Egg Watch

Day 1.

On the first day of incubation, embryonic growth begins and the cells begin to divide and multiply rapidly. By the end of day one, the head, eyes, nervous system and circulatory system have begun to form. 

Day 2.

The heart is formed and is functioning within 48 hours of incubation.

Days 3 and 4. 

The heart develops further into a fully functioning, beating heart. Additional membranes are formed in this time. This creates the amniotic sack which the embryo will float in for the duration of incubation.

DAys 5 - 9

By the end of day 6, the legs and wings are nearly complete. Feathers begin to appear at day 8 and by the end of day 9 the embryo is beginning to look like a chick - the chicks heart is now in place within the body. 

DAy 10

By day 10, the bones are beginning to form. 

Candling. This is an easy process that gives us the reassurance that our eggs are fertile and developing correctly after a short period of time in the incubator. It allows us to remove any eggs which aren't fertile.  To carry this out, we shone a special torch on each egg to check whether or not an embryo was forming. Photos to follow...

DAys 11-21

By day 13, the chick's down feathers are fully formed and present on most of the chicks body. The legs and wings are also complete with bones and muscle tissue. By day 16, the beak, leg scales and claws are very nearly complete. The remaining yolk then becomes a food source for the developing chick; this is used up by day 19.

Final photos of our chicks before we said farewell...