Set eggs today Saturday 2/22 - anyone else?

[matlock585]

Threw out 4 today, two of my own that appear to have never been fertile and two shipped eggs that I had suspicion were pretty scrambled from the get go...

I still can't see ANYTHING in my marans eggs? One of the lighter ones definitely is developing, but the rest are just too dark... In the absence of smell and anything else wierd, how long until I need to start worry about exploding eggs? Any advice on candeling them?

The marans are just tough. Last night, when I did my candling, I got the room completely dark and unplugged the bator. I sat in there for a minute to let my eyes get used to then started candling. I still couldn't see in them. I pretty much just do the same as you. As long as there's an air cell and no stink I just let them keep going. If you ever do have one go bad you will know. It's a very distinct smell, and you'll smell it just as soon as you open the bator. I've had times when I smelled " the smell " and ended up just picking up each egg and sniffing until I found the bad one. I've never had one explode.
The only other thing about the marans eggs I can offer is something I read on another hatch a long last night. The person candled in the dark and took pictures of the eggs while candling, then she used a photo editor program to lighten the picture and it showed the embyro then.
Good Luck!

 

[ButchGood]

I set 16 Bourbon Red Turkey eggs from my flock on the 22nd. I will be candling on Wednesday or Thursday and cull the clears. I'm searching for Serama hatching eggs right now. I do have a request to a BYC member for 18, but I'm 8th on the waiting list.

The Turkeys will be fun for now. Ill let ya'll now my fertilization percentage by next weekend.

 

[matlock585]

I set 16 Bourbon Red Turkey eggs from my flock on the 22nd. I will be candling on Wednesday or Thursday and cull the clears. I'm searching for Serama hatching eggs right now. I do have a request to a BYC member for 18, but I'm 8th on the waiting list.

The Turkeys will be fun for now. Ill let ya'll now my fertilization percentage by next weekend.

Jealous! I tried and tried to find some turkey eggs to set with no luck. Here in middle TN they are just getting started laying. I have a 2 yr old tom with a hen that's a little over a year penned together. Hopefully I'll get a few from them to run after I get these chickens out.

 

[hoffmanmama]

The marans are just tough. Last night, when I did my candling, I got the room completely dark and unplugged the bator. I sat in there for a minute to let my eyes get used to then started candling. I still couldn't see in them. I pretty much just do the same as you. As long as there's an air cell and no stink I just let them keep going. If you ever do have one go bad you will know. It's a very distinct smell, and you'll smell it just as soon as you open the bator. I've had times when I smelled " the smell " and ended up just picking up each egg and sniffing until I found the bad one. I've never had one explode.
The only other thing about the marans eggs I can offer is something I read on another hatch a long last night. The person candled in the dark and took pictures of the eggs while candling, then she used a photo editor program to lighten the picture and it showed the embyro then.
Good Luck!

Thanks! This makes me feel better that I'll know if things are going badly... I might try the camera thing, that idea has me curious!

 

[sasimpson77]

So dissapointed I believe my batch of eggs was fried had a temp spike while I was working for 12 hours so disapointed in the loss of my batch now I am on the hunt for more eggs I went and picked up my new Redwood bators today and they are heating up and seems to be working corectly just trying to figure out how to work the Hygrometer now.

 

[keblerdutch]

I candled tonight on day 9 and this is what the air cells on my shipped bantam eggs look like. The air cells are huge compared to my backyard flock eggs. All the eggs show moving embryos and they are developing. I am keeping humidity between 35-40%. I am worried. What happens when the air cells are this big?

 

[mortie]

I set 28 eggs on 2/23 and I did a big candling the other day and removed 4. 2 infertiles, one early quitter, and one that was a really recent quitter. I broke that one open. The baby seemed to be a little stuck to the shell. It was so well formed that I was concerned at first that I had accidentally removed a good egg, but it was definitely dead. Bummer. Some eggs are brown and some are blue. The blue ones are harder to see into and it's getting to the point (day 9 here) where some of them are hard to see into at all because there is so much mass. Exciting stuff.

 

[Smithyard Farm]

I candled tonight on day 9 and this is what the air cells on my shipped bantam eggs look like. The air cells are huge compared to my backyard flock eggs. All the eggs show moving embryos and they are developing. I am keeping humidity between 35-40%. I am worried. What happens when the air cells are this big?

I had eggs like that on my 2nd hatch. was very frustrating at the end. The ones with the real big air cell, like you have in this pic didn't make it. But make sue you are around when they start to hatch. You may have to assist. I was too new at the time to realize I should have helped them. I had 3 fully formed chicks not make it because I didn't know. There is an article about assisted hatches you should read up on, just I case. Hopefully yours will be fine. Good luck!



I took 2 ore out of the bator last night - down to 48 which all seem to look great. I have a hard time candling that many. did half and half which worked out better. I kept thinking my temps were dropping so much that it couldn't be good.

 

[shannondee12]

I candled my swedish ducks eggs at day 5 because one was stinking so bad, the whole house smelled. When I took it out, it was completely black under the shell so much that it looked like it was a charcoal color instead of white. I got it out just in time I think. Out of the 12 shipped eggs in the first bator there was the 1 stinky one, 3 clear and 1 cracked that I missed upon first inspections. The remaining 7 are progressing nicely. Not to bad for shipped eggs. The other bator has crested swedish duck eggs that I am candling today and then another with quail that are to hatch around tuesday.

 

[keblerdutch]

I had eggs like that on my 2nd hatch. was very frustrating at the end. The ones with the real big air cell, like you have in this pic didn't make it. But make sue you are around when they start to hatch. You may have to assist. I was too new at the time to realize I should have helped them. I had 3 fully formed chicks not make it because I didn't know. There is an article about assisted hatches you should read up on, just I case. Hopefully yours will be fine. Good luck!

Thanks for the info. This is my second hatch so I am pretty new at this. I read the article on assisted hatching and it suggests the chick could be in the wrong position because of the big air cells. I am going to stay close to the incubator for this hatch and hope I don't do something wrong.