Set 8 Eggs In Brinsea Mini Advance Today 9/13/11. Wanna Join?

[cielo]

Don't know why I didn't search it before but I read a thread about blue eggs being difficult to candle. I thought because my eggs were light blue the'd be similar to white eggs or brown but guess not. Turns out it's normal to not be able to see veining or other things. Now I hope I haven't been scrambling the poor eggs with my efforts to see into them! The dark stuff I see could be life! Guess it's possible for me to have 3 chicks in a few days! Yikes! The possibility of more babies is both exciting and also... I've already raised up a bunch of chicks and more babies... ay ay ay! What will happen!? Chicks?!

-Cielo

 

[henmad]

Don't toss any eggs without doing a float test first.

 

[CSisley]

10 days left on the countdown update:

I've broken open two eggs since starting with the suspicion they weren't developing, one Swedish Flower and one BLRW. Fortunately I was right. One had had a broken air cell and a broken yolk and there were no signs of development. The other had an in tact air cell but a broken yolk with what looked like a slight bloody ring. I guess that it terminated around day 3. This has allowed me to use the auto turner which I’ve set to turn 12 seconds once every 45 minutes. It’s pretty loud so for you Brinsea Mini Advance users that want to keep the incubator in your bedroom (like me) you better either wear earplugs, have a good deal of white noise or be a heavy sleeper. We have a pretty good white noise fan in our bedroom and I’ve been able to sleep through it most of the time especially if I wear earplugs. I don’t think my husband has woken up to it at all but he’s a pretty heavy sleeper. The eggs have had no difficulty turning but I understand that the further along they are the better they will turn.

I’ve candled EVERYDAY including today which is probably a bit much and I will likely get chided by the experts but I’m of the opinion it will not hurt them unless you are rough with them or your hands are dirty. So far it appears that I have three or four viable embryos. In some of them I can actually see the embryos doing little acrobatics, it’s SO COOL! It’s getting harder now to see because they are getting darker and darker as the days go by but I’d say day 8 was the best day to see embryo dancing.

I’ve intermittently kept one side of the water pot full because when it has water in it the humidity usually hangs out around 49% which is on the high end of the range. I was concerned that they weren’t going to loose enough weight especially since Eastern NC tends to be pretty humid. When I let the water pot dry the humidity would drop into the 30s. I weighed them today and most are already at or near a 14% loss according to my very primitive and probably not the most accurate food scale. I’ve decided from here on out I will keep one side of the pot full until lookdown when I will fill both sides since I don’t want them to loose much more weight.

Here are a few more non exciting pictures:

My Scale:

My Notes:

Today is the first day I noticed that the start date was really 9/13/11 not 8/13/11, haha, maybe I was in denile that it was no longer my birth month, I don't know. Anyway I've edited the original thread to say 9/13/11.

The incubator with the turner and two less eggs:

 

[CSisley]

Discoveregg – I’ve been using a small LED flashlight but the darkest egg is probably a medium brown. I’m not sure it would work on a maran egg.

Cielo – The dark stuff you see could definitely be life! I'm with you on the anticipation part, it's hard not to count your chickies before they hatch.

Henmad – What’s the float test?

 

[discoveregg]

I didn't know what the float test was either! I've seen it mentioned a couple of times on threads, but when henmad brought it up again I did a search and found a great explanation. Thanks henmad!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=383525

 

[cielo]

CSisley- I like your chart. How is it you are basing your guesses for sex? Is it completely random? I didn't think there was anyway to know that...

Can the eggs just grow up quick and hatch now? How many more days? 6?
I was wondering what I would do if any of my eggs hatched. Chicks can be a mess and a bit of work and stress but also so fun. I've already raised many chicks this season. I felt kinda over it until I was at my sister's and saw her young chicks and poults and now I want some of my own. I do like baby birds, mess and all!

-Cielo

 

[CSisley]

cielo - It’s not random guessing but it might as well be. I’ve heard from different sources that you can tell the sex of the chick based on the shape of the egg. One guy my husband spoke to swore he could tell the sex of a chick based on egg shape with 100% accuracy, he didn’t tell him how but I did some internet research. Rounder eggs are supposed to be female and pointed eggs like a football are supposed to be male. I’m 99% sure it’s a load of bologna but I thought it would be fun to try just for kicks.

 

[henmad]

CSisley....That's so funny you wrote that...about that egg gender. Someone was saying that very thing to me today.

You can trace that idea all the way back to Aristotle (350 BC). But he said the pointed ones are female, I think the modern idea is that
the pointed ones are male. Doubtful....but I guess it couldn't hurt. It will work half the time anyway.

 

[henmad]

Hey just an update on our little chick Pearl. Three eggs in the bator were duds so Pearl hatched out on her own and was very lonesome. I called around and got three little chicks to go in the brooder with her. She's real happy now and stopped the constant chirping.
The four of them are best of friends already!

 

[cielo]

Come to think of it, I've heard that thing about the eggs too. Maybe it can be on an episode of Myth Busters? They'd have to explode something though...

2 of my eggs were empty. It was driving me nuts so I cracked them open, nada. Well not nothing, just normal eggs, not fertile, nothing growing. There is still one in there. I'm leaving it. It's always looked different so I think there is a chance. If it does hatch I'll be in the same boat as little Pearl, or my chick will be. We'll see what happens.

-Cielo