First Time Egg Candler Scared!

[WVduckchick]

This site has an awesome explanation and proper way to use a temp gun on chicken eggs.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/downloads/download/174/

That is some cool information!! Will read it more in detail, but I have one of those ear thermometers too! I was thinking the laser gun kind, which is what my hubby has. I would love to be able to take a thermal pic like that one!

 

[sideWing]

According to this the blastoderm does degrade after incubation: If you open eggs and don't see the "bullseye" that is because the blastoderm degrades after a couple days of incubation. Again, this doesn't mean the eggs weren't fertile. Taken from: https://www.facebook.com/SunnysideUpMicroFarm/notes

So good to know! Thank you Amy I could not find this. I thought the 14 days at 99.5 degrees could make the bullseye disappear.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

So good to know! Thank you Amy I could not find this. I thought the 14 days at 99.5 degrees could make the bullseye disappear.

I thought probably too, but it's good to have confirmation. That was the only thing that I could really find that answered the question. There is like NO info out there on this.

 

[sideWing]

Ouch that's a lot of money for eggs that don't hatch. I need to do some research to find out if you can still see the "bullseye" after incubation of eggs that don't develope but are still fertile. Because no those don't look like normal fertile eggs, but I couple look like they might have showed a bullseye at a prior time. It's an interesting question. I can not tell from the inside of the air cell as to how much is really there. Trying to invision it upright from the outside I'd think they would look smaller than day 14, but it's too hard to tell (for me) unless I see it marked against the whole of the egg to get the percentage of how much is air cell compared to the rest of the egg.

Humidity is at 39 today. It has been dropping about 1% to 1.5% each day since I took away any water source. How low should I let it go?

Thursday night at 6 o'clock is lockdown and I will bring the humidity up to 65% - 70%. Does that sound correct?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Humidity is at 39 today. It has been dropping about 1% to 1.5% each day since I took away any water source. How low should I let it go?

Thursday night at 6 o'clock is lockdown and I will bring the humidity up to 65% - 70%. Does that sound correct?

Sounds good to me. I try to keep mine around 30% and if I see it edging toward 25% I rewet my sponge.

 

[sideWing]

Sounds good to me. I try to keep mine around 30% and if I see it edging toward 25% I rewet my sponge.

Then I will stay the course. 39 is the lowest it has been with no water at all. I think it's just the eggs putting off moisture.

Thanks!

 

[sideWing]

What do you think of the size of these air sacks at 14 days incubation? I'm not sure how you folks get those nice lines. My wife helped me while I held the flashlight and the lines are pretty squiggly.

I think they look ok compared to this chart (Thanks Amy!):

 

[WVduckchick]

Looks good to me... and yes, my lines look like a 1st grader did them too!

And I was curious why my chick air cells didn't dip like the picture shows, they stayed more flat. A few dipped, but most stayed pretty flat. My duck eggs all dipped really well. My sister-in-law said in her experience, chicken eggs don't really dip that much. Does everyone else have that same experience? If so, why did they do the drawing that way? LOL

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Looks good to me... and yes, my lines look like a 1st grader did them too!

And I was curious why my chick air cells didn't dip like the picture shows, they stayed more flat. A few dipped, but most stayed pretty flat. My duck eggs all dipped really well. My sister-in-law said in her experience, chicken eggs don't really dip that much. Does everyone else have that same experience? If so, why did they do the drawing that way? LOL

Mine dip significantly. Let me see if I can find some pics to show.

 

[sideWing]

Looks good to me... and yes, my lines look like a 1st grader did them too!

And I was curious why my chick air cells didn't dip like the picture shows, they stayed more flat. A few dipped, but most stayed pretty flat. My duck eggs all dipped really well. My sister-in-law said in her experience, chicken eggs don't really dip that much. Does everyone else have that same experience? If so, why did they do the drawing that way? LOL

Some of mine did and a few didn't. Most had some dip.