First Candling,First Mistake

[ncgnance]

I'm new here, and have learned alot already from you guys. But I'm so mad at myself, let me tell you why. Last night I candled my first brood of 15 eggs. I read everything I could find to learn what to look for. I found 6 eggs that I didn't like the looks of. 1 of the 6 I put back to check again. Then I checked the 5 eggs that I decided were not viable. 2 of the 5 eggs had living embryos inside. I'm just sick about it. From now on I will not be so quick to terminate. I do have one question (right now) that ya'll might help me with. I have read several different temperatures for incubating in the Little Giant incubator. It ranges from 99.5 to 102 degrees. I'm trying to keep the temp at 101 degrees, 50% humidity. I hope that will be ok. I also read the article by Bill Worrell about Dry Incubation. I'm trying to follow those directions, too. Any advice?? Again, I'm really enjoying this site.

 

[ChrystalGail]

I did the same thing. :aww It's sad when you realize that you didn't give them a chance to make it. I had one that I accidently dropped! I was very upset with that one. The good thing is that we learned our lesson and we won't make the same mistake again. Plus, it's neat (after you get of the sad/mad) to see how they develope. I'm sorry for your loss, but this is a learning process and we have definatly learned!

 

[speckledhen]

The only rule of thumb I follow is to never toss an egg before Day 14 unless it has an obvious blood ring. You can also float one in water warmer than it is. The live chick should send ripples out into the water.

 

[tiffanyh]

Best advice with a still air, get a water weasel. I had my temp at 101 and come to find out the inside of the egg was down at 95. No wonder my first couple batches had a 0% hatch rate! I had to get the air in my incubator up to 103 to get teh weasel to read 99.5, once I did that I had great hatch rates.

Good luck!