Eggs not deveolping!!

[TAMMACLEAN]

I have about 2 dozen asst. eggs in my incubator. I wanted to take a quick peek at them so I candled them last night. Theyhave been in the incubator since saturday so it's been almost a week. I'm pretty sure that only 1 is developing.These are silkie, olive egger, and silkie/cochin eggs. I collected eggs for about 5 days before putting them in. I stored them pointed side down. I did have one time that the incubator went up to 104 on the first or second day after the eggs went in. So could this be what is happening or could it be that it is freezing here and my eggs are just freezing before I can get to them and end up no good??

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

I've left eggs in the cold for a few hours no problem and they incubated fine. How long was the temperature up at 104? If it wasn't more than a couple hours I wouldn't worry about that. What it could be is the fluctuations of adjusting the incubator trying to get it to the right temperature. Also did you add water to the incubator for humidity?

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

I don't think it was at 104 for very long. There is water and the humidity stays around 35ish. I've hatched eggs before in it no problem. I'm going to give them a few more days and check again. After you get your cold eggs do you let them sit or put them right in?

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

I candled my eggs again tonight, all prepared to toss out a lot of eggs. But as I was looking at them all but 4 had developed veins!! I know some wont hatch but I'm thrilled that they are growing.

 

[gabrielle1976]

Never toss eggs untill at least day 10 if they arnt stinky or weeping babies surprise us ll the time

 

[tashtash]

is it bad to candle eggs often how often are u supposed to candle them

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

I usually only do it twice. Once at ten days and once on day 18. Unless it starts to smell. But these are my first eggs from my silkies and I just wanted to make sure things were going well. Now I will just keep turning them and candle on day 10 and day 18.

 

[tashtash]

Oh o.. im to excited and wanna keep looking at progress. i will stop now tho and just do day 10 and 18.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I have about 2 dozen asst. eggs in my incubator... I candled them last night. Theyhave been in the incubator since saturday so it's been almost a week. I'm pretty sure that only 1 is developing... I collected eggs for about 5 days ...I stored them pointed side down... one time that the incubator went up to 104 ...could this be what is happening ...or is [my eggs] freezing before [I collect them]??

None of the things you mentioned are known to help eggs develop.
6-7 days is too short a time for much development to show up with candling. Waite 10 or 11 days before the first candling, if you are a beginner 11 days is even better. Say you put your eggs in the incubator on the first of the month. Day one is 24 hours later on the second day of the month and so on.

Remember the old adage, "A watched pot never boils." It is the same with hatching eggs. Don't open the incubator unnecessarily. HOWEVER do keep a keen eye on both the dry and the wet bulb temps. When adding water in the humidity pan, ALWAYS use water @ about 100 degrees. Cold water absorbs heat and the incubator's temperature will fall until everything inside is back up to operating temperature. Falling temps cause the heating elements to cycle on, then the temps will spike before the thermostat can regulate the temperature. The temperature regulator in incubators only measures the current temperature at one small place, not the overall or the potential temperatures. Run your incubator 3 or 4 days BEFORE you add the eggs. This allows you to fine tune the temps and humidity before your eggs go in.

5 day old eggs should be fresh enough for every one of them to hatch, but from no fault of your own, that doesn't mean they will. Pointed side down is the right way to store eggs that you wish to hatch out. Did you turn or move the eggs twice each day before you set them? 104 degrees is too hot but we don't know if the eggs reached that temp or if it was just a spike in the incubator's air temp. if eggs are allowed to cool much below about 50 degrees hatch-ability decreases rapidly. I doubt that is your problem. One other thing after looking at your location, is whether or not your rooster's comb has freeze damage. This can lead to temporally infertility until the roo's comb has time to heal.