Setting eggs today...20th May...anyone else?

[loopy12]

I think they are about an inch long at this point. The yolk looks budged over to one side at this point in most of mine. I have one where it is still central and at the top, but can see wriggling so maybe that's ok too...

 

[Alaskan]

But the yolk/baby/dark blob no longer floats freely?


I just can't see into these eggs very well....but I would like to take out the clears with some confidence!

Also, remember the lady I got these from (local, so not shipped) said the fertility of her eggs was low...so I know there must be lots of clears.

 

[Amykins]

Compton: we used to have terrible problems with raccoons when we were in upstate new york. Lost countless chickens, including two beautiful cochins and a stunning blue orpington that I had hatched and 4 full grown female pekin ducks, two complete batches of about-to-hatch eggs etc. And they ate the chicken food too. They are too clever...and have a voracious appetite. We had to resort to cage trapping in the end, and caught 9 of them in one summer. Look so cute...but oh so deadly.

Oh, I hate raccoons. Rotten little things. They've not only gotten ducklings, but the parents, as well. Funny thing is, I think the previous owner of my home fed them because for months, I'd have several of them scratching at my back door. I wouldn't feel guilty about trapping them at all, they don't even eat much of what they kill. They're nothing but greedy pests.

 

[loopy12]

Alaskan, if you really can't see enough to be sure I wouldn't risk chucking them out. I would just smell them periodically. I am haunted by one time when I was 99% sure I had a quitter - was maybe day 15, but quite a dark maran egg - and I cracked it expecting to see nothing and had to watch a 15 day wriggling embryo bleed to death...so with dark eggs, if I'm not 100% sure I leave them unless they start to smell...

Amy: I felt guilty about trapping one raccoon when the following afternoon, in broad daylight, I looked out into the garden to see two tiny little raccoons eating the chicken food and making whining noises. They weren't even weaned and clearly we'd disposed of their mother. No matter what pests they are, and what those two would've grown up to be, I wouldn't knowlingly have deprived them of their mother - doesn't seem fair game if you see what I mean.

 

[loopy12]

Alaskan, I wonder...if you wait a week more then try the water test to see if you can see movement - would that be an option? (You know, float them in a bowl of very still, warm water, and watch for the egg to wriggle. I've only done it with eggs past their due date, but as long as you wipe them off well after that might be a better solution for checking your dark eggs' viability - ?

 

[ashem0]

Quote:
Thanks for your lovely words Compton! Disco is doing really well...just needs a few buddies...

 

[ashem0]

loopy12: Yikes, sorry to hear about the eggs that were tossed from not being fertile. Cheers to a happy hatch with the rest of your bator crew! I love reading threw hatch alongs!

Today is the eggs 10 day mark in my bator. I candled yesterday, day 9, because I just could not wait until today. Sigh, I'm just glad I have a fulltime job for the sake of the eggs I incubate. Otherwise I would be home checking on them every hour or so. Out of the 2 1/2 dozen, I'm down to 2 dozen after throwing non developed eggs out. The 6 I threw out were from 8 banty eggs I pulled out of the fridge. But, I do have two fridge eggs with bouncing chicks growing. Who would have thunked?

ashem0: We have 17 chickens running around our yard. I incubate to supply our flock since we free range. I also incubate for others. Right now I have eggs in the bator for a friend who wants to start her own flock. I will be cranking up my second bator this week to add eggs for a fellow farmer up the road from me. She had a coon kill two of her laying hens

. Darn predators have been bad this year. The circle of life can be a 'you know what'.

Can't wait to see pics!

Wow - straight from the fridge hey? How long had they been in there? I wish we had a bigger yard so i could do the same!

 

[ashem0]

Quote:
BTW, do you mean Racoons? We don't have those here. I never realized they were predators. In the Blue Mountains here, our biggest threats are cats (domestic & wild), foxes and Quoll's. The latter kill quite viciously in packs.

 

[ashem0]

Alaskan, I wonder...if you wait a week more then try the water test to see if you can see movement - would that be an option? (You know, float them in a bowl of very still, warm water, and watch for the egg to wriggle. I've only done it with eggs past their due date, but as long as you wipe them off well after that might be a better solution for checking your dark eggs' viability - ?

I think I'll try this with my only-lonely IB, it's still sitting in the bator. Cheers!

Alaskan: I can't really see in my Marans eggs now - except for the airsac. Which is not where it should be! I'm planning on sitting them up-right soon. I think I saw a wriggle in one though.

 

[loopy12]

What does a quoll look like Ashem?
We don't have raccoons in Italy, which makes a nice change after the US, but the neighbour's cat took our pet rabbit, so I wouldn't trust him with younger hens and I still don't know what took our full grown goose last month - she was way too big for a fox to snatch and would've fought like mad because she was on a nest of eggs...

I caved...and candled..16 going strong...2 that I was unsure of on day 8 I now discarded - definitely infertile - so really a shockingly high infertility rate. I will email the breeder after the hatch about it, not now.

Alaskan: I checked, all my yolks are at the bottom now. the embryo sits on top to one side. Above that just space and veins, then above that the aircell.
I took two photos for you to compare to the little you can see in your dark eggs:
The aircell is behind my hand, otherwise it affects the contrast in the photo. Both of these were white eggs. The second one the little guy was really flexing his legs - I could see the whole leg shape as well as the normal C shape of their bodies and the big black eye.