Brinsea Catastrophe!

This is my first hatch and I just got off the phone with the Brinsea company rep. We have the mini advance, and when I set the machine up, I set it up for "periodic incubation cooling" 1 hour a day, as suggested in the manual. Now the company rep tells me I'm not supposed to turn that feature on until day 7. (It says so in the manual, but it is almost casually slipped in at the end of a sentence. Grr.) I have had it on since day 1.

Did I just kill my eggs? We are on day 13 or so. I have tried candling but can see nothing, so that's not a help.

Second question: Can someone please help me with candling? I have one green (easter egg) and multiple tan colored eggs. I've looked on youtube and read websites but we still can't see inside.

I've never owned a Brinsea bator
But when broody hens get off their eggs, the eggs cool for at least 30-40 minutes depending on if she is a good mama, so your eggs should be fine.
I would candle them on day 15 and 18 so you can see if they are alive you will be looking for a mostly dark egg with movement. At day 18
Easter egger eggs are the hardest eggs to candle ( Because of how dark they are) So you may have trouble candling that particular egg
Hope this helps

BCP

Hold the egg upright with the air cell up. Shine the light down through the air cell. Use a strong flashlight with new batteries. Use your hand to block all light except for about a 1" circle that is shining directly through that air cell. Or you can make some sort of tube affair to block all light except for the light shining into the air cell. Do your candling in a completely dark room.

Your eggs should hatch just fine, as long as your temp has been accurate through the rest of your hatch. I'd not worry too much about that 1 hour/day during the first week.

Thanks for the encouragement! I just tried candling again with your recommendations, and maybe it's the positive thoughts, but this time I think I can see something. On one or two of the eggs I can definitely see an air sac on the big end, and I see a dark shape that maybe is a baby chick, because it seems to moves around inside. Can't see blood vessels but I never have been able to. I'm so hopeful! I also sniffed the eggs (read that somewhere) and none of them smell rotten.

I'm pretty sure at least some of these eggs were developing because I discovered one of them had a tiny crack and there was blood oozing out. Don't know how it got it...maybe it got jostled while I was taking the lid of the incubator off? I did not drop it. Or maybe the cat shook the table by jumping on it? (He does that). The crack looks like it's been there for a little while. Here's a pic. Is this chick going to make it? Any way I can help it? There are dark shadows forming around where it's cracked.

Follow up question...should I remove the cracked egg? Will it contaminate the others? It's a tiny incubator and I can't imagine the bacterial infections going on in there...

I would carefully toss it out, chances are that it'll be quite stinky inside. The undamaged eggs are probably fine.

Sometimes candling is tricky. The light needs to be bright enough, the room needs to be dark, and you should want until your eyes have adjusted to the darkness. Even then I'll have to turn the egg and try different angles to see the shadows. By day 13, you be seeing a large dark blob in there but much detail.

That leaky egg is bad. Carefully remove it and get it buried outside before it explodes!

Sorry for the gross photo. That's the cracked egg. Today is day 12 so it looks like development stopped a long time ago. Trouble is that all the other eggs candle the same way as this one. I can't see any blood vessels, just the air sac and a dark blob. I have a bad feeling that my eggs all stopped in the first week. Maybe that's why I never could see anything when candling. I wonder if the cool down cycle really did kill my eggs? So disappointing! My son has been so patiently waiting..... It would be dreadful if none of the eggs hatched.

Hey there,

Glad you got rid of the cracked egg.

I found in the past that when I just see a dark blob, it's the yolk along with my hopes, and that's it. My successful eggs at 7 days looked like this:


Lots of blood cells, as you can see. And by day 14 it's a pretty solid mass.

That being said, it's really up to you on how to proceed. If it were me, I would just wait it out to be sure. Another week in there for the chance they're alive is worth it to me.

I don't feel the cooler did it, however. I've had a broody hen off her eggs for around an hour a day and all 7 hatched.

Good luck!