Set Eggs April 30th... Whose w/ me?

[Drewnkat]

I just candled. Results:

All Blue Easter Eggs show veining, on target air cell size, and some showed slight movement.

All Green EEs: WHO KNOWS? Can't see anything, mark air cells and move on.

Pale Brown (RIR) eggs: Good air cell development, and WHOA that was an eyeball or something. Yep, you can see a lot more in pale brown eggs than EE eggs. I saw lots and lots of swooshy wiggly lil chickens developing in there.

As I kept checking, I thought to myself "I kinda hope one is a quitter or clear or something so I learn what that even looks like!"

The bad news is - I had one that was clear. No veining, no development whatsoever.

The good news is - out of 38 total eggs, only one was most definitely not developing. The rest had at least some kind of veining visible. Heck even a couple of those darn green ones, I could kinda sorta see veining if I held the light at just the right angle off the edge of the air cell.

Eggtopsy results: scrambled. Seriously, when I cracked it open just all this yellow liquid came out, no delineation of yolk/albumen, just scrambled mess. I sloshed it around a bit, didn't even see anything. Maybe slight pinkish spots on the membrane, but that sucker was definitely a time bomb, glad I got it out of there. I don't know how it scrambled. The eggs were all from the same flock, all sat on the same counter in the same paper egg carton, getting turned the same way.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter HOW, only that I found it and that oh my word most of them are doing AMAZING!

 

[joramb]

I had one not fertile and 2 definitely bad. Only go really see movement in a few but lots oF veining. Going to check again Monday night.

 

[MyNameIs86]

I have 14 eggs... i think 2 quit cause i couldn't see anything moving. i took a picture.



believe it or not, it's fertile... i just thought the air sells were on top in the fat area and not in the skinny.

 

[WalnutHill]

Half of the eggs from the old hens before they shipped out were clears, so I have 18 EE x RSL and 4 EE x EE eggs set the 28th, and 44 turkey eggs set the 30th where at least 30 look good.

 

[Drewnkat]

Well, we have hit a bump in the road. Late last night Someone accidentally disconnected the power supply to the incubator. It was without power for around 9 hours. When I found it my thermometer read 73 degrees. I cried, I babbled semi-incoherently, I lost all appetite for most of the day.

We reconnected the power, fixed it so it's less likely to happen in future, and the person who did it expressed how very very sorry they were several times.

Tonight, I checked on two of the eggs, just because the suspense was killing me. I definitely saw movement! It was very clear that at least those two are still going strong. I anticipate we may have a slightly later hatch due to this mishap, but I'm just so thrilled that there is hope. I'll probably know more in a few days when I do a full candle session on all the rest, but for now I'm just going to keep hoping for the best. I'm not going to give up on any egg unless it smells off or very clearly hasn't developed.

Just a few hours ago, I was trying to come to grips with the very real possibility I might be starting back at square one, I'm so glad that isn't the case.

 

[WalnutHill]

Kat, I am very glad to hear that the results were not as dire as they could have been. They may be a few hours late, but they are coming!

 

[Drewnkat]

Day 10 candling results:

Lots of movement! I even managed to see movement in some of the green eggs. I don't know if I just lucked out in hitting the exact angle, or if it's because after looking into 30-odd eggs I just had a better idea of what I was seeing... anyhow I'll take it! There was only one that I marked as questionable, and even that was only slightly so. It had veining, I just couldn't tell if there was movement or not, chickie baby may have been asleep, who knows.

These are my little troopers. I can't wait to meet them. I know it's by no means a sure thing that they'll all hatch, but I am encouraged enough at this point to expect that I better get cracking on a nice big brooder box for them!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Rainy day so decided to candle and take my eggs out of the auto turner today (day 17). For shipped eggs I'm very happy with the results so far. Originally received 25 eggs of which I ate the 3 smallest; wasn't that happy about the number of pullet eggs in order but certainly was not going to incubate the smallest three. They looked bantam size but I digress. Candled most around day 10 to take out one quitter and one clear. This candle every egg was checked. I took out another quitter and found another clear or first few days quitter. So, have 18 laying flat on paper towels and air cells look great only two had extremely large and saddled cells. A few the air cell was smaller but on average they were perfect size so upping the humidity today too. With our heat wave this past week and chicks starting to generate their own heat my temp kept climbing even though I was correcting it almost every day. Average was a tad over 100 F and good part of two different days 101 (forced air incubator) which makes me think they'll start hatching Thursday though I set on a Friday afternoon. Using a coffee cup of water and will see if that get's me 60-65% if not will find a smaller cup.

I'll snap some pictures for you guys to hopefully ease your anticipation of another week of what at times can be aggravating chasing of temperature.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I have 14 eggs... i think 2 quit cause i couldn't see anything moving. i took a picture.



believe it or not, it's fertile... i just thought the air sells were on top in the fat area and not in the skinny.

They are on the fat end. Was it upside down in the auto turner or is this like many of my old flock of Plymouth Rocks whose eggs were perfect ovals. I'd change my mind three times try to judge the fat end.

 

[Drewnkat]

Yep, my incubator was at 100.4 this morning, the little chicks are definitely generating their own heat now. The same thing happened last time, and they all hatched just fine so I am not going to sweat the temperature going up for a short while. 101 is well within the safe temps range.