A Little Double Clucker Magic May Be in the Air

Word around the farm lately has been that something magical may be about to happen. A few weeks back, an Olive Egger hen laid one of her HUGE eggs.

When this bird lays one of these eggs it’s a bit unnerving. The size of it is at least two large eggs put together and I’m honestly surprised that the hen isn’t walking straddle-legged after producing such an orb.

The egg is always a double-yolker and I’ve had to stop putting them in the egg cartons for my eggs to sell because the massive size of the egg doesn’t allow the carton to close completely.

Not to mention, a lot of folks may be freaked out by eating something that large.

So, I gathered this huge egg from the henhouse and set it aside while I washed the other eggs I’d collected that day. The thought entered my mind that maybe I could incubate this egg, but what would be the chances that 1. both yolks were fertilized and 2. that both would develop into chicks?

I was right at the end point of having the last of the 7 eggs hatch in the incubator and I just couldn’t figure out how this was going to work. Should I even attempt to have it work?

I sat the egg on the kitchen counter for a couple of days, turning it twice a day, as I watched the remaining chicks emerge from their shells in the incubator. If I put the huge egg into the incubator it would be almost 4 days after it had been laid (yet another negative factor to development).

There were 7 very happy, healthy, chicks in the brooder at this point and after I cleaned up the hatching mess (oh yes, trust me – there is a mess), sterilized the incubator and started to put things away I suddenly thought “oh what the heck, why not?”

In ten minutes time I had the incubator set back up, humidity raised, egg turner re-installed and the huge egg placed into the warm, moist air of the machine. I had to commit.  

I checked two days into the egg being in the incubator and only saw two yolks floating around beneath the shell. Though I knew it was way too soon to tell I was almost happy that nothing had developed. The burning questions of; what if only one chick survives and the other doesn’t make it, what if both chicks make it the full way before hatching and then don’t survive, what if one is born and has a problem because it was squeezed into a shell with another. Was I doing something wrong by trying? Would other farmers have tried this or was it wasteful?

I had to stop questioning and wait a few more days so I did.

Five days into the egg being in the incubator I removed the lid and shined the candeler light into the shell. There were two distinct “spider webs” that could be seen indicating that yes- there were in fact, two chicks growing inside this massive egg. TWINS!

Fast forward to now with only about 5 days to go before the twins scheduled “hatching date” and though I can’t tell if both chicks are still going inside the egg I know that something is growing and I’m staying hopeful that I’ll be one of the very lucky few who has twin chickens hatch out of an egg.

If you do a Google search on twin chickens hatching you’ll notice that the success rate is extremely low. Most of the time the chicks can’t get out and exhaust themselves fighting against one another to break out of the shell. It is with this guard that I’m anxiously awaiting the 27^th of March to see if I get to see two little beaks trying to get out.

Double Yolks, Double Chicks?

So I’ve been a bit on a hatching binge lately. A few weeks back I purchased 4 little bantam chicks from the local farm store. Then, I decided that I needed to find out how well the new incubator worked so I put 9 eggs in and I’ll be darned if 7 eggs didn’t hatch 21 days later!

A few days ago, my olive egger hen decided to lay one of those huge eggs that she sometimes produces and I knew that it was a double yolker.

I let the egg rest on the kitchen counter for a couple of days – gently turning it twice a day to keep the yolk from sticking to one side and finally decided that I needed to take action and get it into the incubator to try and incubate a double hatch.

Weird? Yes. Unethical? Well, the chances of one chick making it to hatch are few and far between and for both yolks to develop and grow and then both hatch is almost next to impossible but I’m thinking I need to try it at least once. I’ve not had the opportunity just yet to candle this egg and see if anything is starting to develop, but once it does I’ll be watching it so closely.

According to Google, the chances of having a double yolked egg is one in every 100 eggs so the odds of developing chicks from such an egg are even smaller. Usually one chick out competes the other and one will survive and the other will not.

I can’t say how many times I’ve struggled with the thought and the know that one chick may hatch and be raised by itself.

That thought is quickly replaced though by the hope and the prayer that both chicks survive to hatching and I manage to catch the whole crazy thing on recording.

