I'm not sure what in looking at, any help, please?

[Sunflower247]

Hi, I have 13 to 14 day incubated eggs (australorp, silkies and a breeders personal breed she calls cupid or cute pet) and although I have watched countless videos I'm not sure what I am looking at, the candler I got is rather useless so had to use my phone, could anyone who has some knowledge tell if these eggs are likely still alive or not from my terrible pictures?

I had 10 eggs from another breeder, 4 were infertile and all others from that bunch look dead. No veining, no movement just a line or small blackish blob that is not moving.

Any help greatly appreciated. Feeling I should give up trying at this point.

 

[OneHappyDuckie]

What incubator are you using? Do you have a calibrated thermometer/hygrometer?
The pictures aren't the best to tell, but all of the eggs look dead, sadly

 

[Sunflower247]

Hi, I have a Chinese off brand one, I got two seperate thermostats to read the temp and humidity and they all read different by 1 degree C.

They are rather terrible but all I could see was black odd shaped blobs little to no veining and no movement except one I thought the blob... Pulsed but It could have been my will to see sign of life as I only thought I saw it once
Is it best to throw them out?

Is an off brand incubator or a home made one more reliable?

I started with 48 eggs and only have 2 that were definitely still alive, im worried they two won't make it in this incubator now

 

[OneHappyDuckie]

Hi, I have a Chinese off brand one, I got two seperate thermostats to read the temp and humidity and they all read different by 1 degree C.

They are rather terrible but all I could see was black odd shaped blobs little to no veining and no movement except one I thought the blob... Pulsed but It could have been my will to see sign of life as I only thought I saw it once
Is it best to throw them out?

Is an off brand incubator or a home made one more reliable?

I started with 48 eggs and only have 2 that were definitely still alive, im worried they two won't make it in this incubator now

Those incubators are usually really bad. The Nurture Right 360 is a really good one- I have two of them myself. Hovabators are good too, though I haven't personally used one. Did you calibrate the thermometers?

 

[Obsessed With Silkies]

I can't tell very well based off the pictures. What incubation day are you on? Do you see any veining or movement at all?

 

[Sunflower247]

Those incubators are usually really bad. The Nurture Right 360 is a really good one- I have two of them myself. Hovabators are good too, though I haven't personally used one. Did you calibrate the thermometers?

Those incubators are usually really bad. The Nurture Right 360 is a really good one- I have two of them myself. Hovabators are good too, though I haven't personally used one. Did you calibrate the thermometers?

I did calibrate them and it has been consistently one degree higher on the left (37. 5 degrees c) to the right and the machine temp on the screen has just been all over the place so pretty disappointed.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I don't see any obvious blood rings, so that's good - but you should be able to see spidery blood veins if they are alive. Maybe it's just the photo quality or the light leakage why we don't see any. You can try a bright flashlight with a toilet paper tube taped to the end to make a tight seal around the egg, that helps. I have a penlight with a bit of duct tape wrapped around the end; works great. Can you try again with something like that? Maybe go into a dark room or put a cardboard box or blanket over your head? Be very very gentle. They are fragile at this stage.

Movement can be very tiny. I can often trigger movement by very gently tilting the egg or turning it this way or that, or by taking the light away then putting it back again. I think they don't like intense light and will react to it. And when I see movement at this stage, it's normally at the lower left edge of the black blob - if you're holding the egg small end downwards with the black blob facing you. But this is just my observation; could be just incidental.

To my untrained eye, the black blobs don't look unusual for Day 13-14 and they are the right size. The air sacs look about right, maybe a bit big, but that's better than too small at this stage. What has the humidity been running at in your incubator?

Can you post a photo of the incubator? I know the Chinese ones get a bad rap in these forums - but if they hold temperature and humidity well, air is fan circulated, and the gauges are calibrated properly, they work fine. I have one that has hatched 3 batches so far with 83-100% hatch rates.

 

[Sunflower247]

I can't tell very well based off the pictures. What incubation day are you on? Do you see any veining or movement at all?

Hello, the incubator says day 13, I have 2 that are very dark, good veins and definately moving, the photos I could see very little or no veins just dark blobs and I couldn't see any movement but the light was terrible but on the two that ver very much alive and moving they lit up well

 

[OneHappyDuckie]

@MGG

 

[Sunflower247]

I don't see any obvious blood rings, so that's good - but you should be able to see spidery blood veins if they are alive. Maybe it's just the photo quality or the light leakage why we don't see any. You can try a bright flashlight with a toilet paper tube taped to the end to make a tight seal around the egg, that helps. I have a penlight with a bit of duct tape wrapped around the end; works great. Can you try again with something like that? Maybe go into a dark room or put a cardboard box or blanket over your head? Be very very gentle. They are fragile at this stage.

Movement can be very tiny. I can often trigger movement by very gently tilting the egg or turning it this way or that, or by taking the light away then putting it back again. I think they don't like intense light and will react to it. And when I see movement at this stage, it's normally at the lower left edge of the black blob - if you're holding the egg small end downwards with the black blob facing you. But this is just my observation; could be just incidental.

To my untrained eye, the black blobs don't look unusual for Day 13-14 and they are the right size. The air sacs look about right, maybe a bit big, but that's better than too small at this stage. What has the humidity been running at in your incubator?

Can you post a photo of the incubator? I know the Chinese ones get a bad rap in these forums - but if they hold temperature and humidity well, air is fan circulated, and the gauges are calibrated properly, they work fine. I have one that has hatched 3 batches so far with 83-100% hatch rates.

Hello, thank you for the detailed reply, I could see some light veining on some and none on others, I'm not sure if it's because the veins are breaking down or because the shell was thicker (or just wish full thinking)

I will try the flashlight and paper tube now, it's pretty dark here (2am) so hopefully I can see better.

I have two extra thermostats in the incubator and one side has consistently been a full degree c less than the other, I got them on day 4 as after 48 hours the display on my unit we awol and was changing temp readings every few seconds and I didn't have another incubator to transfer the eggs.

I've been told home made incubators are better?