She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[kwhites634]

I'll just look for people hiding in the bushes with eggs and flashlights.

Might be a good idea to carry one of your Pit Bulls along, or those people in the bushes might be throwing those eggs at you & knocking you upside the head with their flashlights

 

[RubyNala97]

I think from now on I'll try what Ruby said and just candle from inside the bator without moving them. I'll try to not candle at all til the days I'm supposed to but if I just can't stop myself I'll try what Ruby said to do.

Trust me, I know how hard it is!!! This should work. You'll get a peek and then if all looks good move on to the next egg. If one doesn't look right, pick it up and take a better peek. But it really is a good way to candle, hands off. For those of us that just have to look!

 

[lazy gardener]

At the corner of WALK & DON'T WALK
Phone: BR 549

Trust me, I know how hard it is!!! This should work. You'll get a peek and then if all looks good move on to the next egg. If one doesn't look right, pick it up and take a better peek. But it really is a good way to candle, hands off. For those of us that just have to look!

Yep, that pretty much gives just enough candling fix to last until the next time you an be alone with your eggs in a dark room!!!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Originally Posted by meganhundley


I'll just look for people hiding in the bushes with eggs and flashlights.

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[FridayYet]

At the corner of WALK & DON'T WALK
Phone: BR 549

Somewhere on US1.

(Sorry, now I have Floridays running through my head.)

 

[meganhundley]

Might be a good idea to carry one of your Pit Bulls along, or those people in the bushes might be throwing those eggs at you & knocking you upside the head with their flashlights

The dogs would be too busy eating the eggs that were thrown at me to give me any help, lol

 

[WVduckchick]

I dont know and thats whats frustrating. We have 3 Rouen (2 hens 1 drake), 2 Peking (1 hen 1 drake) & 2 Khaki Campbell's (both drakes) and are now 7 months old. They get feed, kitchen / table scraps, fresh fruits & veggies as well as free ranged all day up until last Saturday when a fox was just feet from the run. They started laying at 5 - 5 1/2 months.

The first batch I tried was 36 eggs only because no one wanted to sit. I knew a few were older than 10 days but hoped for something. 5 ended up cracking a few I saw movement but none hatched. I had the temp at 101-102 and humidity was a bit harder to control because air humidity was 80-100% but in the incubator I was able to keep it more around 40-45%. Air cells all appeared to develop normal.

This batch was 34, 18 from our ducks and 16 from a friend. I kept the temp 100-101 and humidity 35-45%. Of those 14 were duds, 13 I am sure were quitters, 3 looked like they were developing but no movement and 4 I saw movement up until when I candled Monday. One looked like it had an internal pip with its foot (pictured earlier) and the shell turned dark. Tonight at 10pm starts day 28 so maybe something will happen. And their air cells look good too.

I hope something good is going on for you today. I'm at a loss with your issues! Seems like you are doing all right. It could just be a case of the parent stock...

Crap. I forgot they were duck eggs. Not sure what the humidity needs to be. But if the air cells looked good you would think they were okay. Did you mist the eggs??I read some where that with duck eggs you need to mist them. Is that true WV??

Misting isn't necessary, but some recommend it. I didn't do it. Its only recommended for days 7-25 I think. I'd have to look that up again.

Trust me, I know how hard it is!!! This should work. You'll get a peek and then if all looks good move on to the next egg. If one doesn't look right, pick it up and take a better peek. But it really is a good way to candle, hands off. For those of us that just have to look!

That's what I did with my last batch and it did satisfy my urge. With the rails on the Brinsea, it was too hard to pull them in and out, and worked fine just leaving them there.

Missed lazy's question... I have not rotated the axis, but have thought about it. I actually think I will do that next time I hatch.

 

[WVduckchick]

I just had to share this. We were working on the coop, and Dudley is lazy, so he climbs into the mini-truck to lay down. Then a hen climbs in with him. He laid right there and didn't even mess with her. She climbed all around him, I think she even stepped on him. I was so proud of him!

 

[kwhites634]

I just had to share this. We were working on the coop, and Dudley is lazy, so he climbs into the mini-truck to lay down. Then a hen climbs in with him. He laid right there and didn't even mess with her. She climbed all around him, I think she even stepped on him. I was so proud of him!

Priceless! We had a cat that was born in the barn attached to the original chicken house. The cat could squeeze in around the gate in the chain link fence, and spent the majority of her time laying in the sun coming through the open door of the chicken house..

Nice looking hen, BTW. Looks like mine.

 

[meganhundley]

I just had to share this. We were working on the coop, and Dudley is lazy, so he climbs into the mini-truck to lay down. Then a hen climbs in with him. He laid right there and didn't even mess with her. She climbed all around him, I think she even stepped on him. I was so proud of him!

That is too cute, lol

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Didn't I see a pic of a baby dragon in your yard a while back?

That was a baby radioactive lizard/dinosaur. lol

I hear that it's gonna be a candle light vigil.

Yeah, I'm going to try to cut back on the camdling. These weren't shipped, I picked them up about 3 hours from my house so they didn't get any rough handling, thank God. When I do candle I make it real quick, I make sure they're still moving and the veining looks good and then I put them back in. In all 1 egg is only out for maybe 4 or 5 seconds, unless I see something strange then I look a little longer. I'm very gentle when I do candle so they probably don't get moved around too much more than they do in the turner. But I'm not going to candle as much now. It's getting later in the hatch and I want to give them every oppurtunity. I won't candle again til lockdown and then it's hands off

If everything goes right I will be trying shipped eggs in the spring. I plan to try to be less hands on during incubation and if I have loose/wierd air cells I'm going to try Ruby's theory with working on weight loss and air cell size after the air cells firm up. I am not good at being hands off. It was hard enough with these broodies and they were outside. I don't know how I am going to accomplish it with them being right in the next room, but I really want a decent hatch with some beautiful babies, so I am going to have to. Once hatch starts though...all bets are off! No hands off at hatch. If I see trouble I'm going to act/react. lol And I am not leaving any of those babies in my death trap once they are moving. Now if I get a new one before I hatch I may let them stay in there long enough to dry off...lol

That being said I checked on "Blobby 2" and he quit. I opened it up and there was nothing but a chick in there. I have no idea what the other blob was

He was stuck to the shell but other than that he looked normal. I'm thinking what happened was his eye was stuck in 1 spot and his butt was part of the blob we saw stuck in the other spot.
ETA: I can post a pic of him if y'all want to see him.

I'm morbidly curious enough to want to see, so if no one else does you can send a pic to my pm.

I just had to share this. We were working on the coop, and Dudley is lazy, so he climbs into the mini-truck to lay down. Then a hen climbs in with him. He laid right there and didn't even mess with her. She climbed all around him, I think she even stepped on him. I was so proud of him!

I love it! I want to snuggle him so bad! He is too cute!!!