Candling is used to see inside an egg without breaking it open. It allows us to see if the eggs are developing babies. To candle an egg, you need: a bright light, an egg, and a lot of patience. To candle the egg, we put a light under or behind an egg. The light shines through the shell, only a little, which lets us see veins, body parts, and the yolk. In the beginning, we may only see the yolk, but if we wait a few days, we can see some veins. After about a week, we will start to see the baby forming. We don't get to see details, but we can see a shadow. This entry has eggs that are about to hatch. This is an unfertilized egg. There is no baby inside. This is not all yolk! In the middle, you can see a darker area, and that is the yolk. We can't see any veins, even though this egg was under a hen for the past three weeks, so that means that it's not developing a baby. (All the dark stuff on the egg isn't inside. It's dirt, and maybe a little poopy from mom. This is perfectly normal.) These eggs are both fertile and are filled with babies! The egg on the left has a white shell and the egg on the right has a brown shell. At this stage, just before they hatch, the baby has nearly completely filled up the egg. That's why it's so dark! In the egg on the right, you can see a little air pocket. This is okay because it's small. If the air pocket was big, that would mean that the baby was dead because bacteria got inside (bacteria let off gasses that create air pockets inside eggs). We can tell that these eggs will probably hatch in a few days by how dark and full they are.
1 Comment
In this entry, we will show you pictures of babies hatching. All birds hatch the same way. They all start off in an egg. This picture shows a pip. A pip is a small hole in the egg shell caused by the baby. Once they pip, they start breathing. It sounds like tapping. When there are a bunch of them pipping, it will sound like popping popcorn. But, it doesn't smell like yummy popcorn. Trust us. This baby is zipping along. Zipping means a baby cracks a ring around the egg. They do this so they can get out of the egg. When they zip, they're turning around inside the egg. Just like mammals, they have umbilical cords. Their umbilical cords connect them to the egg. When they turn in the egg, they're closing off the blood vessels so they don't bleed after being born. This is an example of what it looks like when the baby has completely zipped the egg and almost came out. At this point, it's important to not help them. If someone does, the baby might be weak. Pushing the egg open helps to make the baby stronger and the ones that can't hatch themselves won't be born. If they can't hatch themselves, it means they're not strong enough, usually because of a genetic or developmental problem or weakness. This baby is completely out of the egg. It still has some shell pieces stuck to its back, which is perfectly fine and normal. When they came out of the egg, they are wet and kind of small. Their feathers look like hairs or fur. But, they dry off and get fluffy. This can take a little time, depending on humidity (moisture in the air). This is a quail, but it hatched the same way as a chicken. This baby's feathers are starting to dry. When they're first born, they're very clumsy. They don't really know how to walk. They have to learn and practice. These are quail, again, but act the same as chickens after they hatch. They are social animals, so they like to stick together. If they're alone, or they think they're alone, they make high-pitched peeps to try to find someone. It is during this time that they start to make friends. Chickens and quail have best friends, just like us! The babies are just over a week old. They seem to mature faster with mama. In this picture, you can see how babies go under their mom. They go under mom to stay warm and protected. Believe it or not, these are not all of her babies. This is only about half of them. The others are under her, probably sleeping. Sometimes, babies like to poke their heads out and look around from the safety of their mom. Here you can see that this baby has wing feathers. It's only a week old. When we raised babies, they tend to grow slower and die more. But, when mama takes care of them, they grow faster and rarely die.
Right now, mama wants to keep her babies away from her flock. This is because, sometimes, the flock kills babies. If there are too many roosters, the first babies that will die are the young males. If food is too scarce, the flock might kill and/or eat the babies. This is because, if there are too many roosters, there aren't enough hens for everyone and too many roosters results in hens dying from being over-bred. If there isn't enough food, the babies die first because adults can always make more babies, but they can't make more adults. By living this way, the flock is more able to survive and be stronger and healthy. Chickens aren't the only animals to live this way. Most animals that live in social groups do this, like hippos, elephants, lions, and even ants. As promised, we are doing a whole entry about babies. Not just any babies, Nipper's babies! Enjoy the pictures!
