Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[aart]

What do you think about the eggs I deemed infertile? There's a ton of them and if they have no hope, I want to take them out right away to open the incubator up a bit and improve the airflow. The ones that have development but look questionable, I can leave for a few more days, but the empty-looking ones can probably go now.

I'd just wait until day 10 candling.


This was my first hatch schedule:
First Hatch - I candled on day 7-10-14-18.

Day 7 - didn't see much but the air cells, which I outlined with a pencil every time I candled, maybe some veining and lumps..maybe moving...I was very disappointed.

Day 10 - could definitely see veins and some movement...maybe some clears and blood rings.

Day 14 - saw much more definition of shape, movement and realized what I had seen the previous times. Clears and blood ring more obvious.

Day 18 - pulled the now very obvious clears and blood rings. Viable chicks almost filled egg and wasn't as much movement.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'd just wait until day 10 candling.


This was my first hatch schedule:
First Hatch - I candled on day 7-10-14-18.

Day 7 - didn't see much but the air cells, which I outlined with a pencil every time I candled, maybe some veining and lumps..maybe moving...I was very disappointed.

Day 10 - could definitely see veins and some movement...maybe some clears and blood rings.

Day 14 - saw much more definition of shape, movement and realized what I had seen the previous times. Clears and blood ring more obvious.

Day 18 - pulled the now very obvious clears and blood rings. Viable chicks almost filled egg and wasn't as much movement.

Hmmm so if you leave clears and blood rings in there all the way until lockdown, they won't stink up the incubator and potentially explode? I've read about exploding eggs... When does that happen?

 

[aart]

Hmmm so if you leave clears and blood rings in there all the way until lockdown, they won't stink up the incubator and potentially explode? I've read about exploding eggs... When does that happen?

That was just the first time, I remove them at day 10-14 now.
Yes, eggs can explode, but it's fairly rare.
I use my nose when candling too, if one stinks it gets removed immediately.

 

[cmom]

I have chicks due to hatch tomorrow. I used to do the same schedule more or less, 7/10-14/18-19. Now I pick out a few around day 14 and check the development. I don't chuck any eggs at this point. Usually on day 19 I put the eggs in the hatchers, which are my old styrofoam incubators and an homemade one. I candle all of the eggs and then I take out all of the obvious quitters or blanks. Any I'm not sure about I mark and leave in the hatchers. There has been a few times to my surprise that they hatched. I have three marked in this hatch. I'll leave them in until Friday. I have had a chick hatch on day 25. I thought it was a quitter. Good luck to all those who are hatching and have fun...

 

[cmom]

 

[cmom]

Not quite back to temperature yet here.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

It's candling day! Wohoo!! This was my first time candling developing eggs and it was SO much fun!! The kids watched, too, and had a blast. I can't believe how much some of the babies are moving, so early on!

The results took me by surprise, overall. Out of my eggs, more looked good than I expected, and out of the other lady's eggs (from the farm that let me borrow the incubator), more looked NOT good than I expected. Here are the numbers:

My eggs (22 total):
- Good: 17
- Bad (blood ring): 2
- Not sure: 3
- Infertile: 0

Her eggs (19 total):
- Good: 4
- Bad (blood ring): 1
- Not sure: 0
- Infertile: 14

She did say that her chickens were getting old, especially the roosters, and that this hatch would be a test to see if they still got it. Looks like they don't... Those 14 eggs look exactly the same as they looked before I set them. Though I don't have any experience... What do you guys think? Here are some of them:
View attachment 2077192View attachment 2077193View attachment 2077194

Let's get the disappointing outcomes out of the way first Here's what I think are unquestionable blood rings:
View attachment 2077197View attachment 2077198

There are some eggs I'm not sure about. Like this one:
View attachment 2077200
It's one of mine, the only one out of the 22 that doesn't show any kind of blood (in a ring or in veins). To me, it doesn't look good, but it also doesn't look like the gazillion non-developing eggs from the farm's batch. Those are all uniform throughout, and the air cell is very subtle in color, doesn't stand out. This one, on the other hand, is very stratified, dark in the lower half, and the air cell is very bright. Maybe it's a very very early quitter?

Here's another one (of mine) that I'm not sure about:
View attachment 2077203View attachment 2077206
There are more red lines than just a ring, but maybe the blood hasn't fully settled yet... To my inexperienced eye it looks like a blood ring, or an about-to-be blood ring...?

And the third and last question mark from mine:
View attachment 2077209View attachment 2077210View attachment 2077215
In the first two photos, the red splotches look too splotchy to be veins... like they've started dissolving... But in the third photo, there's clearly an embryo with an eye. It's hard to tell from the pictures, so I took a video where I rotate it, so you can see it from all sides:

My guess is that it got to this point but died recently, so the embryo is still there but the blood vessels are starting to dissolve. I don't really know what I'm doing though, so I welcome your interpretations!

