In need of advice

[Girlypants]

Recently i lost 3 of my hens, so i made plans on hatching a few eggs to replace them, i was bought a incubator which ive no idea what brand it is or if its any good, the problem is 7 days into incubation and all im seeing when candling is a bit of a dark mass floating, i think is the yoke, with a small dark dot on it ,no veins or anything else, ive posted a pic of the incubator but unfortunately its so hard to see the candled egg as described that its not showing up in the pic, is it worth continuing with these eggs? should i get a new / better incubator ?
I know the eggs in this incubator are supposed to be upright but that dont seem right to me so ive laid them on their side and manually turning them

 

[Ila88]

I have hatched eggs three times and have never had any luck candling. Now I just wait and see what hatches.

 

[Girlypants]

@Ila88 Its the first time for me, every picture i see on the net of day 5 - 7 candling all show massive amounts of veins and stuff, as im not seeing that it gets me thinking something is wrong, either egg or incubator, maybe best to do as you say, carry on turning em and see if any hatch, i can see a dot floating about tho so there is some sign the eggs are fertile

 

[Ila88]

I know; I saw all those pictures too. I think my hen's egg shells were too dark or too dense. The one time I thought there was nothing, I opened it and it was viable, so after that I just left them alone. There's no harm in keeping them incubated. I agree, though, that they need to be turned.

 

[Sarah the chicken girl]

I candled at day 7 and saw nothing other than a dot at day 10 I candled again and saw mass amounts of veins. Patience is the key I've found. I've now had 4 hatch but only 3 survived just waiting on last 2 hopefully they hatch.

 

[Ila88]

Great! Just watch carefully so that if they're not viable they don't break and contaminate the hatchlings. Also, I recommend handling the chicks to get them to bond with you. I did that with my first batch and they are still the friendliest chickens. I wasn't home for the second hatch and my partner didn't handle them; those hens were always more afraid of us.

Please post some pics when you can. There is nothing more fun than chicks!