First Attempt at Hatching (Pictures!)

[Rin]

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Thank you and I'm starting to think they might be air cells except for the first one I looked at. There's no way the air cell is that large(it's like clear down to almost halfway where I see a reddish line marking just barely above the middle of the egg) - I'm leaving them but SO unsure of my incubating skills and having a hard time keeping temps consistent. With eggs in there it's way more erratic than when there wasn't. It's generally 101.1-101.5 throughout the day but at night just totally tries to plummet to mid 90's on me despite putting a heater in the room it's in (which almost makes it worse, it dries the air out way too much and when I'm up the next morning makes it too /warm/ then >< granted, even mother hens can't keep temps perfect night and day?

)

At least I'll be doing a proper candling in about 5 more days(will be taking pictures of this too if I see anything) and still wont decide anything for sure from that unless someone smells funny. Right now I'm just casually putting the flashlight on them like you see in my last picture.

 

[emvickrey]

I have an LG and it has the square well in the middle then 2 long wells to the side of the square well. On each side of those I keep a sponge that is partially wrapped in aluminum foil to keep water from leaking out the bottom vent holes. I use a large syringe that is used for injecting spices into meat and hoses used for aquariums inserted through vent holes to add water when needed. The sponges are only used when its time for lock down to raise the humidity. I get it up to 75%. I usually have another set to hatch at a later date so I don't want the humidity too high for too long.

The only time I open my bator is if the temp spikes to release the heat quick or when i'm candling. I usually do this twice and at no particular time. Just after 1 week and before the last 4 days.

I also keep a record of every hatching. If an egg did'nt hatch after 25 days I do an eggtopsy to see if I can figure out a reason. I write down the results. This way I also know the hatch date of my chickens. You can find the records in the "incubating and Hatching eggs" information. I found this on this site. YOu could do a search to find it. It has been very helpful.

 

[Rin]

Well, two are definitely quitters. Possibly weren't even fertile to begin with. Completely clear inside while the seven others are just full of bright red veins, several even MOVED for me How long do you wait to remove eggs that are definitely not doing anything? I'm afraid of properly disturbing the eggs (maybe they get heat from these eggs they're used to?) since they aren't smelling yet but even if they do begin to develop at this point - it's day 8 and they're completely blank inside so they're not hatching at all with the others who are very alive moving and everything right now. So I guess my question is, should I leave them alone until they start to smell or remove them now before they get the opportunity to?

EDIT: wound up removing them and cracking them open to be sure. They were not fertile in the first place

 

[emvickrey]

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I was about to say toss the two and recandle in another week on the others to check for more quitters. If you have a bad one you'll know it from the smell. Be very careful it that happens when handling the eggs. It could burst in your hand and i'm sure no more needs to be said. It happened to me once and I had a mess it ran into a tub full of shoes. Good thing I don't have a weak stomach. Good luck with the rest. I have to do some candeling myself and add some more eggs. I'm working on American Onagadori's. Hopefully to have some to sell this spring.

 

[SJMike]

Hey y'all....

Just started incubating for the first time. Made a home-made bator out of a Coleman Cooler... very simple setup.
Here are a couple photos. We're starting with 3 Black Rosecomb eggs and 6 Coturnix Quail eggs.

Anyone think there'll be problems incubating them together?
Right now it's a still air incubator, we'll see as we go along if I need more airflow... if so, I'll drill a couple of holes to get a thermal flow happening.
Getting up to about 36-37 degrees (Celcius)... hope that works!
Pretty excited!

 

[Rin]

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Sounds good to me, OH! Forgot to mention I took a quick vid for my love of most of them.

as the descript mentions - watch the first egg once I get a focus on it

Five of the eggs are currently doing this but two of them MAY be red-ringed quitters. I just don't know for sure yet as there was actual development, they just seemed clearer. I candled both of them in that vid -

Two that did nothing whatsoever

One of the two possible quitters. No movement, no really notable embryos. I'm no expert here, though.

On that note though, is it normal for the small end of the eggs to be clear-yellowish? All of them were like this.

EDIT: Also had to look up Onagadori - very beautiful birds! :O Good luck to you too with that!