eggs in the incubator

Egglive · **Joined:** Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:58 am **Posts:** 267

I would agree with you pjh. When in doubt, I leave them in.

County if you don't have the hatch you hope for and you think it could be humidity, then it might be helpful to have a look. Chicks still develop if the humidity is too high. The main problem is at hatch time. The right amount of moisture hasn't evaporated and the air sac is a little small, and some don't make it out. They need to twist and turn to tie off the umbilical cord and crack out of the shell when it's time. If the air sac is too small this can be impossible for them. If humidity is your problem you might have a lot of dead chicks in shells. Open them up and have a look at the air sac size.

You can also check humidity by weighing your eggs during incubation but I've always found this to be too much of a pain.

Brinsea has information about the air sac, humidity and weight loss during incubation if you want to look into it.

http://www.avianweb.com/images/products ... bation.pdf

I personally, think that high humidity won't cause too much of a problem. In SEQ birds hatch their young in it all the time. I have found that some birds have less trouble with it than others.

County Lodge · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:18 am

Eggsalive wrote:

Country Lodge,
There's a place in the UK that do the Silkie Sussex cross. This is their website. There's not a lot of info, but there is a pic on the page. They look quite interesting.

Thanks for the link Eggsalive. My rooster is white and the hen is light sussex so we sould end up with a white one looking like the buff coloured one on the site.

County Lodge · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:25 am

Eggsalive wrote:

I would agree with you pjh. When in doubt, I leave them in.

County if you don't have the hatch you hope for and you think it could be humidity, then it might be helpful to have a look. Chicks still develop if the humidity is too high. The main problem is at hatch time. The right amount of moisture hasn't evaporated and the air sac is a little small, and some don't make it out. They need to twist and turn to tie off the umbilical cord and crack out of the shell when it's time. If the air sac is too small this can be impossible for them. If humidity is your problem you might have a lot of dead chicks in shells. Open them up and have a look at the air sac size.

You can also check humidity by weighing your eggs during incubation but I've always found this to be too much of a pain.

Brinsea has information about the air sac, humidity and weight loss during incubation if you want to look into it.

http://www.avianweb.com/images/products ... bation.pdf

I personally, think that high humidity won't cause too much of a problem. In SEQ birds hatch their young in it all the time. I have found that some birds have less trouble with it than others.

No, I don't think I am having any probelm with the temp or humidity as the four eggs of my own that I have put in the incubator are doing extremely well. Well developed embryos, lots of blood vessles and developing at a good rate. I put 4 eggs in and I have the same result with all 4 eggs - very good.

It is the fertile cuckoo eggs I purchased. I have had 1 rotten egg and it looks like all the others bar 1 are not ferile at this point when I candeled at 7 days. So my guess is the eggs were not fresh enough when I set them.

I am glad I put my own eggs in as well as I would really be concerned that I had got something wrong otherwise. I will leave the eggs for another few days but if there is no change in them I may open one or two to see the problem.

pjh · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:39 am

County Lodge wrote:

It is the fertile cuckoo eggs I purchased. I have had 1 rotten egg and it looks like all the others bar 1 are not ferile at this point when I candeled at 7 days. So my guess is the eggs were not fresh enough when I set them.

I am glad I put my own eggs in as well as I would really be concerned that I had got something wrong otherwise. I will leave the eggs for another few days but if there is no change in them I may open one or two to see the problem.

it is always a problem with buying fertile eggs

here I have about 90% fertility---eggs I have sent, very fresh eggs<5 days old, express post, arrived next day intact---about 60% started developing

apparently it is the vibration and movement that affects the eggs----and the rotten one, maybe it was already developing and then sent :-?

happens sometimes I am told

cheers pam

County Lodge · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:26 pm

pjh wrote:

County Lodge wrote:

It is the fertile cuckoo eggs I purchased. I have had 1 rotten egg and it looks like all the others bar 1 are not ferile at this point when I candeled at 7 days. So my guess is the eggs were not fresh enough when I set them.

I am glad I put my own eggs in as well as I would really be concerned that I had got something wrong otherwise. I will leave the eggs for another few days but if there is no change in them I may open one or two to see the problem.

it is always a problem with buying fertile eggs

here I have about 90% fertility---eggs I have sent, very fresh eggs<5 days old, express post, arrived next day intact---about 60% started developing

apparently it is the vibration and movement that affects the eggs----and the rotten one, maybe it was already developing and then sent :-?

happens sometimes I am told

cheers pam

I knew the problems of getting fertile eggs but I was hoping. I know I picked a bad time of year as well. So please do not get me wrong, I DO NOT BLAME THE SUPPLER OF THE EGGS AT ALL. I have learned some lessone though from this though. In future I will ask for eggs to be no older than 5 days old when they are posted and I will pay the extra for express post and I will also ask for them to be posted on a Monday so hopefully the eggs do not sit in a mail sorting room or a post office over the weekend. I was hoping to at least get a nice little cuckoo cockerel out of this lot to replace my current boy by the end of the year. Some cuckoo girls would have been a nice bonus as well.

Egglive · **Joined:** Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:58 am **Posts:** 267

Oh, I see. Well, Bad luck about the posted eggs. You are right - just as well you had your own good eggs in their as well.

greenaus · **Posted:** Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:11 am

County Lodge wrote:

I am glad I put my own eggs in as well as I would really be concerned that I had got something wrong otherwise.

That's a very good point. Perhaps those who incubate "special" eggs should routinely include a couple of other eggs as a "control". In your case, a few known fresh eggs from your own flock, likely to be fertile.

Good move.

County Lodge · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:45 pm

I bit the bullet this afternoon and decided to cracked the 9 eggs I thought were infertile and yeap everyone was infertile. Last count 1 rotten, 9 infertile and 2 - I dunno. I think there is something there but the embryo may have died. Is that the case if there is a black spot visible??

pjh · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:09 pm

If it has died you will get a blood ring as well usually,around the air sac----sometimes an embryo looks like a black spot and if dark eggs the blood vessels are hard to see------if in doubt leave them a while longer and recheck that it is still growing-----have only been candling a year so no expert, and threw one the other day I thought was no good and it was a good one :cry:

cheers pam

Kylie · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:56 pm

Aww CL I feel for you, it would be very disappointing

The black spot could be a good sign, if you hold it up to a touch in a very dark room you maybe able to see if its moving (mine looked like that around day 7) i hope your last 2 are fertile [smilie=a_bow.gif]

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