Adventures in Incubating Shipped Eggs

[TotallyShellyTurtle]

Day four on my shipped eggs. They all look similar to this:

 

[Morrigan]

A

Day four on my shipped eggs. They all look similar to this:

That looks great. How many, and of what kind, are you incubating?

 

[TotallyShellyTurtle]

A

That looks great. How many, and of what kind, are you incubating?

4 eggs/white & black silkies.

 

[Zinjifrah]

4 eggs/white & black silkies.

Hmm... I think I need more silkies.

 

[NNYchick]

You can never have enough Silkies

 

[Cerise1924]

Day four on my shipped eggs. They all look similar to this:

That looks excellent! Very promising.

 

[Kiki]

Ha! I woke up thinking about this. I really don't think there is anything to see yet, however. I don't want o start seeing nothing and bumming myself out that the eggs are bad. Maybe tomorrow I'll sample a couple before I put the turner on. Day 3 is usually when you can start to see the spider.

 

[Morrigan]

I ordered a new hands-free candler to make it easier to take pictures. Hopefully it comes in this week.

 

[ldawntaylor]

I've been reading along here. And, just wanted to share something I tried last night.

And just had to say, last night I just briefly set an egg on the flashlight of my cell phone then took a picture with my tablet phone.

I did make sure to sanitize surfaces before use, including hands.

Here is one of the pictures I took this way.

This bantam egg has only been in the incubator since Monday night.
I am thinking...cut down a toilet paper tube to limit direct contact with the cell phone....

 

[Morrigan]

I've been reading along here. And, just wanted to share something I tried last night.

And just had to say, last night I just briefly set an egg on the flashlight of my cell phone then took a picture with my tablet phone.

I did make sure to sanitize surfaces before use, including hands.

Here is one of the pictures I took this way.

View attachment 1386566
This bantam egg has only been in the incubator since Monday night.
I am thinking...cut down a toilet paper tube to limit direct contact with the cell phone....

The eggs looks great!

Well, I broke down and took a quick peek at some of my eggs which I set on Thursday. Of the orpington eggs, I saw 3 with signs of development. The 4 eggs with the large air sacs showed nothing , and I could really tell with the other 2. It's still early, so I left them all in the bator for now. I tested a couple of lavender maran eggs, but I couldn't see anything, then stopped on those, because signs of life are so faint at this stage, I didn't think there was any hope of seeing it through the dark shells. I didn't take any pictures, as I was worried about jostling the eggs around too much at this early stage. I probably shouldn't candled at all, as I've heard shipped eggs are a bit more touchy. Feeling a little discouraged and annoyed at myself for not sticking to plan. Patience is not a great virtue of mine.

I will try again at the end of day 5 when they are farther along. Hopefully I will have my fancy new candler and can take pictures.