I noticed a difference between the eggs that came from CA vs. the ones that came from NC. When I candled all eggs before setting, I noticed that the CA eggs' air cells were in much worse shape (understandably). I marked all the detached cells. Sure enough, all my dead or questionable eggs at day 7 came from the marked eggs! Also, even the eggs that are developing, from the CA batch, still have very "jiggly" air cells, as opposed to the eggs from NC, which have stable air cells at this point. And the CA eggs' air cells have some odd shapes! One even looks like a heart So, shipping definitely matters, but also the distance and mode of transport matters as well (not sure if the NC eggs flew or not).

I haven't removed any of the eggs yet, because this is my first time candling and I'm not 100% sure on all of them. I'm thinking of candling again mid-week and at that point I'll throw out any that haven't progressed past their questionable state.

And now, here are some happy pictures of the properly developing eggs!

Farm lady's green eggs are all doing great:
View attachment 2077231 View attachment 2077232 View attachment 2077233

Her 4th out of 4 good eggs:
View attachment 2077235

And here are some of mine:
View attachment 2077236 View attachment 2077237 View attachment 2077240View attachment 2077241 View attachment 2077242 View attachment 2077243 View attachment 2077244

And the weird heart-shaped air cell one (it's hard to see here, but it has veins):
View attachment 2077260

There were a few that were moving a LOT!

This one looks like it's ramming the shell trying to bust out:

Little eyeball:

This one is just kinda sloshing around:

I do have a question about air cells. I'm trying to compare them to the diagram but can't really tell if they look good or not. To me, they look a bit on the big side... From the photos above, and from the pencil marks in the photos below, what would you guys say about the air cells? How do they look? I've been keeping the humidity on the low side, between 30-40%.
View attachment 2077256 View attachment 2077257 View attachment 2077258

Excellent job on the candling! I was thinking you were candling today but I see now it was yesterday. I agree with all your assessments of the posted eggs/pictures
Isn't candling the best?!

Personally I pull eggs as soon as I know with 100% certainty they are not viable. Anything questionable mark with a "?" And leave in. Candle it in the next day or two again.

I think your aircells look ok. Maybe slightly large but pretty close. I can't remember where you've been keeping the humidity. What climate are you in (ambient humidity)?

 

[K0k0shka]

I think your aircells look ok. Maybe slightly large but pretty close. I can't remember where you've been keeping the humidity. What climate are you in (ambient humidity)?

Ambient humidity in the house is around 45%, but for some reason it drops drastically inside the incubator unless I keep adding water. When I ran it empty for a few days before setting the eggs, it would drop to 10% if I didn't keep adding water multiple times a day. Lots of people have been recommending keeping it low, so I've kept it around 30%-40%. I'll aim for 50% now.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Ambient humidity in the house is around 45%, but for some reason it drops drastically inside the incubator unless I keep adding water. When I ran it empty for a few days before setting the eggs, it would drop to 10% if I didn't keep adding water multiple times a day. Lots of people have been recommending keeping it low, so I've kept it around 30%-40%. I'll aim for 50% now.

I'm in the High Desert and have similar humidity in the incubator. All 3 water wells will go from full to bone dry in a day. So for me, and possibly you, it's very easy to get an egg to loose excess moisture. So I tend to keep my humidity at around 50% because I know if air cells seem small I can catch them up easily by running dry for a day two. But if the the air cells grow too big it's incredibly difficult for me to keep the humidity high enough to "catch up" that direction.

30-40% humidity is excellent if you're able to keep it at that constantly. That also assumes it's being measured correctly (calibrated). Which I'm pretty sure yours is. It could be the fan that drops it down so quickly or just your climate.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm in the High Desert and have similar humidity in the incubator. All 3 water wells will go from full to bone dry in a day. So for me, and possibly you, it's very easy to get an egg to loose excess moisture. So I tend to keep my humidity at around 50% because I know if air cells seem small I can catch them up easily by running dry for a day two. But if the the air cells grow too big it's incredibly difficult for me to keep the humidity high enough to "catch up" that direction.

30-40% humidity is excellent if you're able to keep it at that constantly. That also assumes it's being measured correctly (calibrated). Which I'm pretty sure yours is. It could be the fan that drops it down so quickly or just your climate.

I'm not in the desert, I'm on the coast but winters get really dry here, plus we have a forced air heating system in the house which dries things out further. Still not sure why the incubator is so much drier than the house (it was like that even before I put the fan in).

My hygrometer is calibrated. It shows 10% lower than what it should, so I take that into account when reading it.

I can keep an eye on the humidity and adjust frequently during the day, but it drops at night when I have to leave it alone while I sleep. It's day 10 today and since I'll be opening the incubator to candle anyway, I'll also drop a sponge in there (in a small jar of water). I'll run a piece of tubing down into the jar so I can refill it without opening the incubator. Hopefully that will buy me some time between refills.