Question about candling....

[onedoodle3]

I have a quick question about candling the eggs but first I'll give you a little background.

My DIL decided she wanted to try to hatch some of my eggs while she is living here with my grandbabies..She got a tote, some rags and old towels, 2 styrofoam cups with water, a thermometer (like you use to take your temp with) and some plastic wrap and made a homemade incubator. I candled the eggs tonight (the 3rd time they have been candled) and cannot see anything in one of the eggs. Now this eggs, on the first candling, you could see in the egg..there was a spot that moved around. On second candling, the spot was a bit bigger. Now the egg is completly dark..can not see anything except it's clear at one end. I have never done this before and as a result, here is my question:

Can the dark be a baby chick?? If so, It would totally make my DIL's day. Her hubby (my son) just finished Basic and had until Saturday 8pm to report for AIT but they took him in tonight when they were trying to find where he was supposed to report. She has been really upset and crying for the past couple hours. I would love to cheer her up a little by being able to tell her one of the eggs definitely has a chick in it. Any one know?


Thanks for your help!!


Kaye

 

[Dasp]

Hello,

I have incubated eggs many many times for years and candled all my hatches.

My best method is at night to turn off all lights and wrap the egg inside my hand like
a baseball leaving the fatter part exposed.. Place your light source and check for any veins
and if you do see a blackdot your most likely in luck! But Give it until about day 5-7 to expect
to see any kind of growth. After 8-9 days you will be able to see the black dot get bigger and will
have a much more accurate view. Also since your just starting.. Please make sure to keep the humidity constant because your eggs will develop and if the humidity is not high enough towards the end they just won't make it out of the egg, But if everything ( temperature and humidity ) is cared for you will have some beautiful chicks soon!

Hope this helps,
regards

 

[onedoodle3]

We are into day 13 of the incubation, We saw the dot and it grew bigger but we were afraid to candle them too much for fear of harming the little one inside. I spritz the eggs 2 to 3 times a day so they don't dry out and they have water sitting in the "incubator" to help. I know the humidity is up cause there is condensation on the plastic over the top. Unfortunately neither one of us had the money to go to Walmart and get the temp/humitidy monitor we want. I have to wait til thursday. She put 7 in the "incubator" but this one is the only one that went from being able to see into it, to it being dark and not seeing into it. All the others I am beginning to think are "duds". I told her there was no guarantee they were fertilized. So I will be absolutely ticked to death if this one actually has a chick in it.


Thanks so much for replying!!

 

[stevetone]

It may be a viable embryo, or it may not be. Given that a wrong answer might upset your DIL even more, I would leave it up in the air. I never count my chickens before they hatch...

 

[stevetone]

Oh, and I am pretty certain that you cannot candle too much. It is not the candling that could be detrimental, it's rough handling and excessive, repeated cooling to be careful of.

Good luck!

 

[Dasp]

Since your on day 14 already and you cannot see through the eggs you have baby chicks!!!!

Now comes the hard part, I noticed you said you don't have a humidity checker, Unfortunately without that

your hatch rate can be affected almost 100% .. I have had many hatches where humidity levels were the cause

for bad hatch rates. As soon as I took humidity into consideration and monitored it my hatch rate went up.

But with the fact that you see nothing but black in the egg that is indeed the baby chick developing. After 2-3 weeks you don't

see a little black dot anymore, You see just a whole black blob blocking the light inside the egg.

Congrats!
Dasp.com

 

[onedoodle3]

Thanks! Yes, the whole black blob is all I can see. I'm keeping the eggs nice and wet and the humidity up in the "incubator". As soon as she gets back from the trip to taking my son (her hubby) to AIT in MS, she's going to get the humidity/temp thing. We are excited..make that eggcited..lol... but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm afraid if I do, it won't make it. Anyway, thank you for all the replies!!!