20 Days -- Black Blobs Visible When Candling

[chris_p]

Three eggs in a homemade incubator. Temp wavers between 94 degrees and 101.8 degrees. Humidity is approximately 52%.

Eggs are from my Rhode Island Red, which has been fertilized by my neighbor's Bantam/Red cross rooster.

I'm on my day 20, and all I see in the eggs are black blobs that float inside the eggs when I candle them. I assume that, by day 20, the outline of the peeps should be clearly visible when candling.

I believe the eggs are fertilized, as I see the bulls-eye when I have broken up other eggs to cook.

Are these eggs toast? I've started collecting a new batch, under the assumption that these will not make it.

Thanks for any info you could provide.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Chris, Black blobs bobbing around doesn't sound too good at day 20.

You should see a nice air cell at the large end and solid in the rest of the egg. You can sometimes see movement or hear pecking, even cheeping this close to hatch. Nothing should be floating.

Even if it were just delayed development due to low temps that was going to be a late hatch, by this point I don't think there should be discernable floating objects!

I think I would start collecting eggs and try again! I am a newbie at this, tho, and strange things have been known to happen.

Good luck!

Deb

 

[Wolf Creek Farms]

Sounds like these are no good, do you see any movement? your bator temp and humidity MUST remain constant during the incubation period. check out the info posted on the homepage about egg hatching etc. good stuff there. Good Luck

 

[BeardedChick]

I opened some today that had failed to hatch, and the ones with black floaty blobs ended up being embryos that quit early on. Though my blobs might not be the same as your blobs, you know?

I left mine in the bator until day 23 before I opened them. You will learn a LOT about what you are seeing when you open those eggs up.

The eggs that had a developed embryo were quite dark and the embryo took about 2/3 of the egg. I could not make out a chick in them when candling - just a big black blob.

My small first hatch failed entirely, so I just had to chalk it up to learning and will be trying again. I was interesting to open the eggs after the initial ewwwww factor passed.

I was completely dreading opening the ones with the big blobs, but after poking a small hole and seeing a feather - curiosity overcame everything else and I wanted to see them.

Please post back and let us know what you figure out and better luck on the next hatch! For both of us!!

 

[chris_p]

Quote:
That could be my problem. Given that nature is brutal and hardly consistent, I was under the impression that temperature and humidity could fluctuate somewhat so long as it does not go below about 90 degrees or above 105 degrees F, which would cook the eggs. From what I read humidity should be kept at between 50 and 55 percent and could also fluctuate somewhat. I was led to believe that the eggs can regulate the temperature somewhat internally. Is that not correct?

I built my incubator with that in mind, using a thermostat from a water heater to maintain the heat. The thermostat is wired to a light. It's great at keeping the temp from exceeding 101 degrees, but it cycles slowly. Therefore, it doesn't turn back on until it bottoms out at around 91 or 92 degrees. If I didn't open the incubator, it would probably only cool to about 95 degrees, but I have to turn the eggs and refill the water to maintain humidity.

Oh well. I guess it's back to the drawing board to better maintain consistency.

I'm glad I posted. Thanks for the comments.

 

[arabookworm]

yeah, that doesn't seem right, cuz I'm on day 12, and when I candled a couple to make sure it was going all right, they were already filling up a good part of the egg, although they were still floating around a bit, and I would assume that by day 20 they would have filled even more of the egg.

better luck next time I guess.

 

[BeardedChick]

Yeah, it seems like at day 12 they start jumping around like spastic fish-frogs.

 

[pax12]

post a pic of it

 

[RickiHupp]

Quote:
Spastic Fish-Frogs....... Can I buy those some where?????

 

[BeardedChick]

I can send you some, but they are spendy!