New to hatching... Could have twin chicks?!

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Greenbean1

Greenbean1

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Hi all, this is my first hatch with a homemade Styrofoam incubator I made. I did quite a bit of research but I still think I was impatient and rushed into it... Oops! I ordered eggs to be posted to me from eBay and I let them sit and I have a digital thermostat in my incubator so the temp was stable. Anyway I think I may have candled too much in the first week and I didn't realise I could infect the egg and cause early death :( so I candled at 5 days and found 7 out of 11 to be fertile and I candled between then and around day 8 almost everyday which I now regret because 3 of them had an obvious blood ring, do you think I killed them with my eagerness :'( At day 10 I removed the dead ones and the infertile ones. I am now just getting on to day 12 and I couldn't resist taking one more look, will I ever learn?? Anyway I've waffled on a lot sorry! I was looking at the fertile eggs and I saw obvious blood vessels and embryotic movement, although one of the eggs is really dark and all I can see is the air sack. When I looked at another one the chick seemed to take up much more room than the one I saw before! Then when I saw it moving it seemed like there was one mass on one side of the egg and another on the other side. Also I'm pretty sure I saw 2 black dots on each side which I've been told is the eye. So do you think I have twins? Is there any way or obvious sign to tell that the egg has two chicks in it. Also I only started measuring the air sac now after reading about it, how big is it supposed to be at this stage and near the end? And what can I do from this time on to increase hatch rate? Thanks :)))
 
Also I have this egg which seems to have a very weird shaped air cell! The top seems normal but then in one side it extends right down the side! Do you think the chick will get to hatch day?
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So that looks normal, can see the veins and everything but then it goes weird on the other side!
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I couldn't get any good pictures of the other one because my phone refused to cooperate but now that I looked at it again I think it might just be one, i could have been seeing things!
 
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Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with the rest of the eggs. There is a really nice hatching eggs article in the Learning Center you might want to take a look at www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 You might want to post about your hatch in the Hatching Eggs forum also for suggestions www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-amp-hatching-eggs The one egg has what is often called a saddle shaped aircell, they are pretty common with shipped eggs that have reattached air cells etc ... the article goes into details about that. They do have a lower hatch rate then eggs with normal air cells but quite a few do still hatch. Some people like to hatch those in an egg carton with the air cell side positioned up
Double eggs that don't look like them on the outside are not that common, so hopefully you don't have one, there is no good way to really see late in the incubation, early on you should have been able to see two yolks when you candled. Eggs do develop at different rates, especially if your incubator has hot and cold spots, also sometimes you can't really tell if the chick is dead or alive (unless you see movement) so some of the ones that look like late developers may not be viable.
If you haven't been weighing the eggs, there are some diagrams in the article on about how big the air cell should be on certain days of incubation, try and compare what you see with those and adjust your humidity accordingly up or down depending on what the air cell is saying.
 
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Kelsie2290 said:
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with the rest of the eggs. There is a really nice hatching eggs article in the Learning Center you might want to take a look at www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101 You might want to post about your hatch in the Hatching Eggs forum also for suggestions www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-amp-hatching-eggs The one egg has what is often called a saddle shaped aircell, they are pretty common with shipped eggs that have reattached air cells etc ... the article goes into details about that. They do have a lower hatch rate then eggs with normal air cells but quite a few do still hatch. Some people like to hatch those in an egg carton with the air cell side positioned up
Double eggs that don't look like them on the outside are not that common, so hopefully you don't have one, there is no good way to really see late in the incubation, early on you should have been able to see two yolks when you candled. Eggs do develop at different rates, especially if your incubator has hot and cold spots, also sometimes you can't really tell if the chick is dead or alive (unless you see movement) so some of the ones that look like late developers may not be viable.
If you haven't been weighing the eggs, there are some diagrams in the article on about how big the air cell should be on certain days of incubation, try and compare what you see with those and adjust your humidity accordingly up or down depending on what the air cell is saying.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much, you've been super helpful :) I'll be sure to check it out!
 
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Welcome to BYC!

That last pic of the saddle shaped air cell may not fix itself. Keep an eye on that egg, but I wouldn't count on it.

Good luck with all your hatches and welcome to our flock!
 
Welcome to BYC
frow.gif
Glad you joined us! X2 on the article, you'll get good info there. It is possible to hatch twin eggs, though the odds are low, it can be done. Here's one of our member's story of her twins:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...olk-hatched-video-p-16-13-week-pics-p-51/0_30

You can try and fix the air cell issue by incubating the egg upright until day 18 when you lockdown. Place the egg fat end up in an egg carton, with the bottom cut out for air flow. Place the egg at a 45 degree angle and instead of turning, tilt it across though 90 degrees leaving it again to rest at a 45 degree angle. Best of luck with your hatch and please keep us posted!
 

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