27th or 28th May hatch, looking for buddies

[natchlaly]

Hi GeoKan, thanks for cheking in. I have just got in from work n checked my eggs. all doin fine temp running staedy at 99.0 - 99.9 with 40% humidity so well chuffed. As far as opening your incubator to candle the eggs go for it. My incubator is just a poly box so I manually turn my eggs several times a day and have candled my last 2 hatches with 90+% hatch rate each time. Nothing seeing those little fuzz butts wriggling round in the egg. Also you can check for non-developing eggs and remove them as bad eggs have been known to explode in incubators and contaminate the viable eggs. How are your guys doin?

 

[natchlaly]

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Nice to have you on board hennypenny 99, Glad that your eggs are doing well but I would maybe candle at least one more time t check those two uncertain eggs so that you can remove them before they start t smell and contaminate the other ten x

 

[hennypenny99]

Quote:
Nice to have you on board hennypenny 99, Glad that your eggs are doing well but I would maybe candle at least one more time t check those two uncertain eggs so that you can remove them before they start t smell and contaminate the other ten x

You are probably right natchlaly. I will candle again probably Friday. I was a candling fanatic on the last hatch and I am afraid that lowered my hatch rate so I am nervous about doing it too much now. I am seeing a difference in the way they look this time. Last time I had no turner and the eggs laid flat on their side. The clump and veins that looked like a spider developed towards the center of the egg. Well now that I have a turner from the start on this batch it looks like the veins are radiating from the tops of the eggs, up by the air cell. I hope that is okay. One of the eggs that I am not seeing development in is very porous so I am probably going to toss it if I don't see anything on Friday. I am leery about tossing eggs because I had a bad experience last time doing that. I opened an egg at about day 15 that had a live baby inside. It made me sick. I did eggtopsy my last batch after they hadn't hatched by day 23. I noticed that almost all of them had developed pretty far before dying. They had feathers and looked fully developed but still had a pretty good sized yolk still attached. I am really hoping for a better hatch rate this time.

 

[GeoKan]

Glad to have you onboard Hennypenney99! I'm looking forward to a fun-filled couple of weeks with the both of you.

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Sorry to hear about your last hatching experience Henny. I've been having nightmares about tossing out live eggs before my first lockdown.

It's weird that you brought this up.

I was debating whether or not to candle. If it doesn't seem like it affects hatch rates like you imply Natchlaly, (90 percent is pretty darn good) then I think both of you have persuaded me to go ahead and do it. I'll make plans to candle on Friday with Hennypenny99. That will mark day 6.5 in the hatch box. Or, do you think I should wait a bit longer?

So, If I can ask a dumb question from a newbie — The process that I need to take when candling eggs are: 1. Open the lid enough to place my hand inside, remove one egg. 2. Close the lid. 3. Candle the egg. 4. Place it back in the turner and nab another egg while I'm in there and repeat until done candling. Correct?

I need to buy a high-powered led flashlight or make a candle in the next few days. LOL

 

[natchlaly]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your last hatching experience Henny. I've been having nightmares about tossing out live eggs before my first lockdown.

It's weird that you brought this up.

I was debating whether or not to candle. If it doesn't seem like it affects hatch rates like you imply Natchlaly, (90 percent is pretty darn good) then I think both of you have persuaded me to go ahead and do it. I'll make plans to candle on Friday with Hennypenny99. That will mark day 6.5 in the hatch box. Or, do you think I should wait a bit longer?

So, If I can ask a dumb question from a newbie — The process that I need to take when candling eggs are: 1. Open the lid enough to place my hand inside, remove one egg. 2. Close the lid. 3. Candle the egg. 4. Place it back in the turner and nab another egg while I'm in there and repeat until done candling. Correct?

I need to buy a high-powered led flashlight or make a candle in the next few days. LOL

Thats how I do it GeoKan, I candle on day 7, 14 and again on day 18 just before I lockdown. I use a Maglite/LED light too. When I candle I draw the eggs on a piece of paper in the same position as they are in the bator and as I candle each one I tick, cross or ? each egg on the picture so that when I check again I have some record of how the egg was doing for a comparison.

Hennypenny I dont have a turner and manually turn by hand 3 times a day and as I said I candle 3 times during the hatch. You got to think that a broody gets off her eggs at least once a day and the eggs are left open to the elements for up to 15mins so taking them out of the bator for a few seconds is not gonna do any harm

 

[GeoKan]

Quote:
Brilliant. I'm going to try this as well even though I have an auto turner. I can keep nifty notations of eggs from their position in the turner.

Thanks!

 

[natchlaly]

No problem

Glad I could be of some help

 

[GeoKan]

I meant to post this earlier today, but forgot ...

Look at what my thoughtful wife put on the incubator last night while I was asleep. I found it atop the hatch box this morning when I got up and checked on it.

I'm calling it my egg-hatching fertility goddess chick.

I hope it brings good hatchings for all of us!

 

[natchlaly]

Awh bless her that is lovely

Hope it brings gook luck for us all too

 

[GeoKan]

Well, I guess I'll have to postpone my candling until Saturday, My daughters want to participate and how can I deny them that experience of seeing veins and stuff? I'll be looking forward to your post on Friday on your eggs Henny.