The Incredible Edible Egg Hatching | Incubation Science, Air Cells, Shipped Eggs & Hatch Rate Secrets

Is the egg just a shell with a chick inside?

Not even close.

In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, we break down the real science behind egg incubation and hatching — and clear up some of the biggest myths spreading through backyard chicken groups.

If you're incubating chicken eggs, quail eggs, duck eggs, or shipped hatching eggs this season, this episode will help you improve your hatch rate and produce stronger, healthier chicks.

We discuss:

• How breeder nutrition affects egg quality and chick vigor
• The real structure of the egg (yolk, albumen, membranes, air cell, bloom)
• Why you should NOT wash hatching eggs
• Hydrogen peroxide and egg sanitation myths
• Vertical incubators vs. horizontal turners
• Why vibration kills embryos
• Broken air cells from shipped eggs (and how to fix them)
• Why egg turning during the first third of incubation is critical
• Humidity mistakes at lockdown that drown chicks
• Why pullet eggs and misshapen eggs shouldn’t be set

The egg isn’t just a container — it’s a complete biological life-support system designed to grow a chick.

If you want better hatch rates, fewer weak chicks, and less frustration during hatching season, this episode is for you.

Join the conversation inside our Incubation Masterclass Facebook group and hatch smarter this year.

Join Carey of Show Pro Farm Supply and Jennifer of Bryant's Roost as we delve into chickens and quail (mostly)  to help you enjoy your birds more and worry less. Backyard chicken keeping shouldnt be stressfull, let's get back to the simple days

Valley Hatchery is a proud sponsor of Poultry Nerds, find more at ValleyHatchery.com

