Incubating Questions

[BusyBeeDee73]

Hello,
I am trying my hand at incubating eggs. Pray for me! I have two questions: I am at day 6 and can’t really see anything, the breeder I purchased eggs from said it took her until day 10 to see anything but leave them until day 18! Is this true? How do I vaccinate for Merck’s?

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

Hello,
I am trying my hand at incubating eggs. Pray for me! I have two questions: I am at day 6 and can’t really see anything, the breeder I purchased eggs from said it took her until day 10 to see anything but leave them until day 18! Is this true? How do I vaccinate for Merck’s?

When incubating eggs you usually candle them every week to see if you can see progress. At day 6 all you can see is usually only veins. I usually trow away the quitters or non fertile eggs between day 16-18

 

[nuthatched]

Hello,
I am trying my hand at incubating eggs. Pray for me! I have two questions: I am at day 6 and can’t really see anything, the breeder I purchased eggs from said it took her until day 10 to see anything but leave them until day 18! Is this true? How do I vaccinate for Merck’s?

You should see veins by day 5. You can candle every day or every other day or whatever but you should candle every so often to be sure that their alive. Is your incubator calibrated? To vaccinate for mereks, you buy it from a chicken supply store and give every chick a shot, although the vaccine is expensive and you can't but small quantities of it, it's in lots of 100 doses. It doesn't prevent a bird from getting or spreading mareks, just helps keep the mareks tumors from growing that can cause most of the issues. It's about 90% effective.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am at day 6 and can’t really see anything, the breeder I purchased eggs from said it took her until day 10 to see anything but leave them until day 18! Is this true?

Some people never candle their eggs. Candling is not necessary for the eggs to hatch. I never candle mine under a broody hen and they hatch fine. Some people candle to keep track of the air cell growth so they can adjust humidity. I candle mine at Day 7 just out of curiosity. At Day 18 as I'm going into lockdown I candle to remove any that quit just to have them out of the way during hatch. As you don't have experience candling I'd be very reluctant to do anything based on candling, even at Day 18.

White and cream colored eggs are pretty easy to candle. Dark brown or blue eggs can be challenging. Dark green can be pretty hard, even with good equipment. I can appreciate that breeder's comments if the eggs are really dark shelled.

 

[BusyBeeDee73]

Some people never candle their eggs. Candling is not necessary for the eggs to hatch. I never candle mine under a broody hen and they hatch fine. Some people candle to keep track of the air cell growth so they can adjust humidity. I candle mine at Day 7 just out of curiosity. At Day 18 as I'm going into lockdown I candle to remove any that quit just to have them out of the way during hatch. As you don't have experience candling I'd be very reluctant to do anything based on candling, even at Day 18.

White and cream colored eggs are pretty easy to candle. Dark brown or blue eggs can be challenging. Dark green can be pretty hard, even with good equipment. I can appreciate that breeder's comments if the eggs are really dark shelled.

This are light eggs. I am thinking none of them are fertile. I can see yolk no veins at all.

 

[BusyBeeDee73]

When incubating eggs you usually candle them every week to see if you can see progress. At day 6 all you can see is usually only veins. I usually trow away the quitters or non fertile eggs between day 16-18

My entire batch is no good because I see no veins at all

 

[BusyBeeDee73]

You should see veins by day 5. You can candle every day or every other day or whatever but you should candle every so often to be sure that their alive. Is your incubator calibrated? To vaccinate for mereks, you buy it from a chicken supply store and give every chick a shot, although the vaccine is expensive and you can't but small quantities of it, it's in lots of 100 doses. It doesn't prevent a bird from getting or spreading mareks, just helps keep the mareks tumors from growing that can cause most of the issues. It's about 90% effective.

No veins at all 10 Ayam Cemani eggs not one fertile egg

 

[nuthatched]

No veins at all 10 Ayam Cemani eggs not one fertile egg

What day did you set? Are these shipped eggs?

 

[Firsttimehens1234]

My entire batch is no good because I see no veins at all

I’m sorry to hear that, we’re any of these shipped?

 

[BusyBeeDee73]

I picked them up locally. On day 7