Sorry this might be a bit lengthy! ;o; I'm located in Southern California, Los Angeles to be exact.
Hi folks, I'm currently incubating a dozen eggs from the farmer's market (I asked him to bring fresh eggs, but the day I showed up he acted a little surprised, went to his van for a long time, then only gave me one carton out of a requested two... I'm wondering if he just gave me whatever eggs he had on hand). It's been difficult candling them as they're brown eggs and my light is probably just weak. It seems that only 2 definitely have something developing, 3-4 are too dark from the beginning to see anything so I really don't know if there is something going on, and the rest just look like yolks (which is still hard to tell because they seem slightly dark, but very much yolk-shaped. I thought these might have been developing when I candled them on Day 4, but now that it's Day 10 I think they're empty or maybe quitters. It's been too hard to see definite vein structure. I compared them to a trader joe's storebought egg which was definitely pretty empty looking). It's Day 9/10 (I set them in the afternoon on day 1). I'm going to try checking them one last time on Day 14 to get rid of the empties.
Here's what I've been doing..... I turn the eggs 5 times a day by hand. I have a Hova-bator genesis model, which has forced air and a pre-set temperature.
I really don't recall having this much difficulty candling eggs before! And I'm definitely frustrated that the majority of them dont' seem to be developing. The eggs I got this time are really in my opinion not good quality. The ones that are developing are monstrous eggs, though I've been having trouble seeing really clear veins (I'm really worried about the chicks developing to be too large/weak), that also have porous shells. Overall I'm a bit disappointed with how things are going, especially with how well the hatch went the first time I used this incubator. Can I blame the quality of the eggs (it is wintertime, though.. it is also California where the winters are mild), or did I really mess things up opening the incubator 5 times a day? I always make sure to wash my hands and dry them before doing so. In terms of humidity, I do not have a hygrometer. I've been reading all of the humidity posts on this forum, but it seems like the majority are posts from the east coast. I ran the incubator dry for the first 24 hours, and let the wells go dry twice so far. It's currently nearly dry (likely perfectly dry by afternoon), but it's also been raining outside since two days ago. I'll probably add water to the well tonight.
Sorry this post is a bit of a mess to read through.. should I just stick to turning them three times a day now? What about adding water to the well? I'm worried I had the eggs out for too long the first time I candled them (about 15 minutes). I had also read turning them more often would be best, but perhaps that advice was more for people who have automatic turners.
I made detailed notes of what I've done for the hatch here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...jduWkhiclVLeFZCbm9wRnc&hl=en&authkey=CPu-jZ4B
I used this incubator two years ago with eggs from the same farmer (Lily's Eggs) and had a really great hatch rate (7 out of 8 eggs hatched - it was out of a dozen, 4 were clearly infertile by Day 3. However, I was hatching these eggs at school, and only turned them three times. I didn't fill the well on the first day, and the well dried out once by 'accident' before the 18th day. Otherwise I followed the incubator instructions and kept the little inside well full. By the 18th day I filled up both. I didn't know about the dry method then. I also hatched these particular eggs in May.). Before this I've hatched half a dozen eggs from a still air model, which was also in the spring time. Here's a timelapse of it: http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/NewSite/babychicksfolder/chicks.html (the first movie)
I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys might have. If things don't really work out, i'm just going to wait until Spring to try again.
Hi folks, I'm currently incubating a dozen eggs from the farmer's market (I asked him to bring fresh eggs, but the day I showed up he acted a little surprised, went to his van for a long time, then only gave me one carton out of a requested two... I'm wondering if he just gave me whatever eggs he had on hand). It's been difficult candling them as they're brown eggs and my light is probably just weak. It seems that only 2 definitely have something developing, 3-4 are too dark from the beginning to see anything so I really don't know if there is something going on, and the rest just look like yolks (which is still hard to tell because they seem slightly dark, but very much yolk-shaped. I thought these might have been developing when I candled them on Day 4, but now that it's Day 10 I think they're empty or maybe quitters. It's been too hard to see definite vein structure. I compared them to a trader joe's storebought egg which was definitely pretty empty looking). It's Day 9/10 (I set them in the afternoon on day 1). I'm going to try checking them one last time on Day 14 to get rid of the empties.
Here's what I've been doing..... I turn the eggs 5 times a day by hand. I have a Hova-bator genesis model, which has forced air and a pre-set temperature.
I really don't recall having this much difficulty candling eggs before! And I'm definitely frustrated that the majority of them dont' seem to be developing. The eggs I got this time are really in my opinion not good quality. The ones that are developing are monstrous eggs, though I've been having trouble seeing really clear veins (I'm really worried about the chicks developing to be too large/weak), that also have porous shells. Overall I'm a bit disappointed with how things are going, especially with how well the hatch went the first time I used this incubator. Can I blame the quality of the eggs (it is wintertime, though.. it is also California where the winters are mild), or did I really mess things up opening the incubator 5 times a day? I always make sure to wash my hands and dry them before doing so. In terms of humidity, I do not have a hygrometer. I've been reading all of the humidity posts on this forum, but it seems like the majority are posts from the east coast. I ran the incubator dry for the first 24 hours, and let the wells go dry twice so far. It's currently nearly dry (likely perfectly dry by afternoon), but it's also been raining outside since two days ago. I'll probably add water to the well tonight.
Sorry this post is a bit of a mess to read through.. should I just stick to turning them three times a day now? What about adding water to the well? I'm worried I had the eggs out for too long the first time I candled them (about 15 minutes). I had also read turning them more often would be best, but perhaps that advice was more for people who have automatic turners.
I made detailed notes of what I've done for the hatch here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...jduWkhiclVLeFZCbm9wRnc&hl=en&authkey=CPu-jZ4B
I used this incubator two years ago with eggs from the same farmer (Lily's Eggs) and had a really great hatch rate (7 out of 8 eggs hatched - it was out of a dozen, 4 were clearly infertile by Day 3. However, I was hatching these eggs at school, and only turned them three times. I didn't fill the well on the first day, and the well dried out once by 'accident' before the 18th day. Otherwise I followed the incubator instructions and kept the little inside well full. By the 18th day I filled up both. I didn't know about the dry method then. I also hatched these particular eggs in May.). Before this I've hatched half a dozen eggs from a still air model, which was also in the spring time. Here's a timelapse of it: http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/NewSite/babychicksfolder/chicks.html (the first movie)
I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys might have. If things don't really work out, i'm just going to wait until Spring to try again.
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