Transcript

Carey 0:38

we're gonna talk about your most recent favorite subject, the eggs. Yeah, thanks. Because you spent a whole lot of time taking a college course about. Eggs. I did. I did. And I, and like I was like eggs. Yeah, there's college classes on eggs, but based on a lot of the material that you showed me, I mean, you. There's definitely a lot to be learned about eggs. Well, I didn't really realize that so much money was thrown at eggs until I found that course, and the commercial meat industry spends a lot of money studying everything about chickens. Well, I mean, in order to have the chicken, you must hatch the egg. That's true. I always think that the answer to the riddle is the egg comes first. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then we started the new Incubation Master Masterclass Facebook group, and I realized how much people don't understand the egg. And what's going on. Yeah. Um, so there's a lot of things that I see are thrown out there as far as what people think is true statements and is really not. And then if I try to correct, it starts an argument and I'm not in this whole thing to be in an argument. And, uh, so sometimes I have to take a break and back up a little bit. But, but I mean, that group we started, what, two months ago? Middle of December? Well, late December. Late December, because. You were well into your class and you know, we were ha talking about all the misinformation. Mm-hmm. Because even people that you and I thought knew a lot about incubating and hatching these scientists that get paid stupid amounts of money, disagree. Mm-hmm. And so that's why we were like, Hey, why don't we. You know, make a place where people can come and ask their questions. And I'm not gonna say, not get made fun of because there's only a handful of admins and moderators, so we can keep it tight and you know, we can't be there 24 7. But a lot of the. The BS and the crap talking and all that kind of stuff gets shut down pretty fast. Yeah, I've been really, really good and, and ask our moderators to really just delete anything snarky, obviously. Um, and anything just, just a hundred percent wrong. Now, if it's, if it's minorly wrong, we'll gently correct. Give the reasons why. Mm-hmm. So people can learn, right? Because we do understand that there are 10 times more lurkers than there are speakers or typers. True. Um, so we're trying to, trying to speak to them. Um, but, but it is a process and it can be frustrating. So. That group really exploded. It has 13,500 people in it right now. Yeah, I was gonna say it's from December to now. It's shot up. Yes. Um, yeah. And so we're, you know, basically at the, in the beginning of the middle of hatching season, everybody's busy. Everybody's excited. You know, it's a lot and we don't get paid to run Facebook. So, um, we we're doing the best we can. So what we're gonna try to do today is I've kind of made an outline, which we never seem to follow very well, but we're gonna try and about all the things that I've seen and things you should know about the egg. Right to get you started. So here's one thing. Is it literally like everything about your hatch comes from the egg or your bird? Like everything, everything comes from the egg, or is it just kind of like, some of it comes from the egg and some of it has to do with life after hatching. Um, what's up with that? You mean like as far as hatching is concerned? Well, hatching, vigor, gross. Okay. Breeder success in the future. Omelet taste like, so it goes all the way back to the breeders that laid the egg. So would you go all the way back to them? So before you even get the egg? Are you feeding the breeders correctly? Are you housing them correctly? Are you taking care of their health? Um, feeding them well? Um, clean nest boxes. And are you collecting the eggs regularly? So like if I decide that I love Italian food. Which I really do. If I give my chickens lots of garlic and oregano, will my omelet already be pre-seasoned? No. Dang. But we do need to feed them. So whatever nutrition we put into the layers, which this is your category here, but whatever nutrition we put into the layers is what the chick is going to grow with. So we have to think about that. Oh, that's very true. Mm-hmm. But see, like I was thinking, you know how we pre-season our turkeys for Thanksgiving? Are you hungry? Yeah, kind of. But you know, I just didn't know if. When you feed your birds, say a finisher, that's like corn and wheat and milk. You know, if you, that helps the flavor profile. I just wondered about the, an omelet or something Cheese? No. Um, now when I was growing up, we didn't have all of this. And, and we see that a lot, you know, when I was growing up, we did it this way. Um, we had. I think we had leg earns and then he got some game foul. And when I was a little bit older, maybe in high school, we had some game foul and they just roosted in the trees and he threw, we always threw scratch grain. The birds, if they lived through the day, they could come back into roost at night and we locked them up. But I mean, that was basically it. And then we would just collect the eggs. But when you have birds that free reigns like that. Mm-hmm. You