Eggs of Different ages-Tragic Ending.

[bbRedMom]

I lovely woman who works with my MIL is giving me about 20 Black Australorp, Buff Orp, and EE eggs. They were all laid between a week ago and yesterday. Unfortunatly, they became jumbled, and I dont know which is which.

I haven't incubated in a while. Would it been too soon to candle the week old eggs to see if there is life in them? Thanks!dy

 

[Mrs.Puff]

Have you started incubating them yet? You can definitely candle them after a week. Candling before you incubate will reveal nothing. You'll figure out which chicks are which when they hatch I guess!!!

 

[hinkjc]

The age of the egg doesn't really matter except the older ones might not hatch as well as the fresher eggs. If you have them incubating between 7-10 days, I would go ahead and candle and see how things are going. Don't get discouraged if you can't see inside the EE eggs..those shells are tough to see in. Good luck!

Jody

 

[bbRedMom]

OK, so I got home Tuesday night and set up the incubator. Let it run for 24 hrs, and it held a steady temp between 99 and 101. I tried to candle my eggs, but the shells are soooo dark and thick, I coudl onyl really see through some, and since I dont really know if these eggs are any good, I eventually just gave up and put them all in the bator. Temp last night was 100.4.

This morning, it was 104! I auickly cooled it down, made some adjustments. when I left for work, It was holding steady again around 100. This is the first time I've had a full bator of giant eggs, so that may have contributed to the heat spike. Since It was probably only for an hour or two, do you think they will be ok?

My humidty is staying between 55-60%.

I'll candle on Sunday to see what I can see.

Oh, and I got the BEST thermometer/hydro guage at walmart last night. It has a cord with a sensor for the temp and humidty, so I can just put the sensor in the bator, and easily read the number without jostling the bator at all. And it shows the max/min of both temp and %humidty.

I'm hoping out of 35 eggs to get at least 5 or 6. I'm not expecting much, but since they were free, its not a hugh loss if nothing makes it.

Thanks!

 

[shelleyd2008]

I think you should bring the humidity down some. It should be between 45-55.

Good luck!!

 

[CindyS]

If they are nice fresh from the farm eggs, you probably have at least 30 fertile, so with good luck expect lots of babys! Sounds like you are on the right track with the thermometer, make sure the probe is at egg level. 104 temps for a short time will not hurt anything. At this point the eggs will not cause any temp spikes but LOOK OUT in about 2 weeks your temps will go up and up (a good sign you have lots of babies growing!) good luck!

 

[bbRedMom]

Well, the temp and humidty are still holding fairly steady, nighttime seems worse for slight flux, but now that hubby is in on it, there is better monitoring than just me

Here are the eggs. I hope I get some babies!

 

[deerman]

The temp. may drop after adding the eggs, they will pull some of heat out. Wait a few hour before adjusting.

No need to candle untill after 7 days.

 

[doodledoo]

Quote:
Make sure that it is reading outdoor humidity and not indoor- if not then the thermometer needs to be in the bator to get an acurite humidity reading.

Good luck with your hatch!

 

[Buckaroo]

Dark eggs are hard to candle, make sure the room is completly dark. I use the center of a toilet paper roll, just the right size for the egg.