Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

You have two hens, right? Maybe one is laying fertile eggs and the other one is not?

Perhaps.

I put the tape around the flash light and tried again with the pictures. I'm not going to bother posting them. They are no better and my camera isn't getting up close. I'm going to have to break out my large SLR camera and see if it can take a better picture of what I'm seeing. I'm not seeing much, to be honest. I don't see any veins like everyone talks about. I do see a darker mass in different ones I just pulled out... BUT, it's not a black mass that I'm looking at on Google. I may be 0 for 0 on babies here. Sigh. I wonder if I'm just seeing clear egg, basically. I'll go try again...

 

[Hawkeye95]

When using cages made for larger critters, be sure the bars are close enough together to keep the chicks from going through them. I found out the hard way about that. I put some new hatch muscovy ducklings in a cage that looked like the bars were close enough to keep them in. Turned to do something else, heard a ducklings distress call, and a cat had one that had gone through the bars. Those little soft bodies can really compress into small sizes when they want to.

The cage can be wrapped with small hardware cloth to be safe if necessary.

Yeah, that's just like mine. Except I don't have that really cool opening in the lid! That is neat!! I don't move the kennel outside. I just have a "pen" I made out of T posts with wire around it to put my silkies in outside. At night, they go back into their kennel that is in the garage. BUT-- if you didn't have anything, you could certainly take the pan out of the kennel and that would be one way of letting them get some grass/bugs if you didn't have a pen put up.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Perhaps.

I put the tape around the flash light and tried again with the pictures. I'm not going to bother posting them. They are no better and my camera isn't getting up close. I'm going to have to break out my large SLR camera and see if it can take a better picture of what I'm seeing. I'm not seeing much, to be honest. I don't see any veins like everyone talks about. I do see a darker mass in different ones I just pulled out... BUT, it's not a black mass that I'm looking at on Google. I may be 0 for 0 on babies here. Sigh. I wonder if I'm just seeing clear egg, basically. I'll go try again...

You mentioned a dark spot in some that moved when the egg was moved. There is a point in the incubation where all you can see is a dark spot that moves. It will move when the egg is moved and on its own sometimes. It is the embryo when it is so tiny, but it responds to light and "dances" around. It can be on the back side of the egg and therefore not seen also. But usually there are the veins starting to show up also.

The yolk shows up as a dark orange mass, and it will also move as the egg is turned. Remember the chick starts as a dot and grows from that.

Sorry I can't be more help. I would leave them in the bator and let time take care of it. If your bator was cooler than it should have been at one point, the eggs could be behind schedule, but still should be ok if they are fertile..

If there is a difference in the eggs the two hens lay, start marking them and then noting if one hen is laying fertile ones and the other one not.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Okay-- better pictures taken by a better camera. I think these guys are clear. I don't see anything in them for it being Day 7. Bascially the first picture shows what all the other eggs look like... and then the second has that blood spot I was talking about earlier.

Second picture with Blood spot Below:

 

[chicken danz]

Loralee I think you are candling too early to get worried. I often can't see anything at 10 days. The only egg I would be concerned about is the last one pictured because you can see spots in the shell. Sometimes those shells aren't heavy enough or something and the embryos don't thrive. Stick 'em back in to cook and leave them there. Give it another week then look at them. I am speaking of the first lot of pictures. In these second ones the second one looks fertile to me. Same advice. Give them time.

 

[Ivywoods]

What Chick/Duck said about marking the eggs is a good idea, if you can determine which one lays which egg.

There is no way to know for sure. Leave the eggs in there for a while.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but they look to me like they are not developing. I'm kind of like Danz, though. I don't bother candling until I get ready to put them in lockdown in the hatcher. My dark eggs are so hard to candle I just don't bother until then.

You mentioned fluff.... butt fluff, that is. Yes, that is a problem, and my first guess is that is at least part of the problem with your eggs. I have bantam black cochins that have been shown. You talk about fluff. Many of the breeders who raise these actually use A-I to fertilize the eggs. The ones who don't do that will not show their breeders, but pluck their rear ends, on both the hens and the roosters so they are more apt to get fertile eggs. Without doing this, many or even most of my black cochin eggs are sterile.