know, they're, they're really smart stupid creatures so well, they, they know, Hey, if I eat that maggot right there, I'm gonna get this part of what I need today. And if I can catch that grasshopper, you know, they're doing that right. So scratch is good for'em when they free range, well, that basically, I think just got'em to come back. At night. Yeah. They don't have to chase it. They just get food and come back, get a warm place to sleep and do, do it all again tomorrow. And then they lay their eggs in the morning and then we let them out and, and so that would work and there's no reason why that wouldn't, I mean, I'm not the nutrition person, but I don't see why that still wouldn't work today if you had enough space for them to free range and get that variety. Um, we had, we had a lot of acreage and we had cows and they of course followed the cows around and stuff, and, um, that's real good today. Yeah. So, well, anyway, we've, we've digressed again, but anyway, that nutrition goes into the egg and the form of the egg shell, the nutrients inside the egg. Um, and then that's what the embryo is gonna grow off of. So the yolk, there seems to be a misconception that the yolk is actually the baby, the embryo, it is not. The yolk is lipids and fats and the albumin or the white is proteins and the embryo is actually on the surface of the yolk and. Feeds off of both. In order to grow, what is the, shall say that is a protein strand that keeps the yolk kind of centered in the egg. Okay. Um, so think like a bungee cord. It's kind of look what it looks like. And then the albumin's watery, it gives it some hydration, it gives it its protein. It also has a pH that is bacteria resistant. And then outside of that, we have membranes that hold it all together, and then the next membrane, and then the shell. And then the bloom is on the outside. Hey, don't, don't forget about the cuticles. Well, that's the bloom. Same thing, but we're, we're nerdy. We're talking like we want people to understand the nerdy term and the everybody else term. Well, we're trying not to be too nerdy today. We're trying to, to help the people that are maybe like new to incubating and hatching, um, with the nerdiness. So, of course, okay, so the egg is like a prepackaged. Tiny home that you would buy off at Amazon that has everything that you need, has air, has water, has food, has air conditioning, everything that you need inside of there to grow ain't no wifi. And so you, you're ready to, to emerge and be an adult is what it is. Okay. Not all eggs though need to become chicks. We have to start calling at the egg stage and miss, don't hatch. Pull it. Eggs people. Yes, please don't hash pull it eggs. Not to say scientifically you can't, they will grow. Mm-hmm. You shouldn't. Would be, I guess a better term. Um. You need to start with a clean nest box and gather the eggs regularly so they don't freeze, or in the summertime become too hot and they need to be kept clean. Um, now not all hens. Clean. I have one currently that no amount of clean straw in her. I use milk crates. No amount of clean straw in the milk crates. Makes her happy. She needs to go find whatever dirt she can find, come back and roll the eggs all in it under her feet and stuff. And when I figure out which one it is. She will not be a problem anymore. So I have a similar situation. So the Nest boxes that I have, I got ones that like. They go up against the wall, there's the gray, and you know, got the little perch, got a really good deal on'em at a show, and I was like, eh, 10 bucks. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So I did that. I put straw in that thing. I put. Hay. I put pine chips, I put pine nuggets. I put the um, stall pellets. I'm embarrassed to say that I even ordered some of that crap from. A coop company that's in one of the sets of states that has a north and a south that costs a ridiculous amount of money. And this heifer will literally clean it out down to the plastic like she gets. She's not just scratching, she's cleans everything out of the nest. Flings it out the front and then she'll sit there with her dirty butt and lay eggs. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, why do I try? Okay, so first of all, let's talk about that for a second. You want to use clean straw, not hay. Um, there is a difference. Yep. You want to use pine shavings or, um, the orpingtons like to lay in pea moss. That's all fine. Mm-hmm. Um, you do not want to use. Anything that will retain moisture, and that's why hay is out. Right. I also am not a fan of those things that you're talking about. They're like straw nesting pads. Oh, I hate those formed. Okay. Every year we go through this on social media. People love those things. I can see why they look great. They look convenient, they're easy, they're not expensive. They're a waste of money. Please don't buy them. Um, what will happen here in about three months is what you'll start seeing is my hen has an impacted crop. Yep. And if you ask, do you have those? Several, many, most of the people will say yes. Quite a number of them. Yes. So there are things that seem smart, um, but don't work for chickens who like to eat everything. Yeah, I mean, in a commercial setting, those