A bit of this is, I think, the farmer mentality – try it and see if it works. If it doesn’t, don’t do it again and learn the lesson.

The day of truth is coming up within the next day or so when I candle the egg for the first time and discover growth or just two black blobs (the yolks) moving around beneath the shell.

Stay tuned for what happens next. 

A Flocking Miracle

I gained a few more gray hairs last night with two chicks in the incubator that decided they were ready to make an early entrance.

I put the eggs in “lock down” on Sunday and figured I had at least three more days to prepare the brooding box and double check everything that I would need.

Okay, let me stop for a moment. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about with “lock down”. Let me explain briefly.

“Lock down” is a term used when incubating eggs to signify the final three or so days of the 21 total days of incubation. It is called lock down because you up the humidity levels in the incubator, remove eggs from the egg turner (or just stop turning them if you’re doing it manually), close the incubator and do not open it again until the chicks have hatched. This is done so that the chick has the opportunity to orient its beak to where it needs to be to get out of the shell and also to keep the humidity levels high so that the chick can break out of the shell easily and not have difficulty. If the humidity levels are not high enough during hatching the chick can get stuck in the membrane inside the shell and basically is “shrink wrapped”. Typically, when this happens, the chick does not survive.

So, as I said before, I wasn’t prepared for these little ones to start making their entrance for a few more days so I hadn’t had anything set up yet for them. Heck, I could do it in five minutes so what was my big hurry?

I found out really quickly Monday morning when I stepped into the bathroom to check the humidity percentage and discovered a blue egg with a tiny hole in it. A “pip” or a breakthrough in the shell had happened and it meant that a chick was preparing to make its way into the world. I briefly glanced at the other eggs and noticed another blue egg had a tiny amount of shell protruding from the smooth surface of that egg.

Two eggs were preparing for hatching and it was TWO days early!

One might not think a couple of days is a big deal, but it can mean the difference between a chick surviving and dying while incubating as it is those final three days that the yolk is absorbed into the chick. Yolk fully absorbed the chick is hatched with a closed abdomen and scampers around. Yolk not fully absorbed and the chick either doesn’t hatch at all or hatches with an open abdomen and passes away soon after. It’s a crazy delicate balance.

You can see why I was beyond concerned that there was hatching going on. 

I had no choice though but to let things be and headed to work. All the while thinking of what I would find when I got home later that afternoon.

When I arrived home, I quickly ran to the bathroom to check the incubator and saw one chick stumbling around the unhatched eggs, still a bit damp from hatching but noticed that the egg with the tiny hole hadn’t made much (if at all) progress. At this point it had been roughly 15 hours since I first noticed the hole.

Needless to say, this mama got incredibly concerned.

I waited one, two, two and a half hours – fretting that I shouldn’t step in and try to help the baby out, but I knew that each hour that ticked by the baby was getting more and more exhausted and from what I could see of the membrane that was poking out of the shell, I was pretty sure the membrane had dried to

the point of “shrink wrapping” the chick.

There would be no way this little one would be able to make it out on its own. It would surely die if I left it, but it could die if I helped it.

Hands shaking, I removed the egg from the incubator and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, started to peel back shell and dried membrane.

One of the biggest causes of death for helping a chick out of the shell is bleeding and I kept watching for the tiniest sign of blood that would have caused me to immediately stop prying this little one from its calcium coffin.

I was fortunate. I only saw the tiniest amount of blood and was able to get the chick to the point that it was still cocooned in its shell but could break free if it just kicked.

Worried and stressed, I put the little one back into the incubator and stepped away for another hour. Hopeful that the other hatched chick’s peeping and prodding would encourage this little one to try and fight.

A miracle happened yesterday.

The chick rallied and when I stepped back into the bathroom I saw the little head shaking but rising and saw it try to get its feet under it. It wanted to fight, it wanted to live. Heaven would not gain this little one back this time.

Twenty-four hours later the two chicks are still going and I pray that it continues. I know that anything still could happen and has happened in the past, but for now I’m going to be thankful and realized how very blessed my household was last night to witness that miracle.