Early candling vs. hatch rate question

[lauriemike]

I purchased a lot of mixed Orpington (blue, buff, black and splash) eggs online and set them in the incubator 4 days ago. Because I just had to know what was going on, this being my first time and all, I decided to candle the eggs. Of the 14 eggs, 2 are clear (one buff and one black). The black one I expected to be as it had a tiny pinhole in it when it got here - I covered the hole with wax as I'd read about and hoped, but that egg is clear. Each of the other eggs has a big blob in it. In three or four I could see the eye spot and veins. Now my question is, once they start developing, is there any idea of how many of these will hatch? Or is it still all up in the air? I didn't realize 21 days could go soooooo slowly!

laurie

 

[MelissaA]

Still up in the air until 3 or 4 days after the due date....I guess that is where the "don't count your chickens before they hatch" saying comes from! There are eggs that will develop some and die for many different reasons (temps, humidity, poor egg quality, etc), sometimes they fully develop and never hatch. All we can do is wait- and I think the less you mess with them the better. I only candle day 8 and day 14, only open the bator to add water if needed (every 3 or 4 days), put the eggs in lockdown on day 18 and then wait.........

 

[FenDruadin]

Careful about assuming they're clear at 4 days! It's possible the embryo is shadowed by the air cell or the yolk... even with two summer's experience, I occasionally mark one as clear and it turns out to be good. Don't throw any away until 10 days.

And yes, you won't know how many will hatch until they hatch, lol. Sorry. I know it's unbelievably stressful, especially that first time, but there's just no way of knowing. I usually have 80-95% of my fertile eggs hatch, but sometimes something goes wrong and I don't realize until the day they're supposed to hatch and I end up with only four out of twenty hatching...

It certainly does give new meaning to the old phrase. I have never felt the same about "not counting your chicks before they hatch" since I started hatching.

Good luck, anyway.

Maybe you'll get lucky and have the fabled 100% hatch that I still have never had.