First time hatching

[chickenncat]

Hello all,
A bit of background. A bit complicated.
My hen went broody. After trying so many things, I couldn't break her out of it. So I thought fair enough. I decided to buy fertilised eggs So she could raise them. I bought eggs from 2 different sellers. One of them arrived within 2 days. The other lot didn’t arrive so I asked the seller to resend another batch. But she kept telling me to wait. By this time my hen decided she is done with being broody!!! So here I am with 6 fertilised eggs and no broody. I quickly sourced an incubator through an acquaintance on the same day. It’s Brinsea Mini so holds only 10. So I put the first 6 eggs in the incubator, thinking the second seller will not honour her promise. She tells me she’s sending me another lot Since the first lot is lost. So I tell her to send only 4 because there’s room for only 4 eggs in the incubator. Then the “lost” one and the second one arrived one day apart!. By now the first lot has been in the incubator for a week. So now I have the second lot (6 eggs-deemed lost) and the third lot (4 eggs, fresh). 4 spaces in the incubator. So I put the new fresh 4 into the incubator. I didn’t have the heart to throw away the “old” eggs so I placed 2 of the tiny eggs into the incubator. There is exactly one week between them since they went into the incubator. These are bantam eggs so they are rather tiny. So it fits ok. Just.

Probably I shouldn’t have mixed them all but they are all marked.

Now the question is, on day 18 can I place the first lot, 6 initial ones under the heat plate to hatch? I have those fancy Titan brooder.. The incubator seems too crowded. Afraid it‘ll be too cramped to hatch but never hatched eggs before. So a bit concerned.

I tried candling to see if some can be discarded but I can’t see anything. Now the first lot are on day 15, second on day 8. Attaching pictures of the equipment.

 

[AltonaAcres]

What are you seeing when you candle?

 

[nchls school]

Candling should be easy. Use the brightest flashlight you have (use new batteries). Candle the eggs in the dark. I use our windowless bathroom. Shine the flashlight beam through the side of the eggs. When the light passes through the day 15 eggs you will see an empty space on one end, the air cell and the other end will appear dark. Some veins may be visible. If the light passes through and you see nothing in the egg other than the yolk, the egg is not developing-discard.

With the day 8 eggs you will see veining, much like a spiders' web. You'll also see the empty space air cell at the round end. Again, if you don't see this and the egg appears clear-discard.

If any eggs appear clear, they were infertile.

Eggs should be hatched in the incubator-not the heat plate.

 

[chickenncat]

15 day old eggs are welsummers, aracuana and silver laced Wyandottes. welsummers are impossible to see because of dark shell. Aracuana blueish eggs with very thick shell. Can’t tell anything. Silver laced seems like there’s a distinct air pocket.
8 day olds, I can’t tell if I am seeing a bit of a dark spot but some of them shows nothing. Like they are full of water. I may need to find another flashlight. I used 3 different ones but they’re like LED ones, not high intensity light. With lockdown, I didn’t want to go to a hardware store but I might have to tomorrow.
Good to know re not hatching under the heat plate. Thank you.