Judging Incubation Age Help

[JacinLarkwell]

Anyone here good at judging incubation age? I have some eggs I really don't know how old they are, just that they're not ready to hatch yet.

Also how long after draw down does the internal pip happen? Or another way of asking, what day does draw down happen? Is it safe to stop turning eggs when it's noticed? (Hand turning and again no idea the age on these eggs)

I can provide pics of the ones I'm unsure about if anyone thinks they might be able to guesstimate a close age, I do know they're already got their feet developed.

Do they see the light of a Chandler when it's used? I've noticed one is incredably active when I use it, and the other 4 aren't

Here's the link to my post with them going day by dayish, but not a lot of traffic there and I'd like answers as soon as possible just so I don't keep turning when I'm not supposed to.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/2021-jacin-hatchalong-1.1452821/

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

Hey Hey

If you have pictures of your candled eggs I'm happy to give you my estimation on their incubation age. In the meantime - here's a chart that I used to find useful when learning to candle.

If your eggs are starting to draw down then I'd say it's safe to stop turning them. In my experience.. hatching normally occurs in the 2-3 days after drawdown.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hey Hey

If you have pictures of your candled eggs I'm happy to give you my estimation on their incubation age. In the meantime - here's a chart that I used to find useful when learning to candle.

If your eggs are starting to draw down then I'd say it's safe to stop turning them. In my experience.. hatching normally occurs in the 2-3 days after drawdown.

View attachment 2643653

It's hard to tell, they're between the last half of the 3rd row and first half of the 4th row.

I'll try to get better pics tomorrow, we had lights on that probably made them harder to see

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They should all be within a day of each other since the other white layer at the time had been broody too

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

It's hard to tell, they're between the last half of the 3rd row and first half of the 4th row.

I'll try to get better pics tomorrow, we had lights on that probably made them harder to see

I can clearly see the embryo so I'd say past day 7, but the embryo is not taking up much of the egg so I'd say, as a rough guess, those eggs are approximately 8-12 days into incubation.

When did you put them into your incubator??

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

I can clearly see the embryo so I'd say past day 7, but the embryo is not taking up much of the egg so I'd say, as a rough guess, those eggs are approximately 8-12 days into incubation.

When did you put them into your incubator??

As an additional note - it may be the location of the torch in the pictures, but I cannot easily see the air cell. If you are confident that your humidity levels have been correct then you can also age the stage of incubation by the air cell size.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I can clearly see the embryo so I'd say past day 7, but the embryo is not taking up much of the egg so I'd say, as a rough guess, those eggs are approximately 8-12 days into incubation.

When did you put them into your incubator??

They went in the 18th, but had been sat on before then for a few days.

I'll try to get a better picture tonight, they're taking up at least 1/3 of the eggs

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

As an example - I have several sets of eggs in incubation at the moment - I just went now to take pics for you to compare with.

You can see the different in air cells and embryo development.
Your eggs look quite similar to my Day 7 eggs - perhaps a few days further along?

Eggs at Day 7 of Incubation



Eggs at Day 14 of Incubation

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

They went in the 18th, but had been sat on before then for a few days.

I'll try to get a better picture tonight, they're taking up at least 1/3 of the eggs

If you placed them into the incubator on 18th April then they are "at a minimum" - 14 days into incubation (plus any days previously incubated).

Given your pictures I would not consider them much past that 14 day mark - so, if it were me, I'd work on the assumption that the hen hadn't started sitting or incubating in earnest prior to you taking the eggs and therefore your likely hatch date will be about the 9th of May (21 days from when you set them in your incubator).

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Alright, thanks. I know she had been broody, but there were several broodies and occassonally someone wound up on the wrong nest so that could very well be the case.