Our Egg Hatching thread! Hatch: Nov. 7th (Hatching Video PG 57)

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

I come on here thinking noone else was going to candle early LOL I did today too. I had to throw one. It was cracked and it had six crack marks running up the egg. I thought I would try it for 7 days and see what happens. Nothing formed but there was a lot of solid dark going on so I tossed it. It looked like it was just bacteria going on. All the others eggs look like a go! Even the one that had the little missing part of shell that I put wax on is living

I'm sure glad I didn't throw it

I have at least 6 for sure moving around and not so sure of some of the others. BUT none were clear so I got 12 fertile eggs

I would be shocked to get 6 babies! Happy but shocked! Good luck to you all! I know I"m anxious to see these baby orps I got from Miss Prissy!

 

[MichiganWoods]

kodiakchicken, sounds like you've got a lot of potential there! Not too sure about that one with the moisture spots. I'd definitely keep a close eye on it.

Jamie, congrats on those Welsummers! And I will keep my fingers crossed for your Marans.

Riocotesei, sounds like you were just as curious as I am now!

Next time I won't be as apt to be candling as much as I have been for this first batch.

Hangin Wit My Peeps,

Yeah we sorta candled early.

We just couldn't stand it. Glad you got rid of the cracked egg, but that is AWESOME about the one that you waxed the little chip closed! I'll have to remember that if I ever receive an egg with a chip!

My updates:

I think one of my eggs quit, but it's one of those super dark ones and all I can make out is a thick blood ring, but there is a dark mass that looks like a chick in it (I see the super dark black dot which should be an eye in the middle of the little mass). It's just not jumping like the other ones are.

All of the other eggs are bouncing and moving. In fact, one egg that I wasn't sure on before I now know definitely has a baby in it. The baby won't float to the side of the egg for me to see it, which is why I wasn't sure. But today when I moved the flashlight to the top (big end) of the egg, underneath the air pocket I saw a definite mass that was moving back and forth of it's own accord.

I also started making a fridge-o-bator! I wanted to have two bators so that, were I so inclined, I could run two batches of eggs at the same time.

Only problem I am running into is that I have never ever touched electrical wiring before. I have no clue what to do, or which colors mean what. I need to find a good tutorial with photos that give me visuals.

 

[Jamie821]

well I finally couldnt stand it and decided to try to candle these dark eggs. This is what I found 18 of 22 wheaton marans look good 2 were clear and still questioning 2. The black coppers 1 good 1 clear and the other not sure. ON the lavender wyandottes 2 good 1 clear. So guess I have more good then I thought there would be now all I can say is please not quitters. Cant believe I could see into them, Cant wait to see some babies

 

[Bleenstar]

what camera do you use? your pictures of the candling came out great!!

 

[MichiganWoods]

Jamie, that's awesome!! Here's to hoping they don't quit!

Bleenstar, I am using a Canon A640 PowerShot. I set it to manual mode, macro setting, 80 ISO setting, 8.0 aperture, 15 second exposure (while mounted on a tripod) and 2 second delay single shots to make sure my hands got clear before the exposure started.

 

[Jamie821]

thank you Michigan and your pics are great. Keeping my fingers crossed for all of us. We all need good hatches.

 

[skeeter9]

Hi Michigan,
To answer your question on the frequent handling of eggs - When I first started hatching I wasn't having very good luck. My incubator conditions seemed to be perfect, I was working with fresh eggs that had been stored properly, and I was only handling the eggs with clean hands, so I did quite a bit of research to try to figure out why I was having so many quitters. I discovered that most experienced/successful hatchers believe that the more you handle the eggs the greater the chance of contaminating them. I decided to get an automatic turner and try hatching without any handling except for candling at day 7 and day 18. My hatch rates went up dramatically and I have been keeping my mitts off the eggs as much as possible ever since. Honestly, I think you just have to do whatever works well for you. I can't swear that the reason my hatch rates went up was because I stopped messing with my eggs so much, but it's been working for me this way, so that's what I do. Unfortunately, even knowing this, I really, really want to go candle my eggs again and watch the embryos dancing!!!! I'm trying to stay busy so I don't go in there and blow it!!!

Sounds like we're going to have lots of hatching action on the 7th!!! Can't wait to see everyone's fuzzy butts!!!!

 

[kodiakchicken]

Well, I did it again - I'm obsessed - I just had to candle them again tonight. That's it though. Except for turning I'm not going to do it anymore except on day 14 or 18 to get the empty ones out.

This is what I've got:
9 bouncing baby embryos
1 that appears to have an embryo but no movement
1 that appears to have a bloodring (might check this one again just to prevent explosion
2 that appear clear - no fertilization at all
1 that was weeping - took it out tonight and opened it. The yolk wasn't even solid. I think the PO scrambled that one for me.

So, out of the 14 eggs that were sent to me, I've got 9 confirmed babies that so far have a good chance. That's a 62% success ratio at Day 8. I know Kathy (halo) who I got the eggs from was hoping for a better ratio, but I'm pretty pleased so far. Considering the eggs were shipped about as far as you can ship eggs (Florida to Alaska) in a late fall/winter month. I also think they may have gotten a little cold when they were with the USPS, because two of them were busted and the wrapping was really good. Kind of looked like they froze.

Sorry I'm rambling. I'm just so amazed by this whole process. If these babies make it to maturity I'm going to be beside myself!!!

 

[Jamie821]

I know your feeling I have done this numerous times and I am just as excited now as I was the first. It still amazes me how a fully formed chick can go from a egg in just 21 days and most of my usually have hatched in 20. And those 21 days still go just as slow as the first time too. Go fuzzy butts

 

[Riocotesei]

From what I've learned here unfertile eggs don't cpunt against hatch %.
Good luck everyone!