Little Giant Incubator Tricks

[Sylviaanne]

With very good/ great candlers you CAN see thru all eggs-- so I am told.

I read about lights that use 3300 lumens for caponizing but when I looked at Home Depot, I could not find anything stronger than 500 lumens and it had a huge lens on it.

Where does everyone get their candlers from, other than Ebay?

I will probably end up ordering a candler from Ebay, but I was just wondering if anyone found a place local to your area that worked?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THe purchases had been made via companies that supply chicken speciality items: look for suppliers of incubators for the extras like candlers.

I personally use a small LED light. It is enough for me to see the aircell and if the egg is darkened by a developed chick. Weighing can be more effective with dark eggs.

 

[cmom]

This pic is a bit fuzzy but you can see the embryo.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Is that the same egg? The top one looks all clear, not even a yolk. Is the bottom photo upside down? Sylvia

 

[cmom]

Is that the same egg? The top one looks all clear, not even a yolk. Is the bottom photo upside down? Sylvia

Not necessarily the same egg. The first picture is when I first put the eggs in the incubator and the bottom picture is candling at around 2 weeks. In the first picture the candler was hanging on the door and the bottom it was clamped on the back of a chair.

 

[Arielle]

CMOM-- what wattage bulb is in the lamp??

 

[cmom]

It is one of those mini flood lamp bulbs. I think maybe 85 watt. Not sure. I made it a few years ago and put foil on the inside of the cardboard.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Not necessarily the same egg. The first picture is when I first put the eggs in the incubator and the bottom picture is candling at around 2 weeks. In the first picture the candler was hanging on the door and the bottom it was clamped on the back of a chair.

Ok, the 2nd picture is what I call murky in my ledger. When I see this I assume it means something is growing. Sometimes it will get so dark I can't see through the middle but it will still be clear, although red, at the bottom of the egg.

Is there anyway to tell if an egg you can't see through and can't find the air sack is any good at all?

Last night I was trying to candle eggs and I held one up to my ear and tapped on it. Durn thing exploded all over me, the table, the incubator and the floor. I had already been tapping on it with my fingernail but I must have hit it just wrong. Sounded like a small firecracker going off.

I tossed out 2 eggs that were clear enough to see the yolks and one blue/green egg that was hard to see through but pretty clear looking. Tossed another one the same age as the first on that popped, just in case. All the other eggs had hatched.

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I suspect the egg that exploded may have had a hairline crack. Sometimes an egg will have one that is hard to detect and when you tapped on the crack it exploded. When the chick is nearly fully developed it is pretty much impossible to see any movement. I have tapped on the eggs too. I just leave the unhatched eggs in the incubator an extra couple of days or so. A couple of times I have had chicks hatch that I thought were expired. It was day 25 and I was turning off the incubator and taking the eggs that hadn't hatched out and I heard peeping. The pips were under the eggs so I didn't see them and the chicks were stuck so I helped them hatch and they survived.

 

[quailtrail]

Put 10 out of 14 into lockdown worried about humidity as its 80% dry today...but all eggs look great going in! One still has a wicked saddle but very active. So this is my first attempt with shipped eggs again. 6 out of 10 shipped went in... the other 4 my broody was on for 3 days before switching nests.