When a chicken is frizzled, that means its feathers curve out away from the body. This is caused by a genetic mutation. Any breed can be frizzled, but we only have two frizzled cochin. It's very rare because it's a recessive gene--that means, that it can be passed on, but most likely, it won't. Frizzle hens and frizzle roosters cannot reproduce with each other. If they do, their babies will die. But, a frizzle and a smooth can reproduce easily without problems. Only about 10% of the babies will be frizzled from this pair. This is Fluffers. He is an example of a smooth-feathered cochin. Goldie is a smooth cochin, as well. Grey Boy is, yet again, a smooth cochin. Liberace is Fluffer's brother. But, he is a frizzled cochin. Oswald is another frizzled cochin. It's very easy to see on him how curved the feathers are. Being a frizzle doesn't really effect their life, but mostly just their appearance. Their feathers aren't as waterproof as smooth chickens. And, they are more likely to get a sunburn because the feathers curl up and show some of their skin. Though, they typically don't get burned, but they can.
We haven't had any frizzled babies, yet. But, maybe one day we will. Molting is the process by which chickens lose their old feathers and grow new feathers. We will be using our rooster Liberace as an example. He is a bantam frizzle cochin. "Frizzle" means the feathers curve out, away from the body. Our next entry will be all about frizzles!
There are times when a hen wants to be a mother. When this happens, they go broody. Broody hens try to hatch their eggs. Sometimes, they'll steal others' eggs. They don't really care who laid the egg; they just want to be moms! This is Nipper. She is a good example of a hen gone broody. She hid 11 eggs from us in a wooden box that is safe from predators. We found out that she was broody when we thought she was missing. It turned out that she wasn't missing; she was just sitting on her eggs. Nipper is fluffed out to cover her eggs and keep them warm. She's also flattened out because she's hiding. In this picture, you can see how fluffed out and flat she is. She will sit on her eggs for 21 days, which is when they will hatch. Even if eggs are laid before others, they won't start growing until a hen sits on them. The eggs will only hatch if they are at the right temperature--it's can't be too cold or too hot or the baby will either not grow or die. She will use her beak to roll the eggs over a few times a day so the babies don't stick to the inside of the egg. While turning them, she smells them to see if any are rotting. If one is rotting, she will get it away from the other eggs. A rotting egg is packed with bacteria. If she were to leave it, the bacteria from the rotten egg will get into the other eggs and kill the baby. Most likely, not all of the eggs will hatch. This is because of a few possible reasons: it's not fertile, developmental issues, the egg is contaminated, the baby wasn't strong enough to hatch itself, the temperature or humidity weren't right, or mama accidentally cracked a shell. She will stay on the eggs almost all the time. She will only get off of them to go potty, eat, and drink. Some broody hens will not get off their eggs at all, not even to take care of their own needs. They take being a mother very seriously. When she gets off the eggs, she doesn't stay off for long. Chicken mamas are very protective! If a predator gets too close, she will first roar at them to try to scare them away. If it doesn't leave, she will peck at it and bite it. When she roars, the roosters will come running to help her. Sometimes, sadly, they fail and the eggs or babies get eaten. Usually, though, through teamwork, everyone is kept safe. When the babies hatch, we'll have an entire entry about them for your enjoyment! Chickens have genes like all living things. Genes give us our traits. Traits are things like height, eye color, and hair color. In chickens, traits include things like eye color, feather color, size, and demeanor. Demeanor means their personality type. This is Grey Boy. He is a black bantam cochin. Sometimes black cochins have grey feathers. You've met Lucy before. She is another black bantam cochin. Lucette is the result of Grey Boy and Lucy breeding. When she is fully grown, she will look just like her parents. They are both black bantam cochins, so Lucette is a black bantam cochin. Meet Henny Penny again! Her brother, Red, unfortunately died while protecting his ladies from a predator. He looked almost identical to his sister, but he had a larger comb, bigger, waddles, and a long, dark tail. Henny and Red are "standard size", which means they're bigger than bantams. Collie is a mixed breed. Her father was Red; her mother is Lucy. From her mother, she got most of her feather color, her feet color, and most of her personality. Because her mother is a bantam and her father was a standard, her size is somewhere between the two. She is bigger than her mother, but smaller than her father and aunt. This is Spock (not from Star Trek!). He is Collie's twin brother. He has more of his father's color and personality. Unlike Collie, his feet are feathered, which he got from his mother. Spock and Collie are the same size--bigger than mom, but smaller than dad. Spock got his personality from his father and aunt. He tends to be a little less friendly, but isn't exactly aggressive. You have met Egg Muncher before. She is a standard size chicken, and her comb is floppy (kind of rare for a hen). Fluffy is a bantam D'Uccle. It's hard to see in the picture, but his beak is white! Say 'hi' to Stumpy! Her mother is Egg Muncher, and her father is Fluffy. She got her body size and her floppy comb from her mother. She, unfortunately for her, got her leg size from her father, as well as her white beak. She doesn't let her short legs stop her, though--she can run very fast! In the picture, her leg is almost completely straight, so you can see just how short it is. She got her overall personality from her mother. She runs away a lot, but is, also, very curious. As you know, humans have different personalities. It's the same thing with chickens. Some may be nice, mean, or laid-back. Different breeds tend to have different attitudes.
