Help Incubating Eggs

[Rose98]

I have 12 chicken eggs in the incubator they are up to day 16, 11 started forming 1 was infertile. It is nearly 2 years since my last hatch and have forgotten more then i thought when it comes to hatching eggs.
We candled them tonight. There are a number of eggs that i cant decide are bacteria or chicken. Orginal candle thought they were dead, second candle thought they were alive as they moved in a rhythmic way almost like a heart beat.... does bactera do this? With this last candle it was hard to see any real movement as they were quite dark .
So i guess my questions are.... would bacteria grow same rate as a chicken? Would bacteria move in a jumpy rhythmic way?(know it floats) and would these eggs smell by now if they were bad?
2/3 eggs that i was pretty sure were chicks didnt see movment from much.... this normal?
Please advise

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't do anything dramatic like tossing eggs unless they clearly have not developed. I don't always see movement when I candle, especially in my blue, green, or dark brown eggs. Bacteria will not move in rhythm like a heart beat. If there is that much bacteria in there you should easily be able to smell it through that porous shell. Bacteria certainly does not grow at the same rate as the chick. The egg provides the perfect food for bacteria to really multiply and incubation temperature is also perfect for them. If bacteria gets inside you will know it pretty soon.

I know it won't do any good to tell you to relax, it is a worrying time. But to me it sounds like things are going pretty well. Hopefully you will get a good hatch.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

At day 16, aren't they pretty formed to where all you see is a big black spot? I doubt they would be moving around like when they were 8 days old and where you can see their heart beat. Leave it alone.

 

[Rose98]

Thanks for the replies!
Yes they are pretty full shells.Fingers crossed then.... hopefully lots of lil babies!

 

[Rose98]

Just put the eggs into lockdown. Noticed some air cells are on the bigish and others are quite small (so much that it was hard to see the dip in the air cell) any idea why this may be the case? It is a fan forced incubator.
Also suggestions for humidity during lockdown, just not sure as the air cells vary quite a bit.
Himidity has been around 40 to 45 for the first 18 days.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I try for a minimum of 65% for humidity after lockdown. You want the humidity up so the membrane around the chick doesn't dry out and shrink tightly around the chick so it can't move to hatch.

I'm not sure what is going on with those air cells. Were some eggs stored in dry conditions longer than others so they lost more moisture before incubation started? Some egg shells are more porous than others so they will loose more moisture during incubation than others. Especially if it is a homemade incubator maybe the air wasn't getting mixed as it should so you had different humidities in different areas inside. That last one is a stretch. Or it might be natural variation within acceptable limits. When people weigh eggs during incubation to determine how much moisture they are losing individual eggs can vary a surprising amount. They have to take the average instead of relying on one individual egg.

At this point all you can do is go into lockdown and see what happens. It sounds like you did everything right. I'm still pretty hopeful for you. Nature was kind enough to us to give a decent window of moisture loss where the eggs can hatch instead of everything having to be absolutely perfect.

 

[Rose98]

Thanks Ridgerunner! Bought the egss so not sure exactly how long they were stored. One is quite porous and it has a larger air cell.
Just realised i have made the worse mistake in my hatching history.
At about day 6 or 7 i noticed the humidity was around the high/mid 40's so didnt add water.... this went on all the way till about day 12 or 13, humidity was staying mids 40's so no water. After that i started thinking this isnt normal, normally add more water, so thought prehaps my the humidity reader isnt working properly. Day 13 onwards i started adding water daily.
Just realised the humidity reader has obviously been knocked and was measuring humidity outside the incubator (room humidity). I cant believe i didnt pick up on this earlier!!!
The incubator has never run dry, its always had water in it but could have this done damage?
When we candled for lock down we saw movement in a few eggs but still such a stupid mistake. Have i messed this hatch up?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Only time will tell. Don't be too hard on yourself, we all make mistakes.

 

[Mosey2003]

I bet it's fine. The very small air cells would worry me more, would suggest to me that they died at some point in the incubation. And obviously the eggs you picked up had a range of freshness to them, which will give you varying air cell sizes.

 

[Rose98]

Thanks guys! Will let u know how ot goes.