Filling the incubator 6-3-2011 Join me for my 1st attempt?

[stitch81]

I decided to candle again this morning to see if I could see anything new in the 9 eggs that were previously marked "?". Of those 9 I was able to see development in 3 of them. The rest, again, the shells are too dark to tell. There are 4 eggs that I can see the eye! These guys are right on track for day 5 development. So, to date, of 26 eggs, 20 are definately developing!

 

[Taylorhens]

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Woo-hoo! Good job, Stitch! Congrats.

I am trying to hold off candling for a few more days...not sure I want to know. Bator is still holding steady in temp and humidity, so hopefully all is well.

 

[Mmmatt13]

I was thinking about not candling until lockdown. I'm paranoid that I keep them out for too long (I know, I know, mama hen would leave the nest for 15 minutes at a time, but I am by no means as worry free as mama hen), and I don't know.. I don't really need to check to see who's developing and who isn't. Maybe I won't even candle at all... Hmmm. There's 25 eggs in my Brinsea Octagon 20 Advance EX fitting comfortably (Capacity is supposed to be 24, but I didn't see a problem with adding one more), so maybe I should candle to take out the extras so the kids have more room. What do you think?

 

[kraftyladies]

I have 26 eggs in the bator. Today is day 4. Is it too early to see any development if I candle? My worry is that these were shipped eggs. Packed beautifully, no breakages....the worry part is that my wonderful post office would not call me when they came in. (Even though the boxes were clearly marked to call upon arrival)I tried to get back home as soon as I could to get the eggs. My mailperson usually delivers around 1130. I made it home close to one o'clock and found the boxes on my bottom step of the porch in the full sun! I was not very happy as one box was upside down and one was sitting on its side....and it got up on the 90's that day. I took them inside and unboxed them as soon as I got there. They were packaged so well, that they were even pretty well insulated. The heat didnt seem to reach the eggs at all...I hope anyway. But I am still steamed at the post office though.

I want to candle but want to make sure I wait long enough to be able to see some development. I hope the heat didnt get to them or the mail people didnt scramble them too much. One thing is for sure, the lady I bought them from did do a super great job of packaging them!

 

[ItsAZOO32]

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You know what I had to do? I started using the PO ADDRESS on my box!! The local PO annex is what I ship to and have them put my number on the box for Call for Pick up. After my first two shipped boxes were a fiasco I talked to a manager person and they told me to use this method. Has been awesome since

Can't deliver it to my house if it's the PO's address

 

[stitch81]

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I candled mine on day 3 and was able to see the veining. If you are on day 4, you should be able to see veining. I don't think I would ever be able to go a full incubation period without candling. I just couldn't do it. I'm one of those that just HAS to know what is happening, that, and it's really exciting to see the development! lol. Out of my 26, 21 are shipped eggs and all appear to be developing on track. I just wish I could get pictures of the candled eggs! my camera just doesn't want to cooperate with me.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

well im on day 4 now and im going to give them a few more days i rhink im going to wait till friday to candle them i know by then it should be showing something but if these eggs dont work out im sure that ill be trying again next month with some rir and black australorp eggs then after that hatch im going to give up till my black jersey giants start laying should be around december or jan before they are laying im hust hopeing that i can get a few hens out of this hatch or the next one for the grand kids im planing on building the kids there own chicken tractor that will be a 4x8 i need to build 4 of them total that way i can give one of them with 3 or 4 chicks to each of the familys i wont be building one for our middle son because hes building a coop now ill just have to send him over the chicks when they come out of the brooder heck last time i went to his place his coop is bigger than mine but ive got my run up and hes waiting on his till he can get a few rolls of hardware fence

 

[kraftyladies]

Ok I feel better. I candled about half and I saw veining and a few eyes. Some were darker and hard to tell, and a couple were porous. I made little marks on the ones I checked tonight, so will do the rest tomorrow. I was trying to show my husband, and an egg moved and slipped...I broke it.

Now I have 25.

There is NO WAY I could wait until the end to candle. I couldn't do it. Nope. Last time, (my first hatch) I waited until day 6, only because I didn't have an LED flashlight until then. The one I had was too hot. I am definitely relieved that I see some development, after the rough handling by the USPS.

I will definitely consider a PO box for the future, that definitely seems the way to go.

 

[Taylorhens]

Oh, I'm sure I won't be able to wait until the end to candle. But I think I'll wait until day 7. I should be able to easily tell on my cochin eggs, but I probably won't be able to see anything on the Marans anyway. They are SO dark!

 

[stitch81]

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So, as far as dark eggs, our options are to either wait for a stinky smell, or an egg that just doesn't hatch? There's no way to tell if a dark egg is developing?