for proper air - pouch positioning , and ferment them day by day to keep the yolks from sticking to the membrane . Allow the egg to slowly follow to board temperature before cover to void temperature shock .
Cooperative Equipment
The uninfected , most properly stored eggs from the most amative poultry couple have n’t got a hazard of developing if yourincubatorisn’t operate right . soundly read the owner ’s manual , plug the auto in the right way , and learn how to maintain the necessary temperature and humidness levels . Using a know incubator ( aka , a broody hen ) ? check that your hen is setting on a clean , draught - free nest and has no distraction that might break her brood .
The Test
Thanks to candling , we no longer need to crack open nut at various stages of the21 - day incubation periodto define prolificacy and viability . This choice is still drill by some domestic fowl breeders , but I ( being somewhat sensitive ) prefer to peek at develop testis through my candler . Whichever method you choose to use , I recommend try out your bollock for the full three weeks . If 80 per centum of your orchis train , your rankness test is a success . Less than that , and your birds may need a petty more breeding practice ( the exception isAraucana eggs , for which a 25 percent rate is successful due to the strain ’s high embryo - mortality rate ) .
It was early March , my hen had only just started laying again , and what eggs I ’d get were resting at way temperature on my kitchen counter . I had no proven hatching eggs to offer my unexpected visitor . I ’d set off explaining this when a piffling boy dashed over from the truck , gave me a vast smile , and then eagerly take Granddad if he ’d bring the eggs yet . My somewhat sensitive soul tossed my explanation out the window and , any Clarence Day now , there may ( or may not ) be nine or so Orpington wench hatching somewhere in Southeast Michigan .
