Candling questions from a newbie

Hi,
It's always a bit confusing when you first start at most anything(& even later at times too)
When you get to day 18 I would take those eggs out of the turner & place them on their side on the wire bottom. I have had chicks hatch out though right from the egg tray (Turner). I would turn it off so the hatching chicks don't get crushed. It's so nice if you can have two incubators - one for incubating - one for those about to hatch. You'll need a brooder afterwards to put the new chicks in once they dry out & get fluffy. Which many times for me has been a kennel crate for a dog, etc., with wood chips and a heat source. I've raised many, many chicks this way.
I wouldn't incubate any broken or misshaped eggs (though I have heard of people saving a valuable egg that broke in various ways - you can do a search on that - and the chick hatched out fine).
The temperature lowering for a bit should be fine as it happens naturally when the mother gets off her nest occassionally. Just check to make certain it goes back up in a reasonable time. (15 minutes or so).
The dark eggs are much harder to candle. I haven't had much experience with those except for some Cuckoo Marans just recently. If they don't smell I would just sit tight & let time take its course. Wouldn't toss out until day 23-24. Pretty much by then if they're going to hatch you'll know it as they will be chirping at least if not breaking through the shell itself.
Yes, the embyos do look exactly like they're swimming around inside the egg there. That's definitely a fertile. You might want also to do a search on candling eggs to see photos of what they actually look like. It's hard for someone to exactly describe it to you especially when the differences can be very slight initially. Maybe wait until day 10 & see if you can tell more by then. There will be veining by day 7 that becomes very obvious to you (in the light-shelled eggs) after a little experience.
Sometimes eggs pip much earlier (bantams especially can start 2-3 days early) than expected, sometimes days later. Just hang in there & give it time to run its course. I know that's hard to do because it's so very exciting! Most importantly: don't give up if this hatch is not great (I hope it will be) it happens to us all at times for one reason or another, and have fun!

 

I'm new to incubating and candling, so I would love link to that video you found. I've looked at lots of pics of candled eggs, but a video would be so much more helpful.

I candled all my eggs before putting them in the bator yesterday--one had some very faint hairline cracks in it, so I'm planning to keep a close-eye on that one. But, like you, I'm not positive what I'm looking for! I'm hatching Ameraucana eggs which seem a little harder to candle than white or regular brown eggs, but I bet your Welsummers are really hard to see anything!

Good luck with your hatch!

 

Dark eggs are nearly impossible to candle after they start to develop. You need a really strong flashlight or light source.
What I do is start at the top of the egg and very slowly rotate it around and then sideways. Usually if they aren't too far along you will see maybe 1/2 the egg dark and 1/2 the egg lighter. Then look at the large end of the egg and you might see the air sack there.
As they go on they become almost completely dark and you can't see anything. Then you close the bator and cross your fingers until they pip.
I had two last hatch that were no good but I couldn't tell because the eggs were so dark.
Gina

 

Quote:I don't know what kind of bator you have, but maybe you could feed some air-tubing (like for an aquarium) through an air-hole to wet the sponges. I've heard other people on here suggest doing that.

We're in AL, so it's pretty humid here anyway, plus we have a humidifier going in the room with the bator just in case. I'm hoping that after I plug the holes in my LG, I won't have to add any water during the last days. But, I've got my set-up ready to go if I do. I found that one of those Hunt's Ketchup bottles (the ones that sit "upside down" on the lid and have that little clog free squirty spout) fit the standard aquarium tubing just right. You can fill it with water, stick the tubing into the squirt spout and run the water through the tubing with just a little squeeze and no dripping all over. Maybe that will help.

Happy hatching!

 

I do almost the same thing. I use a piece of aquarium tubing with a small funnel on the end. It fits right into the tubing. Then I can just add a bit of water to the funnel and it goes right where I want it.
That way you don't have to open the bator.
It is really BAD to open the bator until you have all your eggs hatched. Especially if you are living in a dry area.
Gina

 

Yep, I use aquarium Tubing, and A syringe I bought at the pet store made for feeding puppies and kittens.

Good Luck!

 

Yeah, now I'm using a syringe used for injecting flavors into roasting turkeys. The ketchup bottle worked great, but I should have just left the tubing in the lid--the pulling it in and out made the little silicone gasket thing come out. Dang it! I wasn't going to empty out our new, full ketchup bottle to try again!

Hope your hatches are going well!