january hatch-a-long

[Chirehe]

6/7 eggs have made it to lockdown! One looks small like there’s still a bunch of space he could have grown into so he might take awhile longer but he’s very much alive, all the others look like they could pip at any time now!

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

Oh good! How did they get so soaked? Did you have a leak or did they just get into the waterer?

We used a peanut butter lid with clean rocks in it but when I came home from being gone a few hours they were all soaked I assume they got in the water. The poor little quail looked miserable they were weak from being wet so most of them were just chirping.

 

[WVduckchick]

I candled them because kids. Two I'm pretty sure are fertile. One had a black mass about the size of a penny with a LONG vine thing coming out of it. At day six you shouldn't see a vein that's nearly an inch long, correct? I thought you should just be able to see them.



This picture has two things with it I'm curious about.

1) the black mass at the top is NOT a shadow. It's in several of my eggs, at different heights in the egg. Some of them are nearly covering the entire egg. If I put the flashlight on the top of the egg no light will get through at all. Is that a good thing?
2) The speckles. A few of my eggs have them. I've read it could mean a bacteria got in? Are the speckles a bad thing?
View attachment 1639870


Here's a better picture of the darkness in the egg. It's not an even line either. Some of them go way up, some go way down. Which leads me to believe it's not an air bubble, I think.

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This is one of my 'funky monkey' eggs. I have ... Two? of them. The darkness is WAY off to the side. In this one it's actually split into a W shape, connected at the top.


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Bonus question: Air bubbles in the actual egg itself are bad, right? Like eight or ten little bubbles that are NOT part of the main air bubble. And move around the egg. The air bubble at the top swishes around like in a cup as well. Pretty sure that means the egg is bad, but wanted to double check.


PS I'm not positive it's actually an air bubble I'm talking about. I admit I need to learn.

This is only day 4 (or thereabouts) correct?
The darker mass floating is likely the yolk. Sometimes they are more visible than others, depending on shadows and thickness of the albumen.
The air cell should be on the fatter end of the egg. You should candle down thru it for the best view of early veining. Also move the light around the egg for different views.
I try to keep the egg in the same position, and move my light around it, instead of moving the egg too much.

The speckles are just different quality of the shell. The speckled looking ones are more porous. It’s just a difference in the nutrition of the hen. Usually a hens eggs will always look about the same, it’s just part of the egg factory and nutrition.

Bubbles.... there should only be one solid air cell, locked to the fat end. There shouldn’t be any bubbles floating around. That usually only happens in shipped eggs that were very roughly handled. So maybe check that one again and let us know what you see.

We used a peanut butter lid with clean rocks in it but when I came home from being gone a few hours they were all soaked I assume they got in the water. The poor little quail looked miserable they were weak from being wet so most of them were just chirping.

Awww

 

[WVduckchick]

Candled my Call duck eggs today. 12 down to 11. One quitter. The rest look great. All the CAMs are fully developed and looking good! Day 12 of 26, 2 weeks to go!

 

[aliciaplus3]

Just checked my eggs due to hatch tomorrow.... looks like a few have internal pips and the rest are shadowing..... starting to get excited

 

[Tatuana]

This is only day 4 (or thereabouts) correct?

They're seven days now. I can see two that for sure have life in them. It's hard to see since the eggs are pretty dark and I have to kind of DIY a light source for them.

It's weird, on several of them if I try to candle through the fat end NO light at all goes through. It's just a thick dark mass. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

The speckles are just different quality of the shell. The speckled looking ones are more porous. It’s just a difference in the nutrition of the hen. Usually a hens eggs will always look about the same, it’s just part of the egg factory and nutrition.

That's good! Lots of them are speckled, including one I think is alive. I'm a city girl, if I can't buy it at Walmart I don't know what it looks like.

Bubbles.... there should only be one solid air cell, locked to the fat end. There shouldn’t be any bubbles floating around. That usually only happens in shipped eggs that were very roughly handled. So maybe check that one again and let us know what you see.

That's kind of what I figured. I'll see if I can get a picture of it tonight. I'm pretty sure I know which egg it is.

 

[Misfits Farm 92]

The ones in the other incubator are finally hatching. Do you guys know what color this baby quail is?

Should I help this chick out of it's egg? It's been pipped since around 4:00 yesterday.

 

[muddy75]

The ones in the other incubator are finally hatching. Do you guys know what color this baby quail is?
View attachment 1640644
Should I help this chick out of it's egg? It's been pipped since around 4:00 yesterday.
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i’m having a bit of trouble with colors myself...got some ideas on a few with a post in a fb group quail call, but hard to tell for sure until older...as for your pipper, yes I would gently assist to get it zipping horizontally.

 

[Kiki]

I found this helpful with colors:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/quail-colors.1270888/

 

[muddy75]

I lost my little runt baby a few minutes ago. It was last to hatch and much smaller than the others. I heated up a wrap, took it out of the brooder about 30 minutes before knowing it was close to the end and allowed it to stay on our laps until it expired completely vs being trampled on by the others.