thinking about getting a bator

[JPF92788]

so im thinking about getting a rcom 3 egg incubator to hatch some chicks for my kids. we have 11 hens and a rooster. only 4 of the hens are laying right now, a RI red, black star and 2 black australorps. when i crack the eggs to make breakfast and such i see the white spot in some but not all. that means they are fertilized right? just wondering if it would be worth trying to hatch 3 chicks this time of year. if most but not all eggs have the white spot, will i have a good chance of putting fertile eggs in the bator? how will i know if they are fertilized when i put them in the bator, dont want to wait 20 days for an egg that wasnt even fertilized.

 

[canada-goose]

I would advise getting something bigger, the more eggs you set, the more chicks you get! Hey, that was a good rhyme, maybe I'll shove it into my signature!

Anyway, the eggs should be fertile. I guess you know about candling, shining a light though the egg. It solves the waiting problem. You don't know if they are fertilized until the seventh day when you candle them.

 

[jenjscott]

A plain white spot is in all eggs it is the blastodisc, unfertilized. If it is fertilized, it should appear as a little bullseye, white spot, clear ring, white ring, still very tiny, called a blastoderm, I think. There are some great pics on here somewhere.......
And yes candling at 7 days should allow you to tell, but on brown eggs, I always waited untill 10 days because I never trusted my judgement. Candle before you put them in, just so you can have something to compare to.

 

[jenjscott]

I knew it was around here somewhere, here's a thread with pictures of both fertile and infertile eggs.

 

[Greenwood Chick]

I have that incubator. It worked great. I've only hatched 3 eggs in it, but others on here have put more in and turned the eggs themselves rather than used the auto turner. I think I remember 6 eggs being about the max that you can fit.

A while ago they were on-sale (scratch and dent) on the Brinsea website for $80. What a deal!

Have fun!