21 Day Hatch Along

Recently arisen in me is a deep interest in chickens and chicken keeping. I’m not exactly sure where this interest originated but it seems I cannot escape it. Yesterday I received and set 7 show quality hatching eggs from My Pet Chicken in an incubator. Here are the beautiful shipped fertilised eggs. They arrived via USPS nestled in pine shavings and wrapped in bubble wrap.

Unfortunately, one egg has a chip and hair’s breadth crack in it. After reading online of options to try to repair the egg, I decided to try sealing the crack with white candle wax from a tapered candle. I did not take photos of this process as it required me to move quickly and carefully, but it did seem to seal up nicely.

Before setting the eggs I let them sit in the incubation room next to the incubator for about 4 hours to acclimate to the room temperature which is about 64 degrees F. I found that I could not keep the eggs positioned with the pointy side down without using paper towels to pad them. These are bantam chicken eggs, so they are small in size. I’m not sure if others have had this issue, but I decided to try the paper towels for padding to help hold the eggs in position.

The incubator is set at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit with 54% humidity. I have read so many different recommendations about humidity that I am really not sure what to set it at for bantam eggs… It seems anywhere from 45% to 60% humidity is recommended for the first 18 to 19 days. A reputable breeder on instagram sets his at 42% humidity and another at 60% humidity. I decided to split the difference and my incubator is currently set at 54% humidity, which it seems to hold pretty much constant.

I have also opted to not turn the eggs for the first several days. I have read for shipped eggs it is best to not turn the eggs for the first 4 days of incubation so that the air sacs can reform in the proper position near the rounded side of the eggs (which is facing upwards). I will plan to turn on the turners around Sunday, but I may read more about this to determine when is best begin turning for shipped eggs.

Here are the sweet little eggs again in their travel packaging. I’m fascinated by the one that is marked with lettering “BDS-B”. I’m hoping for hatchlings in 21 days but being new to chickens I have read not to count your chicks before they hatch. Please post any advise or recommendations in the comments. I have already ordered a second batch of eggs for early April from a different breeder. If these hatchlings do not make it, I will be able to try again.

I don’t want to get anyone too excited, but these are the photos from the breeder of what the hatchlings will look like. They are called Silkies. This photo is taken from the My Pet Chicken site, where you can order your own fertilised Silkie eggs if you are interested. Thank you to My Pet Chicken for shipping me these eggs. I hope that I can hatch them.