Uh oh... found an egg today! ... - A journal of sorts, from finding eggs to hatching them... Update

[perchie.girl]

OK then I need to get a proper Flashlight for candling. Because the one I had was a penlight. I thought the picture odd too but then I had to find a picture of excatly what I was seeing. I am not seeing any air cells at all in any of the eggs. I am sure its my inexperience. I have a flashlight about as big as yours but didnt have it with me its one of those ones that has LED lights and they are so bright they will blind you if you look at it straight on.

By the way I am seeing veins on your first two eggs. I will get this down. Its a good thing I am doing this now to learn how with my own eggs rather than ones I buy.

deb

You should be able to see the air cells very clearly by now, (especially in your chicken eggs, which develop a little faster and have thinner shells). Focusing on the air cells is basically how I determine fertility early in all my eggs, the shade of the air cell is really pale/light compared to the shade of the egg contents and pretty noticeable (to me anyway) after about just 4 days of incubation.

Kind of odd that egg in the pic you posted has the dark area up at the big end of the egg, and no visible air cell... might just be due to how the pic was taken and the egg was held, or even how it was set in the incubator. I incubate all my eggs in egg turners, pointy end down and the dark area always settles to the bottom/pointy end

For whatever reason, (compounded by my overwhelming lack of photography skills)... I can't EVER get veins/embryo growth to show up well in my candling pics... frustrating as ****. You can at least see that the air cells are very visible at the top of my eggs tho. I'm running the RH a little low in 'bator with the yellow egg turners (maintaining in the high 30% range), higher in the 'bator with the blue egg turner (maintaining in the low 50% range)... Notice the air cell size difference, it's a lot more than I expected it to be, kinda has me worried now, lol

Day 8 for these eggs:






Day 1 for this egg, for comparison. Air cell is hard to see:

 

[daylily]

No I haven't ever hatched anything before. Nor used this method before, But couldn't afford a "Real incubator". So far all looks good but I am a type A Personality and I worry over everything!

I have a second one made but still have to put in the hardware cloth for the bottom and then test out the new thermometer and humidity gauge for accuracy. Then I will transfer the eggs to this new one to finish the hatch. Busy busy busy!

I haven't been able to "catch' anyone near a nest since I got these so I'm expecting they have quite a number of eggs in there by now, so one of the hens is gonna go missing soon. I think it is at the neighbors but I have checked all around their property and the other neighbors too, plus all the woods I see them in, but nothing!

I saw one on the old nest sitting, but there was nothing in it but leaves, could they be burying them under the leaves? I'll check better tomorrow.

 

[PeepsCA]

OK then I need to get a proper Flashlight for candling. Because the one I had was a penlight. I thought the picture odd too but then I had to find a picture of excatly what I was seeing. I am not seeing any air cells at all in any of the eggs. I am sure its my inexperience. I have a flashlight about as big as yours but didnt have it with me its one of those ones that has LED lights and they are so bright they will blind you if you look at it straight on.

By the way I am seeing veins on your first two eggs. I will get this down. Its a good thing I am doing this now to learn how with my own eggs rather than ones I buy.

deb

The flashlight I was using in the pics is a Streamlight Strion, and it has a C4 LED bulb in it, so ya it's bright. The disorienting strobe feature comes in handy at night when I need to catch birds too, they just freeze and can easily be caught

Depending on how fresh the eggs were when you set them, and how much moisture they lost prior to being set effects the air cell size, so if you set your eggs really fresh or you stored them where they had plenty of humidity prior to setting them then maybe your air cells are just smaller and hard to see... and the cells are always a little hard to see thru the thick Guinea egg shells anyway, but a brighter light should help. Unless they all have the air cells in the wrong spot (happens sometimes, they can be on the side or bottom... which is usually not good), but for all of the eggs to be that way (both chicken and Guinea) seems unlikely. You'll get it tho, because you are one determined woman, and you learn quick. You'll be a pro in no time.

I see the veins in my egg pics too, but compared to how clearly I can see them with my own eyes when candling to how they look in the pics... the pics just didn't capture the detail clear enough. I can't get the camera's auto focus to stay focused on the veins, it wanders off stargazing at other obvious features in the pic, lol. If I knew how to actually USE the camera settings lol I am sure I could get better vein and embryo detail to show up. Time to find that Photography for Dummies book.

