Candling... Strange Peafowl Eggs...

This is my first time attempting to hatch peafowl eggs. I have them in my brinsea advanced. I've candled and hatched so many different species but I'm stumped with these peafowl. Today is Day 8 and I can barely make out any embryos. One looks like it's growing some kind of huge clear mass inside without any visible veins or embryo. It doubles in size everyday. It looks like one huge cauliflower inside. The other is visible, but very small with very slow growth (been candling every night since Day 5). I can make out a heart beating in the 2nd egg but it looks incredibly behind on development. I have better luck candling big goose eggs than these guys! I'm thinking these are duds. Or are peafowl eggs that thick that you can barely see the embryos and see what exactly is going on? Maybe I just can't see them clearly because of their shell? What could cause abnormal growth? Old birds? Related birds? Got these eggs off of craigslist so I don't know the parent's history. I'm going to keep them in the bator for another week. I was really excited for my first peafowl  I guess I should know better not to hatch only two eggs! Never seen continued abnormal growth like this before, if that's what's going on.

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Originally Posted by jhm47 

Why are you candling them daily???  The eggs will do much better if you will leave them undisturbed in your incubator for 10 - 14 days and then candle them.  Peafowl eggs are hard enough to hatch without continually disturbing them each day or night.  Be patient---Mother Nature knows best!  And-------Good luck!

I've been hatching eggs for 30 years, every single spring and have successfully hatched very hard to hatch eggs. I think I know what I'm doing... but thanks.

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Originally Posted by nathhowe 

If you didn't disturb them they would never hatch.  Remember they MUST be turned several times daily just as the Mother does.  I have been moving mine around several times daily.  Sometimes if I get up in the middle of the night and I move them.  It's not like if you touch them they'll become infertile!

 

BayGoose...it doesn't sound like yours are developing, by Day 5 I am able to candle mine with a simple LED light and see the veins. 

Thanks, I'm just going to wait another week and see. But they look pretty abnormal so I'm thinking the eggs may have been old, parent's were old or related. This is just the first time I've seen continued abnormal growth. It's strange 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil Zoo 

Can you give us an update on your 2 eggs. 

The egg that looked like it was growing something odd inside, did. I cracked it open and it was this weird bubbly mass. It stunk too, so assuming it may have been some kind of bacterial infection/growth. The other one finally stopped growing around day 15, that's when I could no longer see movement. It was way behind development. It didn't look normal whatsoever. I've never seen this before. I called the guy I bought these eggs from and he did admit he had eggs sitting around for about a month, thinking he'd get an incubator but didn't, so he decided to sell them. He was nice and lives pretty close to me and gave me 2 more fresh peafowl eggs, free. They're looking good so far! Much better this time around