things are good because those birds are cram packed in there or they're out on pasture, so they have lots of stuff to keep them occupied. They have somebody whose job is literally two feeding water them, so they never get hungry, and I mean, they're only there for a year. Then they've done their job. They go out. So it works in commercial houses, but at your house, you know, chickens are like toddlers. If they get bored, they're gonna start destroying stuff, right? So don't overthink your nest boxes. Mm-hmm. Um, I use milk crates now. I'm still in winter mode. When I say I use milk crates, um, the breasts are in. At the barn. So there are milk crates. Mm-hmm. When they go back to their summer housing, they have regular rollout nest boxes. Uh, so, but anyway, back to our discussion here of the egg. So when you collect all of your eggs, you're gonna grade them. Much like the commercial industry does. Um, we're gonna look at'em. Anything that's extraordinarily dirty, uh, that has manure stuck to it, we're going to, we'll give that one an f. We're gonna give that one for breakfast. That one's gonna go to the house for breakfast. Um, anything that might have been cracked or dented, we're gonna give that to, um, the dogs probably. Then anything that's misshapen. We've got torpedo eggs, we've got pulit eggs, we've got fairy eggs, we've got golf balls. Um, w. Triangular eggs, any of that? Yeah. Anything that does not look like what your bird should be laying. Now, when we say that we understand that every species lays a little bit different shape, egg and every breed might lay a little bit different size egg. Mm-hmm. So, so duck eggs don't necessarily. When I look at my duck eggs, I can't always tell the difference between the fat and and the pointy end. I'm just gonna be honest. They're kind of oblong. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So if your species or your breed is supposed to lay like that, then that's fine. We're talking about. Eggs that you should be able to look at and, and know a definite shape to them. Um, and the reason why you need to be picky on the shape is because the chick has instincts and. Positioning that it's gonna go through as it grows, and it has to have room to do all of that. And if it's a torpedo shape, or if it's an oblong shape or a triangle shape, it's gonna confuse its instincts and it may end up malpositioned, which means it can't hatch properly because it can't twist properly, and it could. You know, die before it hatches or it could, um, become stuck in a weak chick because it couldn't get out on time. Mm-hmm. So we want to create this house for this chick that is most opportune for it to be successful. Because our goal here isn't to just get. Chicks. It's to get healthy, vigorous chicks, and I, I want to be on a mission for the rest of my life to change that mindset. We, not every egg needs to be a chick, and not every chick needs to be hospitalized. But that's another soapbox for another day. Yeah. So to me, as a, if you're, if you call yourself a breeder, and I don't mean that in a negative way, if you call yourself a breeder, then you should constantly be looking for birds to hatch out to replace and be better than. What you have. Yes. So that, that's why that's important. So I got the question today because I made a post on my page that said about calling starts with the shape of the egg. And somebody said, well, I get a lot of triangular shaped eggs. Should I set them? And my answer was no. Because if you set them, that's an inheritable trait. Mm-hmm. And next year you're going to get all triangular shaped eggs. I was gonna say, you're still gonna get some more next year, a lot more if that's what you're hatching. Okay, so now we've got the eggs. We've got'em divided between what we're taking back to the house for breakfast or what we're keeping for the incubator, and we need to mark them with the pen. I use a Sharpie. I mean, the world hasn't ended yet and I've been using a Sharpie for years. So if you try to use a pencil, the moisture coming off the egg seems to make it disappear at some point. Um, well, not only that, like when I use a pencil, it, it is, it doesn't show up that well. Mm-hmm. And it's hard to see. Yeah. Now, if you use like a carpenter pencil, it shows up better, but you also have to press harder on it. Now, granted, if your birds are getting enough calcium, that's not an issue. But Sharpie, I mean, I think I'm an okay person, and Sharpie hadn't killed me. My granddaddy showed me how to do that when I was little. Yeah. Or people use grease pencils. I mean, anything like that is fine. I can't get real excited about it. Um, we do not, I'm going to go back here for just a second. We do not want to set eggs that are obviously cracked. I personally do not candle and check for cracks. If you have eggs that are cracked or become cracked, I see people are scotch, taping them, gluing them, um, waxing them. Wax. I, I've never, and hey, look, that's your incubator and your roles. Yes, here's, if it makes you feel good. Roll with it. Well, but after the first one gets semi cooked inside that shell and makes a loud popping noise in the middle of the night, you and your whole operation is getting kicked