omg Ive been killing my chicks!

[Freckle Face Farm]

 

[riftnreef]

My practice so far has simply been, if unsure leave it in for a while. At some point it will be absolutly obvious if there is a chick inside or not. My last batch incubated for a total of 25 days (Serama that hatch at 19 days) I gave the extra time because a few eggs were added a day or two late. At any rate, the hatch went well, I never candled a single egg and nothing "blew up". I'm sure eggs do explode in the bator often, but if you wait till the second week and check them, I think the risk is pretty low, and by that time the growth should be visible to even the most novice of hatchers. Good luck with the next batch, and don't sweat the losses....chalk it up to the learning process....

 

[ginbart]

Been there, done that.

I no longer candle my eggs until day10. By then you should be able to tell and if you can't wait to candle and your not sure wait until day 10 before you remove them. I did have a bad egg once but you should be able to smell it.

Your not the first person to do that and I bet you won't be the last. Let us know how you make out.

 

[LaurenM23]

During my first hatch, I had absolutely no clue what I was seeing. I thought I saw some bloodrings, some development in others, movement, nothing...it all made me nervous. I chose to leave all of my eggs in for the duration. I checked them all carefully for cracks or "weeping" (a sign that can lead to explosion). As long as nothing was weeping or giving any smell, they stayed. I had no issue with as bursting eggs, but many did not develop. I was particularly concerned with removing eggs as a form of heat source (remove too many too quickly and there is less in there absorbing your heat, so the temp will rise). Even though I felt that several had quit on me, I felt better to leave them in and be safe rather than sorry. If you are careful, not every "bad" egg will lead to a blowout.

 

[ginbart]

Been there, done that.

I no longer candle my eggs until day10. By then you should be able to tell and if you can't wait to candle and your not sure wait until day 10 before you remove them. I did have a bad egg once but you should be able to smell it.

Your not the first person to do that and I bet you won't be the last. Let us know how you make out.

 

[FenDruadin]

Aww.

We all make mistakes like that from time to time though, so don't beat yourself. Now you know. And yes, the "blood ring" description is confusing because a viable egg always looks like it has a ring around the outside of the developing "placenta." And yes, vasculature almost always means health egg--the blood vessels deteriorate VERY quickly when the chick dies.

In response to the question about why get rid of bad eggs, there is the exploding egg problem, but even more importantly, if you have a large number of bad eggs, they will off-gas and damage the air cell development of the healthy eggs. I learned this the hard way by losing all but four of 21 healthy eggs because of 20 bad eggs that were in with them. Here's what happened: I had healthy duck eggs in the incubator, and added 60 quail eggs, some of which I knew were likely to be bad, but I didn't worry about it because quail eggs are tiny and I didn't think an exploding one would do much damage.

What I didn't realize is that the bad quail eggs were off-gassing moisture that was affecting the humidity in the incubator, and as a result, the air cells in my healthy duck eggs were not developing. When it came time to hatch, all but four had small air cells and drowned in the shell after pipping internally. It was awful carnage--all those perfect, healthy babies dead in their shells.

That having been said, I don't toss eggs until I'm absolutely sure they're dead, usually after two candlings at least four or five days apart. I mark them the first time if I think they're bad, and then check them again the second time. If it's just a few eggs, they don't produce enough moisture to make a big difference. But I would definitely want to know well in advance if I had 20 bad ones in the incubator again!

Unfortunately, quail eggs don't candle very well, so I just make sure I'm always putting VERY fresh eggs in, and hope for the best. I also regularly check air cell development so I'll know ahead of time if there's a problem and can adjust appropriately.

Good luck with the rest of your hatch--

 

[Kedreeva]

@ Oven: I can't send a smell through the internet, but if I could, you would be nervous about leaving in uncertain eggs as well. You can't fully appreciate the danger/terrible smell/awful mess of an egg bomb until you've experienced it. And in these cases, if a bad egg isn't removed and explodes, you endanger the entire rest of the hatch. In the case of eggs with bacterial rings, if the other eggs in the incubator have been washed (as many do), then there's a huge risk of the bacteria jumping eggs and killing embryos even WITHOUT an explosion. I've had this happen before, and it's never fun.

@ Mothers: Don't feel badly, everyone makes mistakes, and you are going to make more in the future... best to learn from them and move on. As for the 'blood ring' you are seeing, it is quite possible ones you were throwing away were actual blood rings (if you didn't check them). It's also possible the one you checked was on the way out, as a blood ring is typically a sign of early embryo death. If the blood ring was not a complete circle, what you are probably seeing is the main 'artery' of the vessels, NOT a blood ring. It's always a good practice to leave the eggs until day 10 before throwing them out- bad eggs rarely cause problems before then, and by then you will very clearly be able to tell who is going and who did not make it. Live embryos you will be able to see 'dancing' in the egg at day 10.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Don't feel bad...mistakes happen. I usually move them to the last row in the turner when I see a blood ring. (or even one of those really dark lumps that means a dead embryo) Leave them for a few days and candle again. The earlier in incubation, the less it looks like a ring and more like a little blood line. Also, there shouldn't be veining anywhere else in the egg. It all sorta drains to the ring area. So if you're seeing veining also, give it a few more days.

 

[NaomiSarah]

Quote:
LOL KIllin with my peeps...

I had two eggs that I pulled from a broody explode. It sounds like a cap gun going off and the smell is so potent it sent my pig running (over to the smell to investigate, of course). Can you imagine that in an incubator?

The guy I got my bator from had an egg explode while he was on vacation, and the lady looking after his eggs didn't know what to do so it just sat for a while, all exploded all over the incubator... can you imagine that smell???

Also, in areas (like mine) where the weather gets very suddenly cold in the fall, it can be hard not to try and get all the dead eggs out so you can get new ones in before it's too cold for moving chicks outside.

 

[Rebel Rooster]

The "blood ring" near the top of the egg is going to be the vessels forming under the air cell and running along it's diameter to form a "ring"... don't feel bad... I've made "candling" mistakes and had (what my daughter calls) "trashcan hatches"
That's wat happens when you throw away the "bad" eggs at lock-down, and then hear CHIRPING coming from the trashcan!