Questions About Day 7, First Candle of Shipped Eggs

[n8ivetxn]

I have 41 shipped Araucana eggs in my bator. Starting day 7 and there's no bad odor....However, the few I dared candle already, only 2 look alive.

I read another (older) post that recommended for beginners, like myself, it's easier to make sense of things if you wait until day 10 to do your first candle. Agree? Disagree?

When I candle all these eggs, I need to take my time, look at them closely and carefully mark them. Because it will take a little time, should I do half one night and the other half the next night, or will it really matter?

I'm not sure I would know what a "clear" looks like (I assume you see nothing!), but if there isn't any veining, should I remove the egg, or leave it for a few more days?

My eggs are in cut out cartons (for air), on a turner. Should I remove a whole carton at a time, or just one egg at a time, to candle?

Thanks for the input, much appreciated

I'm expecting a poor hatch rate (trying not to get my hopes too high!)... somebody on CL has 2, month old Araucana pullets for sale, but they're 2.5 hrs away! I may still have to make time to go get them....

 

[n8ivetxn]

Ok, well I candled all of them, one at a time...if my camera was working, I'd post pics, but it's on the fritz. So, here's what I see:

3, maybe 5 have chicks
a handful have a dark mass at the top
a handful have a dark mass sitting in the bottom
3 have something that looks like heavy veining, but I see no movement or pulsing
3 of the eggs are so dark inside, I can't see anything, even the air sac. These have nice shells, smooth.
Some are relatively clear inside.

This is worse than I expected.

Any thoughts on any of this? What am I looking at?

 

[Pork Pie]

I'm no expert, but this link might be useful - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Good luck
CT

 

[n8ivetxn]

Thanks CTKen, yes I've looked at that link several times over the last two weeks (before I set eggs), but those eggs don't really demonstrate what I'm seeing. I don't think this is going to end well.

And, this morning, my digital reading was at 93F for some reason....I didn't touch anything last night. I thought it might be because the rechargeable battery was run down so I swapped it for a duracell. We'll see.... the 2 analogs are reading right at 100F, so that's good.

Fingers crossed!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Araucana eggs are blue, so sometimes they can be harder to see, and I definitely would give them until at least day 10 before making any decisions. That link is awesome for candling guidance, but those are nice white banty eggs, which makes it much easier to see. You are candling down into the eggs from the air cell end, right?

 

[n8ivetxn]

Yes, from the top down...then I gently turn them and candle from the side to check for signs of life....

The quality of the egg shell varies so much...some of them are a little rough, some have claw marks, some are porous and hard to see through.... then there are a handful of really nice, smooth shells that look so dark and dense, I can't make out the sac....

There's so much variation in what I see inside, I didn't realize an egg had so many different appearances. - Mass at the top, bottom, etc..... I wish I could take pics of them.

I'll leave them all, there's no odor, so I take it I'm safe for a few days!

..... I think I'll go ahead and call on those pullets I see on CL, I might need those if I plan to have a flock of these birds!


Thank you for chiming in....

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Yes, from the top down...then I gently turn them and candle from the side to check for signs of life....

The quality of the egg shell varies so much...some of them are a little rough, some have claw marks, some are porous and hard to see through.... then there are a handful of really nice, smooth shells that look so dark and dense, I can't make out the sac....

There's so much variation in what I see inside, I didn't realize an egg had so many different appearances. - Mass at the top, bottom, etc..... I wish I could take pics of them.

I'll leave them all, there's no odor, so I take it I'm safe for a few days!

..... I think I'll go ahead and call on those pullets I see on CL, I might need those if I plan to have a flock of these birds!


Thank you for chiming in....

This guinea hatch that I just finished, I had early quitters that I had set to the side of the bator that I kept planning on taking out, I finally just got them out after the eggs started pipping...lol Not because I planned it that way, but the bator is upstairs and I never remembered to grab them out on my way downstairs, and I wasn't motivated to make a special trip back down just to take them out...lol

 

[n8ivetxn]

I read about the guineas on another thread! Congrats, I think your nephew will be pleased

I think a couple of the ones I have are early quitters...there appears to be some heavy veining or blood, but not exactly a "blood ring." I can't tell if they're alive or not....

Seems like there was a lot of development in them. I'm happy to leave them in there, maybe at day 10 I'll be able to tell more about some of them...

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I read about the guineas on another thread! Congrats, I think your nephew will be pleased

I think a couple of the ones I have are early quitters...there appears to be some heavy veining or blood, but not exactly a "blood ring." I can't tell if they're alive or not....

Seems like there was a lot of development in them. I'm happy to leave them in there, maybe at day 10 I'll be able to tell more about some of them...

Thanks. This hatch has been a pain. My incubator has hit the point of needing to be retired....lol The heating element on one side is dying and my temps were all over the place between the two sides. I'm lucky I got any of them to hatch.

As long as they don't smell and aren't leaking I would. You could be surprised.

 

[n8ivetxn]

Yes, that would be enough to make anybody want to pull their hair out

..... On the up side, you can get a new bator!