Candling my coturnix eggs...EEEKKK!!!!

[SSCHICK]

Ok so I'm on day 9 of incubating coturnix eggs. I'm using a homemade incubator bc TS never has any and the one I ordered online blew up. literally. (waiting for my free replacement) But here's my problem......I can't see anything past the speckles!! On a couple of them I can see large dark blob looking things, some have a white end (the air sac I presume) but some of them I just can't see anything because the spots are so dark. And to confuse me even more, the only one I can see really good that actually has veins and all that, HAS A CRACK IN IT! But it seems to be doing just fine. My other question is, how can you be sure if they ar emoving around and when can I expect that if at all? I thought I saw one move a bit when I candled it a few minutes ago but I think my eyes were playing tricks on me. PLEASE HELP!!

 

[CoosaQuail]

Just wait until day 17 or 18 for the hatch.

 

[SSCHICK]

I actually candled them again today because I got a better light (145 lumen LED from walmart) and I am happy to report that I was able to see 5 out of 10 of them actually moving!!! I was shocked and SOOOOOOO excited!! they had perfect little air sacs and everything! Sadly, a couple of them were duds but I'm going to leave them for a few more days to see if anything changes. The last few I wasn't sure about. They had air sacs and seemed to have a large blob in them but the speckles made it very difficult to tell. I marked them all and now I just have to wait. If even 1 hatches I'll be happy.

 

[iluvsedward]

 

[SSCHICK]

Well I'm on day 15 so only a few more days til my babies get here! I'm on duty today so unfortunatley I can't keep an eye on them. I did run home at lunch and check and the temperature was 100 degrees and the humidty was about 65 % I'm down to 5 eggs and we candled them last night. All 5 were very clearly moving around and all had perfectly shaped air sacs. Hopefully by Friday or Saturday evening I'll be able to post a pic or 2 of the little fuzz balls.

 

[SSCHICK]

I guess they wanted to mess with me. I went home real quick to feed the dogs and chickens and I look and see 1 of the eggs has already started hatching!!!! He poked his little eak out about 6 times but I had to come back on duty so I couldn't stay. My roommate is keeping an eye on them and I'll be home by 8 am so hopefully they will wait til I get home

 

[Stellar]

I don't recommend candling. I would just wait out the days and you should get a hatch if you follow the incubation correctly.

 

[SSCHICK]

I've read the goods and bads about candling. I kinda would rather take the chance as opposed to having a few eggs explode in there. I also read in a number of places that coturnix quails only have a 50-75 % hatch probability anyway. I'm at 50 % right now so I guess I didn't screw up too bad. I have kept track of dates along with every tme I've turned them and what the temp and humidity was at each of these turns. Using a homemade incubator, My numbers havent been perfect or even steady for that matter but I still got 50 % out of eggs that were already 8 days old. We'll see tomorrow how well they did overnight.

 

[iluvsedward]

I agree with Q.L.O.F.M., eggs rarely explode and candling them when they should be in lockdown means some might die, and that is worse then a chance of an exploding egg. btw if they were fine when you candled them before lockdown even if one dies, a few days is not enough time for one to explode. Now NO MORE CANDLING.

 

[bfrancis]

Another reason to wait for candling until AFTER day 18...is with these little dudes they need a lot more humidity that a chicken egg...and every time you lift the lid to pull an egg the humidity level in the incubator diminishes exponentially that will cause a viable eggs to shrink wrap and die, also the eggs that are brought into the "open air" looses moisture as well. Where as the "no touchy" will give you better results. At the day 18 mark, all your eggs should have hatched and you can try to candle to determine what maybe still be viable and what is a definite dud. All eggs should be considered duds by day 21...or there's where you get the exploding egg syndrome.

Good luck on whatever your decisions.