Questions about Candling and Duds?

[jlgoinggreen]

Hi Everyone,
I did my second candling today and still not sure about what I'm doing. Out of 50 eggs (10 turkeys and 40 chickens) I believe I saw about 3 or 4 that might have nothing or are no longer developing, but not completely sure. These eggs were put into the incubators on 4/15 which makes them 7 days in.

Should I wait a little longer before throwing these away? How long before something blows up in there if it's not developing or fertile? I really don't want anything to blow up in the incubators, but would hate to throw away babies out of ignorance. Also, I keep seeing mention of a blood ring. Would someone mind posting a picture of this so I can see what it looks like?

The lighter colored eggs (Ameraucanas & Orpingtons) were real easy to see, but my darker eggs (Marans and EEs) were really confusing. I see a mass, but nothing else (ie veins, eyes).

 

[panner123]

Unless you can see a crack the the shell, DO NOT give up on the egg. Marans are hard to check even for the best of us. After being around chickens for over 60 years, I have learned to leave things be until you are sure it is no good. My last hatch I had 3 chicks hatch after day 25 and 1 on day 27. Then the last eggs were tossed. My sister is on day 24 with her hatch and has only had 1 hatch, but the eggs are rockin so she knows there is hope. We only candle when we set the eggs and take the turner out. We kinda got bore with looking at eggs after so many eggs. Figure over 100 years between us and for many years we had 5000 chcks each hatching. Gramps wanted us to keep busy us kids. That way we would stay out of trouble and grow up with a good work ethic. Trouble was one thing, but we both still wouk our figures to the bone. Someday soon we might put in for our grey hair benifits, before we lose them.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Check out the sticky on the top of this page. There are some great candling pics there. It will give you an idea of what to look for. I wouldn't give up just yet.

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thank you.