Candled brown eggs, day 5...question...

[maus]

This is my first time hatching eggs. Of course, they are brown eggs so its really hard to candle them and I am not sure what I am seeing. They look like they have an air cell, then a dark horizontal shadow, then clear at the bottom. It reminds me of how a parfait looks. Is this good or bad?

 

[horsejody]

I am not an expert, but mine looked like that on day 6. On day 10 they had veins and were moving.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Always wait til day 7 or 10 to candle brown eggs or white eggs if your just a beginner candler......thats when you can really see veins and the embryo..., handling the eggs more than day 7, 14 or 18 can cause temps and humidity to plumet too often and sometimes causes hatches to go bad....my thoughts....

 

[maus]

Quote:
Eek! I hope I didnt mess them up. Should I still check at day 7 or 10 or would that be too frequent?

 

[Katy]

On my dark brown eggs I go more by how the air cell is growing. I don't think if there's a growing chick the air cell changes much.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

If they were mine I would wait til closer to day 10 now....you turning by hand or have a turner?...keep your humidity between 40 to 50% first 18 days....

 

[Katy]

Should have added I agree with tuffoldhen...I never even try on the dark marans ones until day 10.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

As someone who has not used an incubator or candled eggs since a kid. Wait until day ten on your dark eggs.

Eek! I hope I didnt mess them up. Should I still check at day 7 or 10 or would that be too frequent?

No, you are fine checking them again. Just go with day ten.

You pulling them out is just like the hen getting up during the incubation and going out to get a drink and eat something. Even at day 10 if you are still questioning an egg I say just leave it in longer. It is a horriable feeling cracking open an egg just to find an alive and developing chick inside of it.

When I candle I write down what I see in the egg.
All of my eggs are numbered on their shells with pencil so for example here is what I would write in my egg journel...

Candled Feb. 21st

C1 Movement
C2 Veins no movement
C3 Hard to tell dark but not able to make out veins or movement

Ect. It really helps that way on my next candling and journel entry I am able to go back and read what I saw before. Sometimes on questionable eggs the next time you candle you will see something that you did not see before. Like a dancing chick

Good luck!!​