Weird looking eggs - what to do?

[CelticMoon1]

So I put 18 SLW eggs in the bator and candled at day 7. 4 were difficult to tell, the others were fine. Today is day 12, candled again and 2 out of those 4 were fine too.

Now, the quandry: In the last 2 eggs the air sacks have developped just like the others (I used a pencil to trace the outline), but they're difficult to "read" (I don't have professional devices for candling, I use a 25W light bulb in a dark box with a hole in it

) In one egg the shell looks like it has lots of spots where the light shines through, it kinda looks like a shade in there but not as distinct as the others. In the other it looks like there's a line around the bottom part of the shade - I immediately thought blood ring, but I've seen blood rings before and it doesn't exactly look like one. Could it be just a blood vessel that runs along the edge?

Now, as the air sacks are developping just like the others I'm not too keen on throwing them out in case there's nothing wrong really - can I leave them in as long as they're not seeping anything? Do I need to candle them again? I'm not planning on candling again until day 18...?

I've never had any trouble when candling before, the eggs have either developped fine, been infertile or had blood rings (a couple).

 

[jim s]

HI Celtic Moon. I have the same question. I was glad to see you describe it so well. I candled at day 10 and some were clearly developing, but when I put a light on the bottom of some, the egg is clear half way up the egg, and when I put the light on the top, it is clear down part way of the egg and it is difficult to tell if a chick is growing, or is the light too soft. Would love to see people respond to your questions. Good luck on your hatch.

 

[MuranoFarms]

Try a higher wattage light bulb.

 

[pgpoultry]

Hi,
They may be OK. I have had eggs with this appearance which have gone on to hatch.
I would hang on in and candle again in 2-3 days to see if they are still developing,
Good Luck

 

[FenDruadin]

My experience has been that when the baby dies, the air cell stops developing at the same rate and after just a few days, there is a noticeable difference between air cell size in viable babies and dead babies. Plus, there can be a great deal of variability inside the egg--I have one that I was SURE was bad last night, it looked so weird inside compared to the others... but then I saw it move! lol

I would give them more time. They will start to seep and stink before they explode--usually--and if they *are* dead, they haven't been for long or the air cell would look different, so you've got time before they get critical. Just check them again in a few days.

I never throw any eggs away until I'm 100% sure they're dead.

 

[CelticMoon1]

Thank you so much for responding guys! I was worrying because I've been reading too much about exploding eggs and I certainly don't want to endanger the 16 that clearly ARE developping! I'll be leaving them in then and see what happens

18 out of 18 first time around with a new bator would be fantastic! I have 3 live eggs that I've marked around the air cell to compare with, so I'll assume the 2 in question are OK as long as they develop same as the rest

9 days to go...

 

[CelticMoon1]

Candled again today, I'm thinking they're both probably quitters...

All the other eggs have turned quite dark now, and these haven't (air cell keeps growing a bit though)...
The first egg has a indistinct shade still, but I'm thinking it's a very early quitter. The second egg now has a quite distinct blood ring

Still, 16 out of 18 ain't half bad

 

[MuranoFarms]

16 out of 18 is great, especially if they're shipped.

You'll see a lot more with a 75watt bulb though.

 

[CelticMoon1]

Quote:
They're not shipped though, they're our own produce

But it's a new bator and I was quite curious to see if the hatch would do as well as they usually have done - I know, don't count the chickens until they hatch, right?

But so far so good, except for those two. (I did use a stronger light for the latest candling

) It's one week to hatch now, getting my nerves up till lock-down

I threw the eggs in question out today, cracked them open and the first one was a day 2-ish quitter, the second one a day 5-ish quitter. Means the first one had died quite recently when I candled them...