How to tell if my eggs are fertilized

[cruisnmoma]

Hi all, I haven't posted in quite a long time. But I do have a question. I have 10 new pullets, got them in February on Valentine's day. Turns out I also have a rooster. So I've got 10 new girls, and a rooster. One of the newer girls has gone broody about a week ago. For fun I thought we would let her sit on some eggs and see if we can hatch a few babies. All of my eggs are brown or super light brown like a beige. I have candled things and I cannot see anything. I don't know what I'm looking at. I have tried comparing against pictures and I just can't see anything. I have cracked open some eggs that I thought might be fertilized, and they definitely had been, but I can't seem to tell through the shell. These were just at the very small bullseye stage. There is nothing developed. These were from eggs that were left and not sat on.I don't like the idea of letting her sit out there with 20 plus eggs on the hopes that something will hatch, I just want her to hatch two or three just for the sake of being able to do it. She keeps collecting eggs from the other nesting box, or everybody's running in there laying when she does get out for a little bit. I have an egg that I marked on 9/6. I plan on trying to look at it tonight. How can I tell through a brown spotted egg there's something there? Years ago I had a rooster with some chickens, and I know we had eggs at fertilized, and I'm pretty sure it was fairly well developed, but she stopped sitting on them, but I still can't figure out what I'm looking at even if something is developing. I know it takes about 21 days to hatch but I'm still trying to figure out if the eggs are worth leaving under her. She's super sweet, she lets me pick her up and reach under her and everything and she doesn't try to attack me. But I also don't want to overhandle the eggs and damage what might be going on.

 

[SnackMeat]

When I changed flashlights to a super bright LED one I could see at least the air sac of a Marans brown egg and if there were veins at the edge. Might just need a stronger flashlight and a dark room.


Alternatively, if you don't mind cracking open eggs, you can take half of the nest and put in an incubator and crack one a day. You'll probably find your answer one way or the other in a week or less. And she'll still have eggs to sit on.

 

[cruisnmoma]

When I changed flashlights to a super bright LED one I could see at least the air sac of a Marans brown egg and if there were veins at the edge. Might just need a stronger flashlight and a dark room.


Alternatively, if you don't mind cracking open eggs, you can take half of the nest and put in an incubator and crack one a day. You'll probably find your answer one way or the other in a week or less. And she'll still have eggs to sit on.

When I changed flashlights to a super bright LED one I could see at least the air sac of a Marans brown egg and if there were veins at the edge. Might just need a stronger flashlight and a dark room.


Alternatively, if you don't mind cracking open eggs, you can take half of the nest and put in an incubator and crack one a day. You'll probably find your answer one way or the other in a week or less. And she'll still have eggs to sit on.

Unfortunately, I do not have an incubator. I'm just trying to figure out how to see the difference through the egg. Don't really want to crack open everything. Especially if she's got something going on under her. I don't want to kill the little one. Is it harder to see the veining in a brown egg as opposed to a white egg? I don't know why I can't seem to tell what's going on. Even when I'm looking at the pictures I can't really tell what I'm looking at

 

[ella2025]

I have cracked open some eggs that I thought might be fertilized, and they definitely had been, but I can't seem to tell through the shell. These were just at the very small bullseye stage. There is nothing developed. These were from eggs that were left and not sat on.

Just to clarify, these are the eggs that haven't been sat on, aka just non incubated eggs? For those eggs all you can do is crack it open and look at the tiny bullseye. It's hard to tell if they're fertilized just with that test, honestly. You cannot candle and see the embryo on an egg that hasn't incubated for at least 1-2 days.

You mentioned having her sit on 20 eggs? I don't think even a brahma or jersey giant hen can fit that many eggs under her LOL. Make sure whatever eggs you want her to hatch are all marked and started incubation within a day or two of one another. Remove all extra eggs that she pushes in or other hens put in as she will abandon the unhatched eggs (later put in eggs) about 2 days after her chicks first start to hatch. Abandoned eggs cannot be eaten because they will either have a living embryo in it (please don't eat an unhatched chick) or is completely rotten inside.

I have an egg that I marked on 9/6. I plan on trying to look at it tonight. How can I tell through a brown spotted egg there's something there?

I have one that I put on 9/7! 3-4 days after that i candled and saw veins and a black dot in the center, kind of like a spider. I can distinguish the air cell from the rest of the egg, which will get darker as time goes on. That egg i'm talking about is green, and green eggs (blue eggs even more so) are EXTREMELY hard to see through. I'm not sure how dark your brown egg is, but with a decent small flashlight or even better if you have a candler, a brown egg should be relatively easy to candle. I don't have a candler so i did some arts and crafts with some toilet paper roll and taped it onto my flashlight, and that made a very decent candler. Did you try candling yet? If you can't tell yourself you can also just send a photo and i or other people can help you tell if it's fertilized.

 

[Debbie292d]

I've hatched over 500 silkies this year and only candle them on Day 6 or 7 as I hate guessing, and at that point, they are obvious. They are either what I call "lava lamps," unfertilized or non-starters, or there's a black blob and veins.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

How early are you candling them? At three or four days you should definitely see veins and maybe even that black blob which is the chick's eye. Try candling in a dark room using the flashlight feature of your cell phone, that is usually bright enough to candle with! Good luck.

Oh yes, also twelve eggs is about all a standard chicken can cover. Too many and some will chill and die and she will push them out of the nest.

Definitely mark the eggs she started on Day One. Use a Sharpie and make sure you can easily see the markings. I draw circles around my eggs going both directions, around the equator and also pole to pole. Every day I remove any fresh egs, eggs that are not marked. That way she will only hatch the "Day One" eggs and none will be abandoned to die.

Edit to fix typos

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

I usually just let my broody do the work.
They really don’t like it if you steal the eggs out from under them, anyway. I just do one candling on day 8. That’s it.
Just please, Please, PLEASE, don’t let her sit on 20 eggs! If you do this, each egg will have a little time out from under her, and she will have a VERY LOW hatch rate!