Today, I candled my Mallard Eggs for the first time. It is day 8 of their incubation. Now I am no expert on this, so if I anything is wrong, or you have any tips or comments, please post them below and enjoy the photos
Sorry if it's hard to see the development, I used a cell phone light for the candling (the camera flash light) so it may be too bright.
Egg # 1
This one was obviously infertile, You could see a yolk, but no progress of any kind, it was like candling a grocery store egg.
Egg # 2
This one had multiple veins, and was a dark orange-ish color, with about half of it being taken up by the fetus. I got so excited!
Egg # 3
This one was also very fertile, with many veins. You could tell something was growing.
Egg # 4
Same as 2 & 3, many veins and a good sized fetus growing inside.
Egg # 5
Same as 2, 3, and 4.
Egg # 6
This one is harder to see, but it had the same developments of 2-5
Egg # 7
This one lite up like a light bulb, I knew instantly the little bugger didn't make it.
Come to think of it, I don't remember even seeing a yolk!
So all in all, about a 71% fertility rate within the first week. I am leaving the two infertile eggs in there until the next candling though (one week from today) just in case.
I currently had the temps at 99.5 and humidity is being kept between 40%-50%, and they are in an automatic egg turner, and I am rotating them 90 degrees each day, because the turner only moves them back and forth on one side.
Do I need to change anything, or should I keep up what i'm doing? And, its it common to lose more fetuses as the incubation process goes on? I'd be distraught if I lost one more, that'd be almost half gone.
Egg # 1
This one was obviously infertile, You could see a yolk, but no progress of any kind, it was like candling a grocery store egg.
Egg # 2
This one had multiple veins, and was a dark orange-ish color, with about half of it being taken up by the fetus. I got so excited!
Egg # 3
This one was also very fertile, with many veins. You could tell something was growing.
Egg # 4
Same as 2 & 3, many veins and a good sized fetus growing inside.
Egg # 5
Same as 2, 3, and 4.
Egg # 6
This one is harder to see, but it had the same developments of 2-5
Egg # 7
This one lite up like a light bulb, I knew instantly the little bugger didn't make it.
Come to think of it, I don't remember even seeing a yolk!
So all in all, about a 71% fertility rate within the first week. I am leaving the two infertile eggs in there until the next candling though (one week from today) just in case.
I currently had the temps at 99.5 and humidity is being kept between 40%-50%, and they are in an automatic egg turner, and I am rotating them 90 degrees each day, because the turner only moves them back and forth on one side.
Do I need to change anything, or should I keep up what i'm doing? And, its it common to lose more fetuses as the incubation process goes on? I'd be distraught if I lost one more, that'd be almost half gone.
