This is what a fertile egg looks like!
 |
Breeders can usually look into a
nest of eggs and tell which are fertile and which are not by the
outward glow and color of the eggs. In this nest to the right, the bluish
white eggs are alive. The four orange-ish white eggs are
infertile. The eggs do not give these outward clues until they
are somewhat developed. Can you tell which are fertile in the
nest on the left? This time period is going to differ from
species to species. The green cheek
eggs take about 25 days to hatch. Our small little
Gouldian eggs take about 14 days to
incubate! Click here to see average
incubation times for different species. In this next picture, one egg is fertile and 2 are not. Click on it to blow it up big and see if you can tell which eggs are fertile.
|
 |
| When the egg is first laid, it looks like an egg you would buy from the grocer. The red spider veins do not begin to show up until after momma sits on it for about a week. This first picture shows you a clear egg. It is fertile, but the veins have not formed yet. This is a Crimson Bellied Conure egg. Click here for an idea of what to do with those infertile eggs. |
|
Then a few days pass and the spider veins start to show inside the egg. This is how we know the egg is fertile and is the beginning of the someone's pet bird! This is another Crimson Bellied Conure egg on about day 3. |
|
 This Crimson Bellied egg is still a bit farther along and is fertile. |
 And, still farther along in development. If this all fascinates you, a great site to look at more detailed egg development is at this link. http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/poultry/clipart.htm#Embryos |
|
|
The red line around this egg is called a blood ring. This happens if there is an early embryonic death.
When candling eggs, wash your
hands with soap first and rinse very well. There are oils on your
hands that you don't want to get on the eggs, for the oils could
plog up the little pores (breathing outlets) on the egg. We candle
with an LED light because they do not put off heat. If a hen is
really protective, we use a long LED book light to candle the eggs
in the nest. That way we don't even have to pick the egg up. I wait
to check them until they are about a week old so you are sure to be
able to see the changes inside.
|
| About 10 days after they hatch... |  |
Nest Box Pictures!!!
|
June 3, 2009 Band 241 is weaned and ready for his new owner in NY. We are getting time to love on him while we wait for Zumo's nest box to mature enough to bring them in for handfeeding. Jess is taking daily pictures of this nest box. The oldest baby is a transplant from Fuzzy/Wuzzy's nest box and not a baby of Zumo and Kaida. It is a Pineapple and you can see its red eyes. The next 3 babies are Zumo's and Kaida's |
Wet baby just
hatched!
5/28/09 |
You can see 1 egg
is fertile and 2 are not.
5/29/09 |
A 4th one hatched.
5/30/09 |
 6/1/09 |
.JPG) 6/2/09 |
The oldest
Pineapple baby is getting its white down, and that silly 2nd
oldest is looking dead again!
6/3/09 |
|
6/6/09
|
6/7/09
|
6/9/09 Some thought that the second oldest looked dead in the 5/28 picture. You can see he is very alive! Now there are only 3 babies in Zumo's box.
|
6/10/09 We stole the oldest who was the Pineapple baby to start handfeeding it. This Pineapple baby is banded 250 and will be living with Lynette! |
|
6/11/09 |
6/11/09 |
6/15/09 |
6/17/09 This is the last night for the next oldest baby to be in the box. He will soon be banded 251 and be in our brooder. This baby is reserved by Mary! |
6/20/09 The oldest baby in here is John's baby! And,the younger one is probably Joey's. |
|
|
About 4 weeks later.... |
 |
And around 7 weeks.... |  |
|
Weaned at 8 weeks old!
Pretty amazing, eh? Our God is an Awesome God!
|
 |
