Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Well I finally fired up the incubator and set 69 eggs. WOOOHOOOO!

44 - Blue Band RIR
11 - Green Band RIR
14 - Light Brown Leghorn

I have a couple experiments going on here. First, the oldest egg is Feb 27th. I kept these eggs inside a ziplock. Second is I was flipping the egg cartons right over during storage, 4 eggs had the air sac on the wrong end. And the third is I colored 4 LB LH eggs almost solid black with a sharpie!

WOOOHOOOOO! everyone is sooooo excited!



:smiley-char026:

Good luck!! Fingers crossed

Good luck!
Interesting tests you are running....

I have always been told to not wash the eggs because the natural bloom regulates the porosity of the shell to air, which is necessary for proper development. Have you done this with the marker before, and are you not afraid of too much xylene and maybe changing the natural porosity? Just asking, I really don't know. I have used marker for a few stripes, but prefer soft lead pencil when I can.

Hey thanks guys! Well I didnt really want to do these tests. my birds have finally started to lay consistently. so I saved almost every egg they laid. so thats why some of them are so old.

The flipping of the eggs I know is not the smartest thing... I need to come up with an auto turner storage fridge of some sort.

okay the marker. I mark all my eggs with different colored sharpies but haven't always. I first used a plain pencil but I couldnt hardly see it on the quail eggs. then I got multiple pens of quail and I didnt want to mix them up. I started using crayola nontoxic washable markers but found buy the time I needed to read them it was rubbed off. so then I started researching, I needed further information, there had to be a better way. I found an experiment where a guy colored a few eggs solid with a sharpie and they hatched. so I have been using different colored sharpies for a little over a year now. I now use the same color as thier bands. PERFECT!

Sharpies are nontoxic, dosent bleed into the egg, and dont effect the egg at all n im a guna prove it

I slightly washed about 1/3 of these eggs with a damp paper towel but I did not touch the black eggs.

to be honest Im not very hopeful about the outcome... I find I have better results when I dont expect things to go well.

You may have hard time candling those black eggs

Haha OC! I was thinkin.... I left the top n bottom alone so I can see in a bit.

Here I thought you were coloring your eggs for easter!

Id like to report that I have 100% fertility on the light brown leghorns!!! Even the 4 colored ones! yeeehaaaa

I cant see as well with the reds but they all look good to me! WOOOOHOOOO!

heres a pic of one of the colored eggs at 5 days... see the embryo? you can even see the eyes! SOOO COOL! I took these pics on every setting on my phone, about 20 pics... the night setting works the best.

YA! Looking good!
I always wash the crappy and/or dirty eggs.
I think a clean egg is better for the incubators. The Bacteria from the chicken droppings will not spread through out the whole incubator.
I even spray down the eggs and cabinet with a Brinesea Disinfectant once a week. When I add new eggs.

Works good for me.