Eggs were shipped halfway across Canada. Breeding group was 7 months old at time of egg collection. Silver Ameraucana.
The initial candle after resting the eggs showed a few saddled air cells but nothing else obvious to me. (First time with shipped eggs.)
Day 10 candle with a low-battery flashlight showed 5 clears. Most of the rest were not illuminating well enough to see. A few were looking good and were active. A few were iffy. One of the good ones worried me - the embryo was stuck on the air cell membrane.
Day 18 I removed 3 obvious quitters (including the air cell embryo) and started lockdown with the remaining 10, of which I was confident about 3 being on track.
Day 21 came and went. No peeps, no pips, no rocking. A whole lot of nothing.
Day 23 (today) I removed 2 and cracked them open - the one I could never see inside was clear, while one that I knew was alive going into lockdown never pipped (I opened only at the air cell end - zero movement, no internal pip, absolutely nothing). I put that one back in case it was just resting, but there's still nothing going on with that one a couple hours later. The remaining I'm not optimistic about per candling - no internal pips, no sounds, no movements. No smells thankfully.
Temperature and humidity were calibrated. Temp 99.5-100.5, humidity 40-42%, lockdown humidity 60-63%. Three manual turns per day from day one to lockdown. I've had 100% hatch rates from my own barnyard mixes with a poorly-calibrated version of this same setup.
Even though they appeared mostly fine to me on first candle, could it be that they were too roughed up from shipping?
The initial candle after resting the eggs showed a few saddled air cells but nothing else obvious to me. (First time with shipped eggs.)
Day 10 candle with a low-battery flashlight showed 5 clears. Most of the rest were not illuminating well enough to see. A few were looking good and were active. A few were iffy. One of the good ones worried me - the embryo was stuck on the air cell membrane.
Day 18 I removed 3 obvious quitters (including the air cell embryo) and started lockdown with the remaining 10, of which I was confident about 3 being on track.
Day 21 came and went. No peeps, no pips, no rocking. A whole lot of nothing.
Day 23 (today) I removed 2 and cracked them open - the one I could never see inside was clear, while one that I knew was alive going into lockdown never pipped (I opened only at the air cell end - zero movement, no internal pip, absolutely nothing). I put that one back in case it was just resting, but there's still nothing going on with that one a couple hours later. The remaining I'm not optimistic about per candling - no internal pips, no sounds, no movements. No smells thankfully.
Temperature and humidity were calibrated. Temp 99.5-100.5, humidity 40-42%, lockdown humidity 60-63%. Three manual turns per day from day one to lockdown. I've had 100% hatch rates from my own barnyard mixes with a poorly-calibrated version of this same setup.
Even though they appeared mostly fine to me on first candle, could it be that they were too roughed up from shipping?
My eggs were shipped. Trying to be patient but, can’t wait to be a chick mama
