Heat Lamp Egg - what are my Chances?

[JDrake]

This has been my first year with chickens. Started out with 6 golden wyndottes and then added 3 dominique hens and rooster. Dogs got 2 of the dominique hens and then the last one died last night - she got sick. I have the roo and 2 golden hens left. It's not been a good year. One of the goldens died last month like the dominique did last night. The others got done in by dogs. (not my dogs)

Anyways.... I happened to walk past the "goat house" one afternoon earlier this month and discovered 3 eggs in a "nest" in there. Picked them up and brought them in the house. Feeling bummed about losing so many of my hens - I decided to try to hatch them. More of an eperiement really. I set up a box with a heat lamp on it in the basement on Dec. 4th with the 3 eggs I found and then also I took 4 eggs I had collected and put in the fridge before they stopped laying when fall hit. I ended up candling the 3 eggs I found and only one still looked OK so I put this and the other 4 in my heat lamp set-up.

After a week I candled them all and did not see anything different in them. I set them all back under the heat lamp and figured I would just let it keep going "just in case" - and THEN my husband accidently knocked the heat lamp off and it landed on the eggs and I had to throw away 2 that were smooshed. They didn't looke fertile or were just not developing from the looks of them.

I left the remaining eggs under the lamp and kinda half-gave up on things but left it running. I decided to would candle the eggs again this afternoon just to see if MAYBE anything was developing. Two of the eggs looked the same as before - just an air sack and yolk. The third egg though is completely dark and I can't really see anything at all.

So now for anyone who read all this - does the dark egg mean there is a chick inside there afterall?? Christmas will be the 21st day.... I could not make out an air sack or anything. The egg is brown and not white if that makes a difference in seeing anything.

 

[LAChickens]

Hi, I can understand your frustration, there are a couple of problems with hatching eggs using a heat lamp. Mostly, controlling the heat and the humidity. It's hard enough in a box with a calibrated thermometer. But you never know. I took a color photography class back in college, there were strict guidelines for getting good color negs to print from, but the instructor told us the best negs she'd ever seen were at a prison. Instead of gently rotating the container every minute or two, the inmates would shake the heck out of the canister, then head out for a smoke...so you never know. I failed to notice how old this post is, so if it's from 2009 or 2010, please let me know how it turned out.

 

[JDrake]

this is recent as in happening now lol - not an old post!

I have a thermometer sitting with the egg so I can tell how hot it is. I have been able to keep it around 100. It did spike today though because of it being an unusually warm day for this time of year. Hope that if there IS a chick in the egg that the heat didn't kill it before I was able to fix things.

I have never done this before but felt like it would be fun to see if it would work.

Does a dark egg mean that there is something in there? It wasn't dark a week and a half ago....

 

[Taco]

Have you been turning the egg a few times per day?

 

[JDrake]

I had been but not as often this past week because I essentially "gave up" when the eggs got smooshed and the temps dropped from the heat lamp not working for a little bit when it fell. I had candled them just before that and saw nothing but air sacks - not veins on any of them. I was surprised that this one egg was pretty dark and I would say not very candle-friendly - I couldn' see anything at all - looked solid I guess which it didnt before. Today would be day 17 I think

 

[Taco]

Might as well keep going, but don't get your hopes too hi. If it pips, I would lay a damp paper towel over it to increase the humidity, and keep it damp.