Regardless of the number of times I have hatched chicks, the process of embryo development fascinates me equally each time. That a chicken egg can evolve from common recipe ingredient into a living, breathing, fluffy-butt in a mere 21 days fits my definition of miraculous.The following photo presentation pairs well-known images from the Purdue Research Institute, depicting embryo development from the inside, with my own photos of candled eggs throughout the 21 chicken egg incubation period. 
I invite you to view any one of my YouTube videos to witness the wonder of hatch day. Baby Chick Hatching in Home Incubator, Singing and Dancing Easter Egger, Hatch Day! Ameraucana Chick Arrives! and Hatching Easter Egger.
Egg candling was done using the Brinsea OvaScope egg candler.
To see day 15 candling video click here
Sources for the narrative information included on these images:
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/development.html
Kathy Shea Mormino
Affectionately known internationally as The Chicken Chick®, Kathy Shea Mormino shares a fun-loving, informative style to raising backyard chickens. …Read on
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Regardless of the number of times I have hatched chicks, the process of embryo development fascinates me equally each time. That a chicken egg can evolve from common recipe ingredient into a living, breathing, fluffy-butt in a mere 21 days fits my definition of miraculous.The following photo presentation pairs well-known images from the Purdue Research Institute, depicting embryo development from the inside, with my own photos of candled eggs throughout the 21 chicken egg incubation period.
I invite you to view any one of my YouTube videos to witness the wonder of hatch day. Baby Chick Hatching in Home Incubator, Singing and Dancing Easter Egger, Hatch Day! Ameraucana Chick Arrives! and Hatching Easter Egger.
Egg candling was done using the Brinsea OvaScope egg candler.
To see day 15 candling video click here
Sources for the narrative information included on these images:
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/development.html
This is really cool and I can't wait to show my kids when they get home. Did you do the pictures of the development?
We fed Oasis to our broiler show chicks for 45-days all the way up to show. They did just fine. It was very expensive and the meat was tough. Love the web-site and I follow on Facebook. One day maybe I'll win some of your beautiful eggs to hatch.
Thanks for all the great info!
Lisa Hightower
Facebook aka: Ziptie The Dog
Lisa, I can't help thinking that you're a man when that username pops up every time. LOL
I took the candling photos, on the right, in these images. The others are from the Purdue Research Institute. Let me know what the kids thought about them!
Thanks for your message, see you on FB! BTW: I'm having a Kids with Chickens Photo contest right now, upload yours soon!
I found this both a beautiful miracle & kinda creepy all rolled up in one…lol. You are always sooo informative, I often wonder how have my chickens survived without your advice.
Can't argue with the beautiful yet creepy part. And thank you. :)
We are expecting 25 broiler chicks in a couple of weeks from Meyer hatchety. They announced yesterday on FB that they are feeding a product called Oasis to the chicks just before shipping. It is a supplement to help the chicks through the shipping process. It contains soy and a whole bunch of people responded negatively due to the history of causing problems with cattle and pigs, etc. Was interesting reading and an eye opener. It also has green dye in it because supposedly chicks are attracted to the color green. It is a soft pelleted texture. Wondering if you… Read more »
I haven't heard about it but I'll look into it. Can you share a link to the negative feedback on my Facebook wall so I can see the complaints? It may be worth a call to the hatchery to see if you can discuss the possibility of having your chicks shipped with GroGel instead if you're concerned about it.
HELP! Could I ask you to give a tutorial on candeling. I've read most of your blog, and haven't seen anything on candeling. I have 18 eggs in the bator (bwhahah) and tried to candle them the other day and they all look empty. I'm afraid that I candled them wrong. The hens had access to 2 roos. and then….. I would love to win that t-shirt.
Hi Elizabeth, I have several albums of candling on my Facebook page as well as all of the candling photos above, which are intended to illustrate what you're looking for on any given day of incubation. It may be the case that you're not using a powerful enough candling device. Try either a high intenstity LED flashlight in a dark room, hold the flashlight in your cupped hand and the egg above your cupped hand with the wide end almost touching the flashlight so that no light escapes out of your hand beyond the egg. That's all there is to… Read more »
I love this blog so much:) I am in the process of hatching some RIR chickens, it's day 11, and seeing these pictues have helped me decide which eggs are still living.( I have only had to throw out 1 of my 12 eggs). Once I saw this blog post for the first time I showed all the members of my family. Have I mentioned that I love chickens, but whenever I'm asked why i really don't know, their just AWESOME. Thank you fo posting this great blog. (P.S. I'd love that T-shirt:). -Jared
Thanks Jared! Sounds like you're going to have a great hatch! Keep me posted & share pics when they arrive!