Half way through day 8 I candled & culled : (

[midget_farms]

I'm clearly not yet an expert on candling.

I have 58 eggs cooking. On day 4 I candled & guessed all but 2 were duds! Ha.

So I waited 4 more days.

This time - some of the eggs you could clearly see a shadow swimming around in there on several of them. In fact most of them I thought were duds before had a good sized shadow.

I culled 10 eggs though -they looked clear - well most of them did.

I left 3 or 4 that I just couldn't tell in the bator - the rest all looked good.

Anyway - I decided to check my accuracy on candling by opening the culled eggs.

4 had started to grow - 6 had broken yolk or no fertilization.

Of the 4 that had started - 1 was nothing more than a single red vein.

3 however had little bug eyed still kickin chicks : ((

It looked like the yolk was broken on all three - at least that is what I'm telling myself - the yolk poured out of the egg like water & the chick came out after. I'm telling myself they would have died anyway because of the broken yolk.

But I still have 48 in the bator - & most of them look really good.

Considering they were shipped in the cold & 1 box left outside in the snow by the post office (I still have all 10 of those in the bator though 1 was questionable) I'd say I'm doing OK.

For my first hatch.

In a home made incubator.

 

[wegotchickens]

Next time, don't candle until Day 10.

The yolk fell apart because the egg was opened. But that's okay. Live and learn, right?

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

This is my first hatch as well....

I keep candling and on day 8 and on day 10 I left all the clear eggs in the incubator I think when I candled at day 12 or 13 and they were still clear I finally chucked them. I have 4 I am looking at now that look like they have died and yet I keep putting them back in just in case. We are at day 15 right now and I am crossing my fingers for the rest- I think I am going to have to get another batch just to make sure I am doing everything correctly before I pay for eggs

Good luck!!!

 

[dsqard]

I have only incubated once and I am so unsure of what I am seeing when I candle that I don't dare take any clears out until at least day 10. I take more out at day 18. I was so worried about taking out one that might be viable, I actually had one make it through lock down and the other eggs hatching that had not even started. I just like being really careful.

 

[ZooMummzy]

Awww

I always worry about that too when I pull eggs. It is a live and learn so don't be hard on yourself. I candled last night on Day 6 but I only pull the completely clear ones that early. The ones that I see any sort of veins, I leave till Day 14 or even 18 now.

 

[midget_farms]

Taking out 10 eggs means 20% wont hatch. I have 30% more for a solid showing of 50% - that means I can lose 15 more & still be right where I thought i would be.

Lets hope I do better than that - but there are 3 or so eggs that I wanted to pull - but couldn't for some reason.

Wish I had pulled them instead of the three with chicks - but in any case - can't change it now.