Bunch of candling development pics!

[Kiraeh]

Been a while since I updated haha. No more blood rings, I did toss a bunch that weren't developing. Cracked them all and they didn't look fertile, is there a way to tell for sure after incubating for a week? I had eight in total, a full third of my eggs, four from each group, which considering that 14 were from the same flock that gave me 100% fertility a month ago is a bit disappointing, though I did pick up the eggs at the end of a loooong heatwave so maybe not that surprising.

Womp Womp.

I did my day 14 weigh and air cell check last night, seems good, all the remaining eggs are ticking along well. Number 11 is still noticeably ahead of the pack, and tonight the air cell has drawn down a lot again so I'm just gonna have to candle regularly and put them all on lockdown as soon as I get full drawdown or an internal pip... Honestly looks like it could be real soon, I've raised the humidity a bit just in case.

My scale is so bad, it's does a thing where the reading seems stable and then changes again after a couple seconds so I have a bunch of initial weights that are suspect cause I'm not site I caught it all the time. Bleh, that's another thing to upgrade next time.

 

[chelseachook]

I hope your fertile eggs do alright. Please post some candling pics and continue to update us. Hopefully you get some babies!

 

[Kiraeh]

They're doing fine so far!
Haha so most of them look like this, standard day 16/17, haven't all turned yet.

And then yesterday I had one looking like this. Folks, if you candle an egg and it looks like this, get on lockdown, set up your brooder. That baby has 24-36 hr left. At this point I could still see a small amount of veins right at the edge.

Over the evening yesterday the membrane drew down a little more and this morning:

We have a pip! And tiny cheeping. Poor number 11 is gonna be alone for a couple days.

One more thing, photos I took on day 14, just a big of comparison because I find mostly looking at air cells gives you a good idea of what's going on but sometimes not so much.

Both of these eggs have lost the same amount of weight since day one,(6g, right on track) and started within a gram of each other, but their different shapes make it look pretty different haha.

Oh! The beeswax patched egg is doing great!

 

[Kiraeh]

There we are! Poor mite is just gonna have the four week olds in the big brooder for company for a while.

 

[chelseachook]

View attachment 2251511There we are! Poor mite is just gonna have the four week olds in the big brooder for company for a while.

Adorable! What day of incubation is it? Are the other eggs in lockdown yet? I wonder what caused him/her to hatch so early! Is he/she healthy? Good luck with your other eggs.

 

[Lorax]

Wow these pics are amazing!!! I hatched some chicks last week (under a broody so not so easy to take the eggs out) but we didn’t candle until we were pretty sure the eggs left weren’t viable. Next time!
Thanks so much for these, I’ve learnt loads!!

 

[Kiraeh]

Great, so glad they were helpful!

11 seems normal and healthy, just doing <day old sleeping and peeping right now.

So, number 11 came to me with a few days of development already. All the other eggs are on day 18, though I raised the humidity for 11 to hatch yesterday- I have great air cells, not worried about the early semi lockdown.
I actually had two eggs from the 15 I was given from this flock that had development when I got them. (I paid for a dozen so not bothered at all) I assume they must have been sat on a bit, maybe they were laid somewhere hidden. I'm amazed this one made it, I stored them 24 hr in the cool basement before I incubated. I candled at 24 hr, just as an experiment, and I found this one which looked like day 3, and another one with a hefty blood ring. That blood ring had even more development, maybe five days, so either the cool was too much for it or I handled it too roughly(I did jar the box with the three extra eggs, and one of them was that one).

 

[Kiraeh]

Here we are a bit more puffed, about six hours from hatching. 11 is a silkie/polish cross. I didn't see this marking pattern on the other chicks I hatched from this flock- grey with white wing tips, chest, and eyebrows. Also, the skin is black but the tips of the toes are pink! I'm curious to see how it grows out! Based on my other hatch of these eggs, I think this one is also a frizzle, the down is just a little longer and wavier. It'll be cool to see if I'm right about that.

 

[Kiraeh]

Oooohhh I didn't get pictures cause I had to run to work, but 11 isn't gonna be alone long! I have another pip! Idk if this one also had a bit of incubation before I got it, I think so. I rotated my eggs really faithfully, and there's no way I'd have been able to run this much hotter for just one egg. I think the rest of the silkie/polish will hatch before the orpingtons tho, they're smaller eggs and just seem a hair further along in general.

One of them is looking sketchy, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a late quitter. Will check it again later. I was running out the door to work, so I didn't get pics.

 

[Lorax]

@Kiraeh can I ask you something please? There’s an egg further up where you say “if your eggs looks like this get your brooder ready cos it’s got 24/36 hours left” - sorry to be so thick but what makes you say that? What is it about the egg? Cos I thought (from the pic) you were going to say it wasn’t viable...would you mind explaining when you have a mo!

Thanks so much, this thread is so interesting.