 

[chicken danz]

My silkies and my cochins both have bred quite successfully, but I do know breeders that pull or trim the poof on all their hens as a general practice. I would still give it some more time before giving up. It's just the beginning for you and them.
I got the guineas caught and in a pen and had to come in and catch my breath. I need to go out and finish feeding the birds. I still need to catch one roo to go.DH wasn't happy when I mentioned which ones I was sending off. He complains that I have too many chickens but then doesn't want me to sell them when I do. Go figure!

 

[patricia]

Glad to hear everyone is doing well with this freezing weather. Yesterday I went outside and on the two little coops had to run a line and heat the doors with my hair dryer as they had frozen shut. I think I have been out basically to see if everyone has water and not ice. I haven't had any losses since I lost the two chickens so I am hoping that all is clear. I just get spooked when something dies that I can't explain. Hope I hear from Manhattan this week. The geese started laying. I have three eggs now. Danz are you still interested in a few eggs? Did you find out if you had a white serama hen? I will be in Burlington on Tuesday evening if you do. All my geese and ducks are doing fine. Oh Hawkeye, I know what you mean about the blood in the eggs. I feel the same way. Doesn't make much since since I eat chicken and eat eggs and I know all the commercial ones probably end up in half the products I buy from the store. Sometimes they have a little tissue in them and I will take a pair of plastic tweezers and pluck it out. I think my son could eat a half formed chicken and it wouldn't bother him. I agree with everyone, just leave the eggs in unless it smells. I can usually see an embryo for sure at three days but when I started I couldn't tell if I was seeing a bad egg or an embryo. I asked my husband to start my big incubator up to make certain it is working. Hatching Sebastopols isn't as easy for me as the chickens. I get like a neurotic mom with her first pregnancy.

 

[shotah]

Patricia, you bet it's cold! I've been trotting out to the coop about every hour with fresh water and collecting eggs. Still, even with an unheated open front coop, my boy Stewie (and the rest of the flock) are having NO frostbite issues. YAY!!!

 

[Ivywoods]

Glad to hear everyone is doing well with this freezing weather. Yesterday I went outside and on the two little coops had to run a line and heat the doors with my hair dryer as they had frozen shut. I think I have been out basically to see if everyone has water and not ice. I haven't had any losses since I lost the two chickens so I am hoping that all is clear. I just get spooked when something dies that I can't explain. Hope I hear from Manhattan this week. The geese started laying. I have three eggs now. Danz are you still interested in a few eggs? Did you find out if you had a white serama hen? I will be in Burlington on Tuesday evening if you do. All my geese and ducks are doing fine. Oh Hawkeye, I know what you mean about the blood in the eggs. I feel the same way. Doesn't make much since since I eat chicken and eat eggs and I know all the commercial ones probably end up in half the products I buy from the store. Sometimes they have a little tissue in them and I will take a pair of plastic tweezers and pluck it out. I think my son could eat a half formed chicken and it wouldn't bother him. I agree with everyone, just leave the eggs in unless it smells. I can usually see an embryo for sure at three days but when I started I couldn't tell if I was seeing a bad egg or an embryo. I asked my husband to start my big incubator up to make certain it is working. Hatching Sebastopols isn't as easy for me as the chickens. I get like a neurotic mom with her first pregnancy.

Neurotic mom?

Hey, maybe we all just need to relax and enjoy the process. I swear Hawkeye is going to be raising some NEUROTIC CHICKENS! (No offense, Hawkeye!)

relax... relax... relax... go to your happy place...let your body float................

Yoga for baby chicks..."Stretch your wings...stretch your neck... move your tail to the left...move your tail to the right... stretch your legs.... NO NO NO NOT SPRADDLE LEGS! BRING THEM TOGETHER! STAND UP STRAIGHT! ATTENTION! oh HEEEELLLLLLPPPP!!!