WANTED: hatching partner

[LALADY1101]

i've never candled before.......i'm a first timer....i was wondering the same thing.....i'm gonna try what Pam said and leave them in the bator and just take a quick peek....they're shipped eggs and i didn't candle them when i got them.....i'm gonna practice with a store bought egg out of my fridge....wish me luck!!!!!!

 

[1mommahen]

I only candle on day 10 and day 18. You will smell a rotten egg a mile away without candling! Good Luck!

 

[RuffTuffCreampuff]

Quote:
Do you have a penlight? They work best for candling without handling....or you could tape some black paper over a strong flashlight, and put a hole in the middle...or say about a 1/4 of an inch to start...you can always make it bigger if need be. I really don't like to handle my shipped eggs, if they might or have damage air cells....this allows me to kinda get an ideal of what's going on inside the egg. Those little maglites work well too.

I candle all eggs before they go in the bator, even my own. I am checking for damaged air cells, double yolkers, pourous shells...etc.



Pam

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

My bday is june 23rd, so I am a hatching partner of sorts . . . lol, name one Katy! good luck!

 

[LALADY1101]

CALLING PAM!!!!

ok couldn't resist.......candled about 5 of them. I was too scared to do anymore of them.All have air sacks but no veining. Today would be day 3 1/2, should i be seeing the start of veins?? The air sacs look kinda big to me but i'm not sure what i'm looking for...help!!!!!! Now i'm REALLY worried!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RuffTuffCreampuff]

Quote:
First thing, don't panic!

Next, what color are your eggs? It is harder to see the veining in darker eggs. I wouldn't worry yet at 3 1/2 days.

Pam

Edit to add....it's broad daylight, was your room totally dark? Hard to see with any light at all.

 

[CackleberriesCrackMeUp!]

Quote:
Pam - what do you do if you have porous shells? That was the only thing I could see on my shipped eggs was they appeared to be porous.

I will have to try the maglite while in the bator and see if I can tell anything. I know I told LALADY I was going to wait 'til day 8, but this is my first hatch and I can't help myself!

 

[twinlights]

I candled a few of mine just for curiosity's sake. They were the ss eggs that I got from Bargain. One had a detached air sac

and was clear, the other two had visible veining. The BCM and EE eggs are too dark to see anything.
I will wait a couple more days before I candle all of them.

they are developing well.

 

[LALADY1101]

Hey Pam,

They're silkies, so they're all kinda of tanish-white. I brought them into my laundry room where it's pitch black no matter what time of the day it is. I had an emergency with my humidity last night. I added what I thought was a little water and didn't give the bator time to adjust and humidity shot up to 77%!!!! Got it back under control pretty quickly but needless to say, I was freaking out!!!!! Temp is good this am at 99.5 and humidity is 43%, so hopefully I didn't do any damage to the babies.

I might not have put the flashlight the right way, but the air sacs did look big to me. Keep in mind I have NO IDEA what I'm doing!!! This is seriously stressful!! 2nd morning in a row I woke up at 3:30 am worried about temps and humidity..gonna be a LOOONNNNGGG 17 1/2 more days!!!!

 

[RuffTuffCreampuff]

CackleberriesCrackMeUp! :

Quote:
Pam - what do you do if you have porous shells? That was the only thing I could see on my shipped eggs was they appeared to be porous.

I will have to try the maglite while in the bator and see if I can tell anything. I know I told LALADY I was going to wait 'til day 8, but this is my first hatch and I can't help myself!

If they are shipped eggs, I go ahead and set them....but I have read that pourous eggs have a lower hatch rate. I have had pourous eggs hatch, so it's not an automatic death sentence, but have noticed that their is a lower success rate. Of course, shipped eggs have many things against them to began with....that shipping can be hard on them.

My own eggs, I don't set the ones that are pourous....I had alot of my own eggs showing up pourous awhile back, and I change their feeding.....we now have the ones I want to be purebred in a movable hoop coops....so I can keep them on fresh grass. And of course they have the usual oyster shells. During the winter I plant winter rye, so I always have grass of some sort growing around here...lol. However, that might be more difficult for people in harsher winter climates.

Even though for me personally my success has been somewhat poor with shipped eggs, I will still do it....because I love a challenge! I am turning my eggs differently this time as well, just an experiment really....to see if it helps those with damaged air cells.

Pam​