I hope that this thread will be interesting and useful to everyone
On Saturday 26th March I set 8 porcelain Sabelpoot eggs from my pair of porceialin sabelpoots. The eggs were laid over 11 days, and they are all dated on the egg. So far I have 100% fertility in my other Sabelpoot eggs I've set so far.
The eggs are very nice (even if I do say so myself
), they are even in shape and size. The shell is not overly porus, the shells do not have wrinkles, or calcium deposits.
Day 1:
Nothing to see yet, and the air cell is still very small, near the light. In the second pic, the slightly darker shadow which can be seen is the egg yolk.
Day 2
Again, not much to see at this stage. The aircell is still too small to be seen (though as they are sabelpoot eggs, it will remain small
Day 3:
and in case you can't make it out very well...
We have life!
How big is the difference between day 2 and day 3? Already the embryo is starting to grow a visible network of veins
Day 4
and again with the outline on:
Things are really cooking now
you can see how much the network of veins has grown in 24 hours, and how much bigger the actual embryo is (this is the circle in the middle of the spiderweb of veins).
What I think is especially amazing, that even though these are two different eggs, the pattern of veins is almost identical!
Day 5:
By now the embryo has completely surrounded itself in a blood island. If you look closely you can see the heart beating, and the black dot of the eye is clearly visible.
Day 6
Day 7
Video of heart beat (click!)
Many people do a preliminary candle at day 7 to test for fertility... all my eggs are fertile
We have now gone past the spider of veins and now the embroy is forming at a very rapid rate. In the video you can see it swishig about as the force of the heart beat makes the whole embryo move.
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
I recommend candling on day 10. At this point is it usually very clear if the egg is fertile and growing. If the egg was not fertile, it would look like a day 1 egg, perhaps with a bigger air cell.
Day 11
So here we are at the half way point. You can see how big the embryo is getting. From here to day 18, it becomes more and more difficult to see more than a dark area iin the egg.
Sorry for the delay, photobucket was being very tempremental for me
Day 12
With a bit of adjustment you can see a little more - just
Day 13, and things get very dark from now on...
Day 14
Even enhancing doesn't have too much of effect...
Day 15
Day 16 - thes eggs are just sooo full now... not long till lock down!
Day 17
Day 18
Day 20:
1 out, 7 to go... hopefully!
Day 21
8/8 hatched
video of chick hatchingvideo of chicks in incubatorlast one
video of chick number 7 hatchingI hope everyone has enjoyed the past 21 days, and I'll try to up date this thread every now and again as they grow