Skip to main content

Egg Hatching 101: Day 11 Blanks











We are on day 11 and now is a good time to talk about blanks.

Blank eggs... what are they? These eggs aren't developing, were probably never fertilized, and need to be removed from the incubator. If you are candling eggs that you can see light through and you aren't seeing any development, it's a good time to think about removing them. Eggs that are too dark to candle properly (such as Marans eggs that are dark chocolate brown), I typically leave in and give the benefit of the doubt.

The above photo shows a good example of a blank egg on day 11. At this point, you should have a noticeable dark blob that probably reacts to the light by moving around.




Today, we're on Day 11:




  • Padding on feet is starting to form

  • Feathers are beginning to form on the back and tail

  • Beak continues to harden

  • Comb continues to develope

  • Embryo starts drawing calcium from eggshell to support growing bones.








This post is part of a series about hatching eggs on The Farm at Beaman’s Fork blog.
Want to help support the farm? Please visit our online store or visit us
at the New Bern Farmer’s Market!



 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I have a virtual open door policy for thoughts and suggestions, and I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Popular posts from this blog

Team Greta

Friday, February 9th started off as a normal day in the barn, but as I was doing chores and feeding the horses and goats, I quickly suspected that Greta, one of our La Mancha goats, was showing early signs of labor. It was her due day, so I wasn't surprised. I removed her from the herd and placed her into one of the three kidding stalls in our barn so that she could have some peace and quiet. Four hours later at 10:46am, she delivered two beautiful big twin boys. As per her normal (this is her third year with babies), she was quite proud of herself and insisted on showing them off to me nonstop. The twins were up and wobbling around in no time and Greta was a busy mom fussing over them. Saturday morning was uneventful and Greta and her twins were comfortable in their kidding stall, but by early afternoon, something wasn't right. Greta wasn't finishing her meals and she just seemed tired. I took her temperature at 3pm and it was normal -- 101.9 -- even though she
5 comments
Read more

Here a chick, there a chick... and dealing with burn out.

After taking more than a year off from raising chicks, our first little fuzzy munchkins arrived last week via USPS from a hatchery in Iowa. I ordered them late last fall for their first 2017 delivery date, and instead of going with our usual production layer breeds, I opted for the rare breed section and pretty much just kinda sorted ordered two of everything. Looks like we will have an interesting flock this year but that's not really what I am here to talk about. Living on a farm of any size, especially with livestock, is a lot of work every single day. Goats, chickens and horses don't take holidays off and neither do you; you have the same morning, noon, and evening chores no matter if Santa is flying in or a hurricane is blowing through. Throw in elderly animals with special needs (we've got two horses well into their 30s and a blind dog with congestive heart failure), and you've got an additional element of care and attention on your list. Sometimes you ne
Post a Comment
Read more

Behind the scenes

If you haven't seen already, we have a YouTube channel that has been pretty active lately... Don't forget you can subscribe to our YouTube channel and keep up with all of our new stuff and silly farm shenanigans!
1 comment
Read more