One of our chickens that you have met, Lucy, is a very laid-back chicken. Laid-back means they're not aggressive, and they tend to go with the flow. She doesn't really care much about wandering, getting into fights, or being nosy. We call one of our hens Egg Muncher. She has this name because she loves to steal and munch on eggs only when we collect them. She's a white Leghorn. This breed tends to be very curious, goofy, and nosy. Egg Muncher likes to stick her head in everything, including buckets, holes, and sometimes under another chicken's wing. Bitey is one of our Americana hens. She is very defensive and can be aggressive sometimes. Snowy is an Americana rooster, but he isn't as aggressive, though he is flighty. Flighty means that the chicken gets frightened easily and will run away. Big Mama, our Barred Rock hen, is bossy. She isn't aggressive towards us or the other hens too much, but she really likes bullying the roosters to keep them in line. Whiny is a Dutch Bantam hen. She is tiny, solid black, and has white earlobes. She is very intelligent and sneaky. She hides eggs from us when she wants to sit on them. We found this out when she disappeared one day. She pretended she was going to sleep with everyone else, but when we left, she went to sit on her eggs. She knew where the other hens laid their eggs and that we collect them all. So, she found a place where no one else went to hide her eggs. Additionally, Whiny is very noisy. She doesn't cluck like normal chickens, so it sounds like she's whining all the time. Buff Orpingtons and Buff Brahmas are different breeds but have similar personalities. Orpingtons are a little more friendly than Brahmas, but they're both still sweet. They love to sit on shoulders and laps, and they love to be touched. Trouble, who was introduced in another entry, is aggressive. He likes getting into fights, even if he does usually lose. He's so small that his attacks don't really hurt us, but it would if he were bigger. When roosters attack, they jump and kick whatever they're attacking. They are trying to stab their opponent with their spurs. Spurs are a spike on the back of roosters' legs. It's like a toe nail, but there's no toe there. This isn't a list of all the personalities that chickens have, but this is a general idea. You need to know how to take care of chickens before you buy them. Just like any other animal, they can get sick and they have their own needs.
When chickens get sick, they need medication. Just like us, different illnesses require different medications. Sometimes, chickens get worms. Worms are a kind of parasite. A parasite is a living thing that lives by taking away from another living thing's body. Worms usually live in the digestive system. To get rid of worms, you need de-wormer. This paralyzes the worms so the chickens can poop them out. Outside of the chicken's body, the parasites die very quickly because the environment does not suit their needs. Another two kinds of parasite they can get are lice and mites. Humans get lice, too. But mites prefer birds. To get rid of these, chickens take what is called a 'dirt bath' or a 'dust bath'. They roll around in sand, dirt, or diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is a dust that's made from the shells of teeny tiny crustaceans. This stuff damages the mites' and lice's exoskeletons. They end up dying. Chickens, just like us, can get colds. They sneeze and wheeze because of bacteria in their respiratory system. To get rid of the cold, you need to separate the sick bird from the flock and feed it nutrient-rich food and give it medicine. You can mix most medicines in their water or get special feed with medicine in it. Whenever you get a new chicken, you can't just put it in your flock. You have to separate them for about a month to make sure they don't bring in new illnesses. Molting is when birds lose their feathers. This usually happens during the late Fall or early Winter. It does not mean that they're sick or dying. It just means that they're getting rid of old feathers and letting new ones grow in. During this time, they need extra protein. As we said before, soldier flies are great sources of protein. So are chicken eggs, which you can cook and feed back to them. Chickens have special needs because they live outside. During the Winter, they can get frostbite on any part of their body without feathers. The colder the weather, the worse it can get. Chickens that live in places with really cold winters need to stay warm. Chickens with a lot of feathers (and feathered feet) tend to do better in colder places. If it rains, chickens need a shelter. They can get cold if they stay out in the rain. It's a myth that chickens and turkeys will drown if they look up during the rain. However, they can still get very cold. Hens need a place to lay their eggs. They want some sort of bedding in it because it won't damage the eggs. They want a safe place to lay their eggs. It might be in a crazy place like on a tractor seat or under a chair, or maybe in a box. But, they will only lay in a place they feel is safe. These are some of the things you will need to know to take care of your cluckers. There will be more pictures of babies and chickens soon, we promise! |
Just two brothers
Nanners & Mashers are brothers who just want to share their birds with the world. Archives
April 2016
|