Anyone setting eggs tomorrow (13th March, EDD Apr 3rd)

[loopy12]

Good luck new2chooks and scbatz33!!!

Ok, day 10 candling done.
Results are in...
3 blood rings just discarded (very obvious blood rings).
plus the one I discarded a few days back.

Of the 30 remaining eggs, 27 (!!!) have wriggly embryos in

and the other 3 I wasn't sure (2 were black copper marans and the other was a big egg that I couldn't see through very well. All 3 I could see the air sac, yolk, white and a shadow but couldn't tell if it was moving

.)

2 eggs I had questions on:

One of the BCMs has a black blob at one end of the egg. It was stationary and seemed either to be attached to the inside of the shell of was part of the shell. What could it be? Could it just be an area of concentrated pigment in the egg shell? I think I saw movement on the other side, though not easy to tell in these really dark ones - sometimes I'm not sure if it just the yolk moving or my eyes going funny from staring at the bright light!

The second curious one was a large orpington egg. I could see the embryo moving and the blood vessels, but at the edge of the vesselled area there almost looked like a start of a blood ring or a very thick/enlarged lot of blood vessels. The embryo was dancing away but could it be on its way out and forming a blood ring, or could some blood vessels have burst previously or something and will it hurt it????

Amazing to see. Some of the eggs were really clear and it was incredible. Others it was luck I saw the movement straight away and others I had to stare and squint at it before being sure.

Anyway, all in all looking surprisingly good!

Now am not going to fiddle again until day 18

 

[loopy12]

Raimnel...you still in the closet with your eggs?
What was the verdict?

 

[Happy Chooks]

My understanding is the blood ring doesn't form until AFTER it dies. So you're good.

 

[TheReidHomestead]

My day 10 candling report!!

So far I still have:
6/7 BLRW
3/4 Blue Andalusion
3/4 LF Black Cochin
1/12 Lavender bantam cochin

0/2 Partridge bantam cochin

8/16 BBS bantam cochin
6/7 Black bantam cochin

So on one hand, I'm a bit disappointed that we started with 52 and are down to 27.

On the other hand, it means I can do another batch next month!

Tamara

 

[raimnel]

Still in the closet with my eggs!

That was too funny Loopy!

ok verdict

Easter egger - started with 7.... looks like 2 are iffy, but their sooo dark. all I could see was the air sac, a dark area and a light area on all of them. so kept them all

Bantum eggs (not sure if their brahma or silkie)
all were wigglin little fools

and we bought some brown farm fresh eggies from our small store added them 2 days later
10 set, 3 look bad. but I kept everything in there and I'm going to look again on day 13 (Thursday night) which is these eggs day 11
I think they had a blood ring, but being my first time. I haven't a clue. They did have the air sac, dark area, light area. But I couldn't see movement and my eyes were ready to go buggy.

so 17 out of 22 is pretty good. These little GALS will put us WAY over of limit.

we got more room to grow

 

[loopy12]

WA4-H, whats with the lavender cochins? Were they just clear? Hope the last one makes it all the way...

Raimnel: my blood rings were really clear, there was no doubt. I opened them last night to check and one died maybe day 4, one day 5/6 and one day 7. Even in my super dark BCM the blood ring was clearly that.
Some of them you definitely sit there staring at the dark bit and just can't be sure if its movement or just ripples in a runny yolk from haing moved the egg.

A few I didn't see the embryo move but saw blood vessels seemingly kicked aside so knew somthing behind them was moving. Its utterly fascinating, like chicken ultrasound.

I will try not to interfere now until day 19 but I'd be lying i Isaid I won't look at one or two at random every few days just as a learning thing. I know I probably won't on future hatches, but this time I want to learn as much as possible...

 

[raimnel]

Were the blood rings this red that goes........ like all the way around the egg?

I'll candle again day 13/11 for the store boughts, and I'll pitch the rings.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Yes, the blood ring will be a red line around the side of the egg. (not from tip to end, but around it like a belt) If you are not positive, then leave it and it will be VERY obvious by Day 14. Just look at others that you are sure are developing first, then look at it and compare. By Day 14, you'll have mostly dark in developing chicks (except for the tip).

 

[raimnel]

Quote:
Yes, the blood ring will be a red line around the side of the egg. (not from tip to end, but around it like a belt) If you are not positive, then leave it and it will be VERY obvious by Day 14. Just look at others that you are sure are developing first, then look at it and compare. By Day 14, you'll have mostly dark in developing chicks (except for the tip).

, I was afraid of that. I look again day 13/11 for the store boughts, I'll be gone this weekend and I don't want anything to blow up when I'm gone

 

[Bookspryte]

About six days into my the hatch the fan in my LG incubator decided it was time to die. As a result, DH and I worked for days trying to get the temps up to 99.5 and keep them there. We had one short spike up to 102 degrees.

This weekend, I constructed a tiny water wiggler using tiny ice pak thingys my daughter sent to keep a cake cool. It appears to be working, but is very sensitive to changes in temperature.

I noticed on another post in this forum that using a board under the incubator to turn the eggs is not recommended with a still air incubator. When I tried hand turning the eggs, my temperature dropped and took hours to return to normal. I don't think it would be good for my eggs to have such huge temperature drops three times a day, so I'm back to what worked for the first two hatches. Minus a working fan.

I saw another post where the OP had her DH make a wooden box that she put the entire incubato in. This weekend, DH made something similar for me, complete with insulation foam sheets along the walls. Until I decided to do the great egg roll of 2010, the temps had been more or less steady, going from a low of 98.6 to a high of 99.7.

My first two hatches were from my own eggs, so if they didn't hatch, it wasn't a big deal. This time, I've got 19 of my own, 12 BO purchased from a local breeder, 6 buff laced polish bantams, 3 black copper marans and 2 black orpingtons (from the March egg swap).

I'm worried but the temp swings. I plan to candle tomorrow night to see if (or how much) damage this caused. Moral support (and suggestions) would be greatly appreciated.

Denise