Seeing the donut....QUESTION ADDED 7/1

[itsy]

Thanks for trying to help me. I am familiar with the sticky on the top of the forum. In this article that is one of those listed there, it says that you should start to see the "blood island in the middle of the egg" at 52 hours of incubation. When you see this ring in some reptile eggs, many people call it a "donut" which is why I was calling it that.

So my question now - is how come I'm not seeing that ring and it's now been at least 52 hours.

 

[Saltysteele]

you will have to wait until 7-9 days. at that point, you should start to be able to see veins and a dark spot on the yolk.

the reason you're confusing us, is there have been several threads recently about the bullseye or donut on the yolk, denoting fertility. of course, you cannot see that, unless you crack the egg open. so, when you're talking about donuts, we are all envisioning you cracking your eggs open at 52 hours of incubation to check if they're fertile. as you know, once you crack the egg open, how you gonna get that thing back together?

so, when you start using terminology that we had all been using and talking like you just stepped out of one of those threads and started your own, we got confused. you obviously did not see those threads, and we all thought we were talking apples to apples, but we were not.

i don't know anything about reptile incubation. with poultry incubation, you'll have to be patient and see

if, however, you were hungry, you could crack yourself a couple eggs for breakfast, noting whether or not they had a bullseye/donut. there is a small white spot on the yolk, that if fertile, the center goes translucent. however, if it is not fertile, the center of the donut is filled in with a slightly brighter white spot. you can find the threads here

that would be the quickest way to see if you eggs are fertile or not. telling if they are developing or not requires patience and a week's time

 

[geosheets]

Quote:
That 'blood island' is very difficult to see even to a trained eye unless you have a thin white shelled egg. You've been given some good advice... just keep incubating and candle around day 7-10 and look for the veining. By day 10 it will be very obvious which ones are growing and which ones are not.

 

[CorgiHouse]

Quote:
I think you are confusing your terminology. In he chicken incubating/hatching world, a blood "island" is different than a blood "ring". Not to be picky, but you seem to be using those terms interchangeably, as well as the term donut. That is confusing to people trying to help you as those are actually 3 different things.

1) The donut or bullseye is something you see on the yolk when you crack open an egg and it denotes fertility. You will never see a donut when candling.
2) The blood island is the very beginning of the embryo starting to develop. In my opinion, this is extremely hard to visualize when candling at 52 hours! Unless you have white shelled eggs and a VERY strong light, you may very well not see this.
3) A blood ring is something that develops when a chick has started developing, then dies. All the veins withdraw from the fetus and form a ring. You will normally not see this probably until at least 5 days (or later) into incubation. And it means the egg is no longer good - fetus dead - toss it.

If you wait at least 5 days, and 7 is better, to candle you should see veins developing and possible the 'dark blob' in the center that is the fetus. Personally, I don't throw ANY eggs away before 7-10 days!

I hope this helps explain and makes it easier to get consistent anwers to future questions.

 

[itsy]

Thank you everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Corgi - you're a gem.

That's exactly what I needed. lol. The terminology is all very different with chicken eggs. Similar terms are used with reptile eggs, but they are used for different things. I DO need to get them straight.

She laid another egg for me yesterday. I cracked it open and examined it. On the yolk is something I've never seen or noticed before on grocery eggs. It's a white dot (which I suppose is what we're calling the bullseye. It did look a little like a white bullseye. So long as I'm seeing that, I should be satisfied that the other eggs are fertile? If so, I'm quite glad. I took some nice macro shots of it and will upload the pics onto the computer.

Her eggs are a creamy light brown. She's a three year old Barred Rock and her owner told me she's been with a Jersey Giant. I have read that will produce some black sexlinks, which would be very exciting for me.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to write back and for all of the patience with me!

 

[Saltysteele]

with a fertile egg, there will be a very, very faint white dot in the center of hole made by the outer donut.

with an infertile egg, the spot will be just that - a white spot on the yolk's sack.

when the egg is fertilized, the center goes translucent as the initial cell division begins (so i've read, i'm not sure why it would stop there until incubation begins).

here are pix that were posted by another person in this thread-

here's a pic of an infertile egg

here's a pic of a fertile egg. the white dot has gone translucent, leaving the outer ring looking like a donut, with a very faint center point

 

[itsy]

Thanks for uploading those!! I'll post a pic of my egg. It doesn't really look like either of those? Fertile?

 

[cmom]

If I were you I would candle at day 10 from the time you put the eggs in the incubator.

Sorry not a very good pic.

One with no development.

Here is a video of an egg 8 days into incubation. (Click on image)

 

[itsy]

Thanks, cmom!! Do you think the pic I posted shows a fertile donut???

What would I do without BYC?

 

[Saltysteele]

unfortunately, that one is infertile

it's the solid center. in a fertile egg, there may be a slight dot in the center, but there is a translucent separation between the outer ring and the inner spot. the spot may still be in the center, but there will be a definite outside donut, and the dot will be very faint