Candling day 7 questions!

New hatcher here! Today is candle day 7 & I'm candling shipped eggs. Out of 5 eggs only two have veins. But my eggs don't looks anything like other pics of candle day 7. The other pics u can clearly see a spider web of veins but mine has like one or two small lines of veins. It's not a lot of veins like a spider. Are my eggs behind on development?

Are you able to upload any pictures? What color are your shells? Are you candling from the fat end? If you candle from the pointed end it is sometimes harder to see inside the eggs, you cannot see as much. Also depending on the color of the shells it may mask what you can see.

The best thing would be to upload pics. But veins are good. You could always re candle again in 2-3 days to see if there is any change. If they are alive and growing you will know. If no change or fewer veins then you may have quitters.

I just hatched for the first time last week. It was amazing. I had 10 eggs from my 2 hens and one rooster that were killed by a predator. Although candling did not reveal anything we kept up with the incubation. Research floating the eggs in water. It is much easier and definitely let's you know something is alive in there. Before lockdown all 10 eggs were moving! I couldn't believe it. It turned out 8 out of 10 hatched adorable healthy babies. Read everything on this site, wonderful support. Good Luck

I'm candling from both ends just to see what I can see. The veins here are on the left side. The eggs are light blue to a medium blue. Some eggs are so dark I can't see in them. But they are also porous as well . Feeling defeated My incubator is set at 101.4 and humidity is at 46%. I will be buying another thermometer to place in there to make sure the numbers are correct

Hi, are you using a still air incubator or a forced air incubator, or other. Porous eggs in experience most of the time do not develop or hatch. Sometimes day 7 its still hard to tell if the eggs are developing, I'd wait until day 10-12 and candle them again. The picture looks to me as a quite porous egg that i would candle again in a few more days as it is difficult to see. I have had 3 hatches since February in my still air incubator with the last hatch being 98%. I also have Muscovy eggs in my forced air incubator as we speak that are developing nicely. Im a hatching fanatic. Good luck!

It's a LG still air!

Yeah I think that maybe these may have started and stopped. There does not look like there is enough there for day 7. That is something that I would see maybe on day 3. BUT I would still keep them in there and then re candle on day 10. By day 10 you should know for sure what is going on.

Let 's talk about your eggs. Where did you get them from? Are they from your chickens, picked up locally, or shipped? Believe it or not your source WILL affect growth and hatch rate. Shipped eggs as a rule generally do worse. Not always. But if these were shipped it could be the cause of quitters and lack of development in the others. If they were your eggs you may want to check your fertility with your others eggs.

Now for your bator. A couple of questions. Is this still or forced air? If forced air it might be a touch high you want it closer to 99.5-100(IF your thermometer is correct - you should calibrate it to be sure). If you have a still air then your temp might be okay but may want to raise it a touch. It should be 102 near the top of the eggs. The fact that you had 2 start tells me that it was warm enough in there to start development. But why did it stop? Too hot? Too cold? Finding the thermometer that you can trust is probably the hardest part of incubating. Your humidity though is what concerns me more. It might be okay depending on what the majority of your air cells look like. I say that because in this picture it kind of looks like your air cell may be where it needs to be but I can't see the entire thing so I dont know for sure. But since you said your eggs are porous it may be just what you need. Air cells are your best indicator. (For my hatches I generally run 25%-35% for days 1-17 and then up it to 75% for lockdown - because I am a hands on hatcher.)



Don't feel defeated. This is a learning process. When I first started a few years ago I had several "hatches" or I should say hatch attempts that resulted in no chicks. But I read a lot, got a much better incubator (I started out with a really cheap model cuz I thought what could it really matter?!), and found this site. This site I think is what really helped me to really change my hatching practices and brought me from a 0% hatch rate to a 94% hatch rate over the last 12 months (and my last 2 hatches were 100%!). You can do this. You will do this. You will find your groove. This is just your first step.

Your temperature is good. I run my still air 101.5-102 degrees. I keep my humidity a bit lower but depending on where your located you may need it higher or lower. Its always best to call the manufacturer of your incubator as they do test hatches and they will tell you exact temperature, humidity for the first 18 days and the humidity at lock down. I contacted my manufacturer due to the information about the incubator was 1 paragraph in English lol. If you need support feel free to message me. Good luck.

Thanks everyone! It is a still air. And the eggs were shipped. I know with shipped eggs the hatch rate goes down. If my eggs are porous should the humidity be higher or lower? I actually have a total of 41 eggs in there but I only candled 5 and out of the five I saw veins on two of them. All of the eggs though seem to be porous. They are blue wheaten Americauna. I also have a automatic turner.