candling eggs

[leonphelps]

I can see a large air sack at the top of my eggs. Is this normal? A few have larger red blobs than others. guessing this is normal.


how long before I turn the auto turner off?

Thanks.

 

[jcatblum]

Air sac should be visible & gets larger closer to hatch day. 3 days prior to hatch day I stop turning. Guineas hatch on day 28-- so I stop turning around day 25 sometimes day 26 if I forget.

 

[PeepsCA]

You may get a few eggs that pip before day 25... I usually candle my eggs on day 23 and look at the air cells to see if they have started to really slant yet... (This is an illustration of a Turkey egg, but it's pretty close to how Guinea egg air cell changes look, on particular days).

I also look to see if any keets have pipped internally (where you can see the shadow of the keet's beak up in the air cell... and sometimes the tip of the beak is visible up against the side of the shell), and I also look to see if any keets have actually pipped the shell already. Then I decide if my eggs need to go into lock-down earlier than day 25 or not. Lock-down = when it's time to remove the turner and raise the Humidity to at least 65%, (but my hatches do better at around 70-75%, cuz it's so dry here).
My hatch days are always day 26/27, and I lock-down on day 23/24 depending on what I see. I have had a few unexpected day 24 keets hatch out in the incubator and lots of day 25 keets this season already tho. Rarely do my hatches last to day 28 tho.

LGs are notorious for being difficult to maintain high Humidity in, even with all the troughs filled, so if you can't get it/keep it high enough for lock-down you can add clean wet sponges to the floor of the incubator. Some people use wet socks, some use small jars with sponges in them... you can use whatever you want, anything that will help raise the Humidity and not drown the keets if they climb into it. My ambient Humidity here is low, so I always add some sort of extra moisture when I move eggs over just to avoid having to open it when a bunch of eggs are pipped 2 days into lock-down and the Humidity has dropped down already.

Looks like you are at day 14 so far... and yes red blobs are normal at that stage, but it would be a good idea to rotate the eggs around to different areas in the egg turner, since it sounds like some of them are developing at a little different rate. LGs typically have warmer and cooler spots that will cause the differences in development.

Good luck, hope this is a great hatch for you

 

[jcatblum]

Today is day 25 for my first 4 eggs of the season. Three hatched & 1 has pipped. They are pullet size eggs so I am blaming the early hatch on the fact the keets ran out of room. Last season mine always hatched on day 27&28. That was using a gqf cabinet & a brinsea Eco.

The more guinea eggs you hatch the easier candling will become. I vote you get a few more incubators & make sure you keep them all full. Then you will become a candling expert!

 

[leonphelps]

if I could stand the noise from a large flock I would. I had 14 and the noise was unbearable. when any cat/squirrel/bird flew by the flock would squawk at the top of their lungs for half an hour then calm down until the next movement.

I am at 7 and that is fine. if I knew I had buyers, I would throw them all in the incubator.

 

[leonphelps]

I am at day 14, I think. I am doing my best to ramp up the humidity. Ordered two different hygrometers and neither is here yet.

one good thing to tell people is to leave one row of the eggs containers out of the auto turner. this will leave you somewhere to put your water.

I may just try to hand turn for the next week, it is either humidity or auto turner...Ill choose humidity.

 

[PeepsCA]

You don't need the extra Humidity until you actually lock-down the eggs down for the hatch, you actually want the eggs to lose some of their moisture during incubation (13% of their total weight). If they do not lose enough moisture, the keets may end up drowning in the egg before they start hatch. If they don't drown then there's a possibility they will hatch really sticky, and struggle during the hatch... which is better than drowning, but still not the best hatch conditions. Some keets will expire if they have too much of a struggle.

Maintaining the Humidity around 45-50% for the first 23-24 days of incubation has worked great for me and like I said, I bump it up to 70-75% for lock-down. Some get away with a little lower Humidity during the incubation and around 65% for lock-down/hatch tho.

 

[PeepsCA]

Today is day 25 for my first 4 eggs of the season. Three hatched & 1 has pipped. They are pullet size eggs so I am blaming the early hatch on the fact the keets ran out of room. Last season mine always hatched on day 27&28. That was using a gqf cabinet & a brinsea Eco.

Hmm, that's interesting about the pullet sized eggs hatching earlier for you... I have a small/pullet egg in with my most recent batch that I just set last week... Normally all my eggs are similar size tho, even from my pullets. I'll have to pay attention to if this smaller egg hatches sooner than the others or not (if it makes it to hatch that is). I use Hovabator Genesis 1588s with egg turners for the majority of my incubating, and I've read quite a few posts about people having early hatches with theirs as well. Sometimes I blamed my early hatching keets on me not collecting and cooling the eggs quick enough tho... but who knows. So many variables!

What colors hatched out of the eggs? Are your Chocolates and Bronzes laying for you yet?

 

[jcatblum]

These eggs were the first eggs I found this season. 4 pullet size eggs made it to lock down & they all hatched yesterday. 3 pearl & 1 brown (I think). Last yr I had browns that were as dark as pearls, so I don't know! Of the 4 that hatched one is for sure lighter. Next wk I have 3 dz eggs that should make it to lock down & after that we should have 6-8 dz a wk. I collect about 18 eggs a day from my fancy flock. My free range flock I collect their eggs when I find them. But the snakes & dogs also collect their eggs.
The next 2 hatches should give me a better idea of what to expect (I hope). Sad I didn't get more colors this time, but out of the 4 fertile eggs all 4 hatched!!!

 

[jcatblum]

Just wanted to report back --- pullet eggs are hatching 3 days early again this wk. I have chicken eggs this wk & last in the same incubator & hatcher --- the chicken eggs are hatching on day 20-21. Only the pullet guinea eggs are coming early. So far today 3 have hatched. Sure there will be more soon.