Candling was a bad idea :)

[Lavender11]

This is my first time hatching eggs and tonight was day 6 and I couldn't wait I just had to candle them. 3 of the 12 looked like they were unfertilized and one had a blood ring around it. The other 8 we could see the eyes and they were moving around. I was really excited to start with but now all I'm doing is worrying that my humidity is too high and I'm going to kill them before they hatch. Arggg!!! It's 2 o'clock in the morning, I need to sleep. I have a cheap janoel 10 but I have bought a separate thermometer/hygrometer which I didn't know I needed to callibrate. I got that a few days after the eggs went in and the humidity was all the way up to 70 but I got it down to 50 or so and now I've taken all the water out and it's on about 40 last time I checked. I didn't take the ones I don't think are developing out, is it safe to leave them until day 10 and check them all again? I plan on being hands off during hatching. I'd be worried I would do more harm than good. Thx.

 

[FridayYet]

Hi Lavender, Welcome to BYC!

It's fine to leave your eggs in until checked on day 10, many people leave them in until lockdown as long as there is no smell or weeping.

Glad you got your humidity down a bit, 40% is not bad. One thing you can do is check your air cells by drawing a circle around it on day 7, 14, and 18 to check progression. They should look something like this:


If your air cells are smaller on day 7, you need to lower your humidity a bit. If they are larger, you need to increase your humidity.

Good luck! And I hope you have a great hatch!

 

[Lavender11]

Thanks, I got back up and candled just one egg to check the air cell. It looked exactly like the diagram so that puts my mind at ease. I'll probably candle the rest tonight, without kids this time, and draw the air cell on the shell just to check them all and so I have a reference point. It's raining here today so the humidity is 57. I might get a small sponge to soak up any drops of water that might still be in the reservoir.