outta the living room. So the, the shell. The bloom are the barriers to bacteria right now. Mother nature knows what she's doing. We do not want to wash these hatching eggs. I am gonna scream it from the mountaintops. Do not wash these hatching eggs. All these people who were saying, well, there's science behind hydrogen peroxide. Or I've even seen tech trawl here lately. Oh, my word. That even says right on the label, don't use on porous surfaces. Don't do that. This embryo is 40 to 60,000 cells large at the point of lay. It's not an egg. It's already an embryo. When you're holding it in your hand and you're going to put chemicals on it, I mean, would you do that to your newborn baby? No. So let's change our mindset here. So the bloom is there to protect the embryo. Mm-hmm. And as long as we have clean nest boxes and, and we operate in a clean environment, no barn is sterile. So why are we trying to sterilize things that are not in a sterile environment? It doesn't make sense. Um. If you have a, I'm gonna make an analogy here. You're, it's a hot day. You fix, fix yourself some sweet tea, and you go outside and you sit down your glass sweats because it picks up the condensation in the air. If you take a hot egg and put it in. Cold water or am I having it backwards? Um, it will actually suck the bacteria through the pores of the shell. So when people say, well, the hatcheries wash their eggs, that is first not a true statement. Hatcheries fumigate their eggs. Very different. Very different. Totally different process. They grade their eggs also, they don't use floor eggs and their laying boxes. Are like conveyor belts, moving those eggs out of there constantly. Um, and they're clean and then they're graded, and then they're stored in big store rooms. So it's a completely different concept. And then they have them in these store rooms and they fumigate them. They were doing it with formaldehyde, but that was causing problems for the workers. So now they're using other things. Hydrogen peroxide is one of those things. Um. But they do use, depending on which country that you're in, they use different things, but they never submerge them. And they never scrub them. And, and they're kept in these controlled environments. Mm-hmm. With clean people, with clean, sterile trays, and these incubators are washed and cleaned and to boot. The science, if everybody wants to quote the science on here, they're using a 5% solution and we can't even buy 5% hydrogen peroxide as consumers on this side because I think the little brown bottle you get at Walmart is what, 3%? Uh, I think on average. Yeah, it's not even, it's not even, so it's like 3% is food grade and um, they're using 5% percent. 12% is more common. Um, you can get it, but then you have to calculate it down to 5%. Mm-hmm. And, um, it ain't cheap. And they do it at a certain temperature. I mean, they have, if you want to really break this down and you wanna compare to commercial, the store rooms are kept. At who? 17 degrees Celsius at 55 to 60% relative humidity at a negative pressure. They literally have other rooms next to it to make them pressurized. We are as backyard keepers, nowhere near the same concept, and so just pulling verses or. Sentences out of science journals to suit our purposes isn't. Relative, to be honest. Yeah, that's one of those things. You can't just do part of it in order for it to work the way that it works in the hatchery, you gotta do all of it. You gotta create the environment, you've gotta make everything work the way it does there. And you know, that's not us. We're backyard folks, right? And backyard folks. Uh, I mean, some of, we just different, some of'em, some of us even hatch. Let our chick. You know, if I got a hand that goes broody, I'm not gonna go steal'em from her. I have one that's very good at going broody in the wintertime and hatching chicks out. She's not good at. Leaving them alone or feeding them or anything like that, because she'll kill a few. But she's great at hatching them, so I hijack them afterwards. Okay, so I'm, I'm off my soapbox about the cleaning of the eggs, just. Just don't trust this, the nature behind it. Okay. We don't need to use hydrogen peroxide to clean them, to soften the shell or oxygenate the membrane. I've seen some, some strange stuff out there. None of this is true. I've challenged people to send me the science and it, it's not true. I can actually show you the science papers that says it's not true. Okay. Well, for me it's like. If, if you take, if you hatch out a chick, sanitize the eggs, sanitize the incubator, sanitize the hatcher, clean out your brooder and sanitize it every day or two, and then you take the birds out, take them and put'em outside, and they're eight weeks old and they get sick and die. You ever wonder why? Yeah, I mean they haven't built up an immune system to Jack. That's how, that's how they maintain their Vigo and like, don't I put when I have mine, my chicks hatch out. The only thing that I clean, and while they're inside the brooder. Is the water. Mm-hmm. I don't clean anything else. I don't change out the stall pellets. I don't do nothing. I, I got on Amazon and got me a, a hoe that's like, got a 18 inch handle. Poor