 

[JLeigh]

The room in my house with the most temperature and humidity stability for incubation is the "beer room" (my husband makes his own beer) and it's kept dark for the beer.

Is a pitch dark room okay for incubation? If not, I can use another room of course.

I gotta tell you guys, I'm scared to death - this is my first hatch. I may need to drink some of that beer hubby makes - or maybe something a little harder!! (not really)

 

[JLeigh]

Another question: Am I supposed to let shipped eggs "sit" at room temp for 24 hours before putting them in the 'bator?

 

[scheelgrl]

Hi peeps! I have been a lurker for a while on here and am in need of your advice now, so here goes... Lol. I tried incubating some guinea eggs a friend gave me and had 10 make it to lockdown, but on day 25 the power went out and my loving (but not so bright) bf put hot rags in the bator and the temp shot up to 120! Of course none survived. But, good news is, i found a breeder of pearls, pieds and lavenders and am wanting to purchase keetsies instead of going the eggs route again. What color combinations could result from pearls, pieds, and lavenders and how many of each should i purchase? Thanks sooo much. YOU ARE THE GUINEA GURU IN MY BOOK! Lol

 

[perchie.girl]

The room in my house with the most temperature and humidity stability for incubation is the "beer room" (my husband makes his own beer) and it's kept dark for the beer.

Is a pitch dark room okay for incubation? If not, I can use another room of course.

I gotta tell you guys, I'm scared to death - this is my first hatch. I may need to drink some of that beer hubby makes - or maybe something a little harder!! (not really)

A dark room is fine. Its more important to have temperature stability. I have mine set up in my dads old Laboratory.... (just a bedroom with science stuff in it) and it has very dark drapes. And I am there with you on my very first hatch... BOTB..... Bring On the Beer. I finally candled right and could actually see Air Cells. Woo Hoo. one week now....

deb

 

[JLeigh]

Thanks, Deb, Let me know how it goes for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for a great hatch..

 

[PeepsCA]

Hi peeps! I have been a lurker for a while on here and am in need of your advice now, so here goes... Lol. I tried incubating some guinea eggs a friend gave me and had 10 make it to lockdown, but on day 25 the power went out and my loving (but not so bright) bf put hot rags in the bator and the temp shot up to 120! Of course none survived. But, good news is, i found a breeder of pearls, pieds and lavenders and am wanting to purchase keetsies instead of going the eggs route again. What color combinations could result from pearls, pieds, and lavenders and how many of each should i purchase? Thanks sooo much. YOU ARE THE GUINEA GURU IN MY BOOK! Lol

LOL, heya scheelgrl! (Haha @ Guinea guru, not really but Thanks!

). Sorry to hear about the power outage/hot rag disaster ruining your hatch for ya. Bummer, but hey at least the BF cared enough to try and save them (even if it was too hot!).

From that color combo you should get lots of Pearl Greys with Pied Pearl Greys being next in line, and Lavenders and Pied Lavenders being possible too if your Pearl Greys and Pied Piearl Greys are carrying the blue (Lavender) gene. Pearl Grey genes are always dominant, and the Pied is an incomplete dominant (but very determined) gene, so depending on how many Pieds you have in your flock, and how many eggs from the clutches hatch... you could end up with as many as 50% of your hatches being Pieds in one color or another. You may even end up with some pure Whites if a Pied breeds with a Pied. And who knows, some other colors may pop up too, like Royal Purples or Pied Royal Purples. It really depends on what other hidden recessive genes the birds are silently carrying in their backgrounds. Personally, I'd buy mostly Pieds and Lavenders and wouldn't bother with buying very many of the Pearl Grey keets (unless you really really like that color), because they are going to show up a lot in your hatches anyway. Good luck and post some keet pics when you get your new babies!

 

[PeepsCA]

The room in my house with the most temperature and humidity stability for incubation is the "beer room" (my husband makes his own beer) and it's kept dark for the beer.

Is a pitch dark room okay for incubation? If not, I can use another room of course.

I gotta tell you guys, I'm scared to death - this is my first hatch. I may need to drink some of that beer hubby makes - or maybe something a little harder!! (not really)

A dark room is fine, but I've found that having bright light during the hatch action stimulates my keets to hatch more all together, within a closer time frame of each other. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it really does seem like my hatches go quicker when I have the shades open letting in a lot of sunlight or a bright light on when the main part of my hatch gets going.

A beer room huh, hmm.. I need one of those, lol. I agree with deb, BOTB!