Burst egg

[SuzyB]

Following on from my moving a broody thread, I now have an incubator, the broody coop is all set up and when it goes dark, will move Speckledy and put the eggs in the inccy until I know she's settled on the rubber eggs.

I rigged up a candler earlier with a lamp and cardboard and had a go with one egg to see whats going on. Problem is, I could see a dark mass but not much else. They are Legbar eggs so not that easy to see through. Thing is, Ive read that much about candling eggs and the results, Im worried Im going to put eggs in the inccy that are either rotten or have had early deaths in which will then burst and ruin all the others.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them or is it one of those things people talk about happening, but doesnt often happen?

Im going to candle the rest when I move them in a bit so will perhaps have more of an idea then. Out of the three bantam eggs under her, two feel very light, one feels heavy in comparison, is that an indicator?

[julesapple]

What day are you on? A dark mass is all you can see really, if your candler isn't really strong. Later on you might be able to see the egg sack moving from the rounded end to the top, depending on the opacity of the shell. Just before pipping you might even hear some noises, but very faintly.

From about day 7 or 8, you just see a black blob getting larger. Someone else will be able to advise on weight properly, but I know that the egg does get lighter by about 13% of it's initial weight.

Hope this helps a bit,

Jules

[Suechooks]

With my very limited experience I found candling really interesting. Not sure how accurate I was but the first (7 days) was easiest where you can see the blood vessels. there is a site with pictures somewhere on the net - maybe Google it - I used that and some pictures in a book I have. I discarded 2 which had the red bacterial ring and any that were obviously clear after 10 days. Any that didn't hatch I just binned - didn't fancy breaking them open ! Good luck with it all!

[SuzyB]

Done! Broody in her coop, not making half as much noise as last time so there's hope she'll settle.

Candled the eggs, got rid of one bantam egg that was clearly empty and iffy on two of the legbar eggs but am as sure as I can be that the others have occupants, specially one bantam egg where we could see it moving! They are in the incubator now waiting for mummy to decide she really does enjoy living on her own without the rest of the rabble ribbing her for being lazy and not moving much these days....