Candeling brown egg; how can you tell if they are growing?

[abbachick]

I have brown eggs, and for the life of me can never find veining! Considering I have four live chick's (momma did the work!) I have beeb incubating but not had any luck seeing developement. I can see when they are clear, and I can see the dark shadow, but how do I know if it's rotten or not? I had two I thought were bad, and cracked them to find chicks inside. Help!!

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

Oh my goodness - I cracked an egg on my first hatch - it was the 10th of 15 eggs - 9 were bad and the 10th one had a little chick in it - I was so devastated. My next batch I did better and only 3 of the eggs were bad out of 15 but only 9 pipped and zipped - one of those that did hatch was deformed and I had to cull it at 3 weeks.

Now I'm wondering if the 3 that did not pip were affected by me! Opening the bator while they were hatching to remove discarded shells. Was that a bad thing? I'm thinking it was now - I read a comment somewhere that opening the bator during the hatch removes much needed moisture for the pip and the membranes get too tough for them to break through.

On my eggs (brown), if they show the air sac on the one end, I do not discard them.

 

[daisychick]

IF you see a dark blob on one end and an air cell on the other I would leave it be. I don't risk it on the dark eggs cause I have done the same thing and opened up one to find it was doing great. It is too hard to tell on the darker eggs.

 

[abbachick]

OK, thanks for the tips! I couldn't figure out if I was just dense or if it was normal not to be able to see much on brown eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

If you candle too early or dont use a bright enough light, you cant see veining well. I use a slide projector and can see even in Welsummer eggs.