Brooders and I'll stir my stall pellets up. Mm-hmm. That's it. And then, you know, three weeks, four weeks, depending on what it is down the road, they're out. Mm-hmm. And I don't, I don't have losses, no. Okay. So we are. At the egg we've done, we've talked about the egg. I think we're off our soapbox about the egg. We down, we're down to. What determines quality? Okay, so we've set the egg in the incubator. Now, if you are incubator shopping, highly, highly pleased by a vertical setting machine. The reason why we want vertical setting machines is because it gently rocks the egg a horizontal. Machine has a turner and it vibrates as it turns. And vibration is the number one killer of an embryo. Yep. Other than bacteria. So in if you are just blank slate or in the market for a new incubator. Buy a vertical setting machine, and if you are buying shipped eggs, you should only have a vertical machine. And I'll say this, when, when she's talking about disease killing the embryos, she don't mean like, you know there, oh, there's a little speck of a piece of bacteria. Because I literally have, I ha had a set of birds where. They were getting old and I did not keep as many as I should for my air and my spare on the rooster side, and only had a couple of hens, so I really needed to hatch what I got. And the hen one of them would lay sometimes in the nest box and sometimes she would poop in the nest box. I have successfully hatched very vigorous chicks that had. Chunks of dried poo that I flung off with my finger before I stuck it in the incubator. I didn't spray peroxide on it. I didn't run it through hot or cold water. I didn't do nothing. I flung it off, terrified as I did that, I was like, God, break the shell, you know? And I was very easy with it, but I flung it off and everything in that hatched, so it takes a lot of disease. You're more likely to bump your incubator too many times or jar it and that cause a problem than anything else. Yes. Okay. So the air cell is created between the inner and the outer membrane. As the egg loses its moisture, the air cell expanse, that's just science. And then. The chick when it's like day 20 or so. If it's a chicken, then it's going to internally pip and start breathing the air before it externally, pips. Now, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because in a vertical setting machine, the egg will be pointy side down the air. Shell will be up. Now I understand the hen incubates on her side. She also is not a motor that vibrates as she turns her eggs. So just throw that argument out the window. She uses her beak to turn her eggs right. She also doesn't ship them from Virginia to Oregon and have saddled airbags. Saddled airbag, displaced airbag broke. Um, air cell. Broken air cell. All of them are the same thing. If you want to know what that looks like, take your egg that you're going to make your breakfast with and candle it. You will see the air cell. Then I want you to shake the fire out of it. Just pres scramble. Shake it, shake it some more. Then candle it again. You're gonna see the air cell move as you rotate the egg. That is a broken air cell. Mm-hmm. And that will say will happen as you ship it. It is possible. It won't 50 50 chance, but just expect it to happen and makes it easier on you. When you receive a shipped egg and it has a broken air cell, you want to set it vertically so that air floats to the top of liquid, okay? Mm-hmm. So just simple gravity here. If you set it on its side, the air cell's gonna sit to the side of the egg. Well, when the chick goes to orientate itself to hatch, that chick is gonna be looking in the fat end of the egg for air. It's gonna find moisture and it's gonna drown. So we want to set eggs vertically that have broken air cells. And if you have a vertical sitting machine that rocks them gently, even though it's rocking them, that air cell will stay in the fat end of the egg. Mm-hmm. And as the membranes. Work and grow with the chick, which I won't get into the science of that. So we'll just use this term loosely. It, it grows with the chick. Um, it seals around the chick and adheres basically to the shell. I'm really simplifying here. Okay? And so that will settle the air cell to the fat end of the egg. All right? So that's what we want. Boom. If. You have a horizontal setting machine, highly recommend that you sell it and buy a vertical one if you're doing ship eggs. Yeah. If not, then I would set them vertically and maybe hand turn until you can get a vertical setting machine. I have also seen people, um, setting them on foam to help absorb vibration from people walking in the room and stuff like that. I would not do that. Would not do that because the air is the shell is to breathe. It's exuding moisture. No, I'm talking about set the whole incubator on top of Oh yeah, that's fine. I have seen people actually set eggs inside a foam inside the incubators. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do that either. Yeah, don't do that. Um, that's what I thought you were talking about. Okay. So now we've got, let's see, we've done eggs and, okay. The hatching part of it the last three days is lockdown. Yep. So depending on what species, what breed. All that's gonna be different. It's always the last three days though. If you have struggled with your humidity, let's just say it's been all over the board and it's been kind of high. You know it's been high and you, when you go to candle it at lockdown, the air shell will be a little on the smaller side. Should be roughly a third of the egg, a quarter to a third of the egg. And if, if it seems small or you, and you know you've struggled with your humidity, there is a trick, just go ahead and hatch them vertically. And the reason why we do that is because if the humidity has been high, the egg hasn't lost enough humidity, and that moisture will then settle in the pointy end away from the air shell away from the chick's. Breathing and it won't drown. It will hatch just fine. It does not care. It's gonna hatch. And if you were to set it on its side and it's too wet and it goes to pip into the air cell, it could pick up too much moisture and drown that way. So yeah, you don't want that to happen. This is just a tip. I'm not saying hatch every egg vertically. I'm just simply saying if you have struggled with humidity or saddled airbags or any kind of problem, it is a trick to give the chick one more leg up in being successful at hatching. Okay, so, and what? I was gonna talk about turning for just a second. Okay. Do that because turning people think that you shouldn't turn shipped eggs. Don't know where that started. I'm gonna assume the nature. Right. Three sixties, it is not true. Eggs need to be turned. End of conversation. Yeah. They all need to be turned. Yeah. Put them in the vertical setting Machines. Turn them now if you wanna. Now, if you're impatient and, and you don't let'em sit on the counter when they come in the mail, let, if you don't let'em sit so the air sacks can get back all solid, then you can put'em in there and go ahead and put'em in and not for 12 hours or whatever makes you feel froggy, but. They need to be turned. Yes. Yes. Especially the first few days. The first few days is the most important turning of all the turn in the turn season. Yes. So if you don't turn for seven days and your eggs appear to you to not have started and they were shipped eggs, you are going to be mad that your seller sent you D eggs. Yeah. When in reality. We don't know because you didn't incubate properly. Right. And, and you know, we see in a lot of the groups, we see folks bashing people left and right. I bought eggs from such and such and my hatch rate sucked. Well, you know, eventually somebody's gonna say. Tell us about your process. Everybody wants to blame it on the incubator or blame it on the breeder, shipper, breeder, but they, you know, I, I stuck'em in there and didn't turn'em for the first week. Well. I wanna say, doesn't the, the research show that turning is most important, that it is done the first three days, the first third. So if it's a chicken, I knew it was a three somewhere. Yep. If it's a chicken, it'd be seven days. If it's a quail, it's like six days. If it's a duck, that would be, what, nine days. So it's the first third of the time. First third of it. So what happens is if you don't turn it, the embryo is sitting on the yolk and it actually will float up, adhere to the membrane, get stuck, dry out, and die. Okay. Into the naked eye, that will look like an unfertilized dead egg, right? Yeah. And so turn them. Give them a chance. Hatch wisely. Yes. We did not stay on our at all. Very important. If y'all don't understand anything that we've talked about as we've been talking about eggs for the last 30, 40, whatever minutes, know this, the egg is not just a container. Or the egg, the shell, whatever you wanna call it. It's a whole daggum biological system. Mm-hmm. Like everything's in there as long as you do your part properly, it all works. And I'll say, you know, there's a, there's a huge argument out there for, well, when you hen hatch the hens do this and the temperature fluctuates this and the humidity fluctuates that Yes, it does. It really does. But like everything else, when you take Mother Nature out of the equation and try to do it yourself, you gotta follow all the rules. Now, here's the challenge. Next week, we're going to either talk about breeder nutrition to get that egg or how to properly ship them. We want y'all to put it down in the comment section. What y'all want us to talk about now? You can come to the Incubation Masterclass Facebook group. I do try to post regularly and there's some tips and tricks that I have learned. Mm-hmm. And help people who ask questions. And of course we always have the incubation masterclass where I have pretty much. Divulged everything that I learned in my class and slides. You didn't violate any copyright laws or anything like that? I not with, with your course material? No. Anybody jumped to that conclusion? Nope. But I've tried to put everything in there if you want. We got all kinds of tips and tricks, get all the nerdy stuff in there, all the information. Um, but anyway, we just want to help you have a better hatch. So try it our way and this is how we do it and it works. So do it the way it works, and then tweak it for your environment afterwards. Yep. All right. Have a great week. See y'all next time.