Arizona Chickens

[LarryPQ]

Quote:
They are from Patty, Onthespot. Good gravy that woman must feed her birds black beans and shoe polish. At first I thought I got the wrong eggs: and she said NOOO, they should be marked. So I looked for marks. Nope.

So I went and foung a maglite. With the super shine, I could see where the graphite was.

I will have to take a pic in natural light before the eggies go into the bator. I am still just floored.

 

[gckiddhouse]

WOW! Those are some awesome eggs!! I will have to remember that for next time.

I cracked an egg tonight while candling!

Do I have to throw it out?? Is there any possiblility that it is still viable? I feel so bad. The bator lid fell in and landed on the egg. There are 15 live ones in there and 10 clear eggs, but of couse it lands on a live one. I am so bummed.

Yesterday I found a wiggling embryo in one of my Marans egg, but tonight it looks like there is a blood ring.

Tried to get a candling pic. It is really hard to photograph a candled egg. How do you do that???

I will upload the one I got. It is a white egg, but in the photo it looks dark.

Very excited for you Laree!! What kind of eggs are those? BCMs?

 

[gckiddhouse]

Just found some lovely people and great advice here https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3662186#p3662186 They say that I should melt some candle wax on the cracked egg and that there is a good chance it will be fine!

Any thoughts or experience?

I just love BYC!!

 

[LarryPQ]

Try the wax, I think those eggs are tougher than we are. It certainly can't hurt!

Photographing egg: If you have a digital camera, you will need to find the setting which allows you to change the shutter time. Some will say "fireworks" or "night exposure". My cameral lets me set the open shutter time up to a minute or so. You have to be really careful not to move the camera--so maybe:

Set the shutter speed for 10-15 seconds
Set the timer for 15 seconds
Turn off lights
Put the camera where you cannot touch it
Push the button
Run over and candle egg
DO NOT MOVE

Chech picture
Try again?

I am not 100% sure what the eggies are: I asked her to toss in whatever wasn't spoken for/what seemed darkest that day. I can barely make out BCM on 4 of them, an the other 4 have an "o" which should mean olive egger. The rest are the Mille de Fleur cochin eggs (just for funsies).

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

AcmeAcres - Welcome to BYC

Laree - Those certainly are dark eggs! I wish I had those instructions for photographing candled eggs earlier - next time I candle they will be 18 days and probably wouldn't be able to get good pics anymore.

Carol - I've heard about the wax tip before too - should work in the incubator. I tried the wax on one of the eggs my first clumsy broody had cracked, but it didn't work because she put weight on it after I put it back in the nest.

Mahonri - I waited an extra long time, but after candling today (day 14), I was sure the GCM egg was not alive - I could see the shadow of the yolk, but nothing else. I broke it open and there was a blood ring inside even though I couldn't see it with the candler. Only two out of the twenty living embryos died before day 12, but unfortunately one of them was the dark marans egg. I still have 18 eggs in there and they were all doing well at day 12. I candled 3 of them yesterday just to check and all 3 were moving. 7 more days!

 

[cluckin_crazy]

Quote:
a while back i was helping a friend with her eggs... we were able to just turn off the flash on the camera and get a decent pic. I've since deleted it, but i just did this in my kitchen with the flash off in like 29 seconds... it's just an eating egg, but you get the idea.

 

[Mahonri]

What I can't figure out is why so many more of MaryAnn's eggs are developing compared to gckiddhouse?

They came from the same hens, just a week apart. Weird.

Good luck you two.

Oh, and as for candling... I only candle twice. Day 10 and day 18. I just think, the less they are handled, the better the chances.

I hope the wax works for your egg.

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
They are from Patty, Onthespot. Good gravy that woman must feed her birds black beans and shoe polish. At first I thought I got the wrong eggs: and she said NOOO, they should be marked. So I looked for marks. Nope.

So I went and foung a maglite. With the super shine, I could see where the graphite was.

I will have to take a pic in natural light before the eggies go into the bator. I am still just floored.

... and you don't want to pick up some of my eggs to put in with them... just for fun?

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
I did try some different settings and that's how i got the one I have, but what i am having the most trouble with is getting it to focus in the dark. The pic looks pretty good, but it is kinda blurry. I guess I could turn the light on and press the button halfway to get it to focus, and then turn the light out to take the picture. I will try that.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Okay, I did an actual count this morning (day 8), and marked the eggs.

Another surprise this morning!! The Am/delaware has a swimmer!

I haven't checked it in a while because I thought it was clear. Those darn brown eggs!!!

So, I have 17 Ams (one being an EE) and only 4 of those are clear.
2 of the clear eggs are from the Polish, but I am sooo excited about the one that is developing!!
1 is from the barred rock
1 Marans egg is still in question. Those speckles are just too dark to see through.

So, not as many as I had said. 7 clear for sure. And the reason for them not developing was probably operator error. I really didn't have my temps right until just 2 days ago.

I have it down, now, though!! Keeping my house at a constant temp is key! They only get slightly cool in the morning now, just before we get up (down to 99.1) and then the heater will kick on and warm it up to 72* in the house which is just the right temp to keep the bator at 99.7*. In the day time, with this great weather, I have to turn the cooler on to keep it at 72*.

I am thrilled and excited, and I just may be addicted!! Already thinking about what to hatch next!!!