All I want for Christmas....

[cochins1088]

I always take a peak by day 3, even though you really can't see anything. I usually can see by day 4 with white eggs, but not until day 7 or 8 with my medium brown eggs. It must be extremely hard to candle maran eggs, but they look so cool. It would be fun to have a couple marans. And I'm a sucker for candling, I usually end up candling everynight because it's just so cool. I know people say not to, but I have had very good hatch rates of about 90% and even a 100%, so I think it's fine.

 

[tadpole98]

Quote: so they can still hatch?!
I got 20 very well packed eggs from this lady and only two have dislocated cells. all of them are fertile, so if i can manage it i will have a 100% hatch rate

 

[kizanne]

Remember after shipping it is good idea to let the eggs rest so that they can help 'fix' detacted air cells. Yes they can still hatch. In general 50% on shipped eggs is typical though I have achieved more than 50% each shipped set in an LG one with power loss. So it is possible.

 

[cochins1088]

Yes, they can still hatch, though the odds are a bit more against them. I find with shipped eggs that often embryos quit around day 7. I will see 80% of them developing and get all excited just to find out that some died on day 7. I'm not sure what cause it, but I know it only happens to shipped eggs and it happens to other people as well, so I'm not comletely crazy. Like kizanne said, the rule of thumb is to expect 50% to hatch from shipped eggs (depending on the situation). I have seen 1 or 2 people get 100% hatch rates from shipped eggs so it's posible, just not very likely.

There is a difference between problems, you can have dislocated air cells in which the air cell was knock out of place so it moves as you turn the egg and then you can have ruptured air cells where the membrane has been broken, you would see multiple bubbles and the air cell would move all the way to the pointy end if turned that way. Dislocated air sacs will sometimes relocate after letting them sit 24 hours, even if they don't relocate then, they will sometimes relocate during the incubation process. The odds are a bit more against them, but they can most definately hatch. Ruptured air sacs almost never hatch. It is posible if the embryo makes it where it's membrane takes the place of the broken membrane, but embryos in that situation almost never make it that far, and usually don't even develop. Eggs with either of these porblems should be treated a little differently when turning. Place eggs with ruptured air sacs in egg cartons large end up, and don't turn! If it has any chance, then don't turn it. For dislocated eggs, turn them, but no more than 45 degrees in order to keep the air sac in a fairly relative position. Hope this helps.

 

[Aschenfire]

I did a quick peek with my flashlight when I got home today (just day 3, so I was candling mostly to see if my eggs from my pullet I hatched out in July were doing anything) and I have a lot with veins visible already, including at least one of my girls eggs I am pretty happy ...will do an official first candle Wednesday night

 

[Pele]

I did a quick peek with my flashlight when I got home today (just day 3, so I was candling mostly to see if my eggs from my pullet I hatched out in July were doing anything) and I have a lot with veins visible already, including at least one of my girls eggs I am pretty happy ...will do an official first candle Wednesday night

Congrats! THat's really cool!

 

[Pele]

Just got home and candled. As I suspected, I couldn't see squat in about 80% of the eggs. But in two I did see the shadow of the embryos!! Yay!

 

[Pele]

So... I can't help myself. I'm going to try to hatch some eggs from the local organic grocery store. See if I can do a staggered hatch, setting on Dec 11th to join the New Years Hatchalong.

 

[cochins1088]

So... I can't help myself. I'm going to try to hatch some eggs from the local organic grocery store. See if I can do a staggered hatch, setting on Dec 11th to join the New Years Hatchalong.

Same here, except I'll be getting mixed silkie eggs from ours neighbors. My last staggered hatch went very well, so hopefully this one will too. Can't wait until December 11th!

I really want to try to hatch grocery store eggs, but there are only 2 stores around here, Freds, and Walmart and I can't imagine either of them selling fertile eggs.

 

[Pele]

Ok, so I candled my Marans eggs yesterday and only one egg is not developing!!! WOW! That is amazing for shipped eggs, I'm very excited. But also wondering what I'm going to do with so many chickens....

I set the grocery store eggs on the day before Thanksgiving, so I'll candle them tonight too and see if they're doing anything.