FBCM Eggs, Day 14 Candling

[Buckeye Amy]

I have some concerns.

I should mention that this is my first hatch and that these eggs are pretty dark. I have numbered them from lightest to darkest. Egg 1 is about the darkness of a good Welsummer egg and 8 is dark as dark chocolate. I have not pictured all the eggs, just the ones I'm most concerned about.

I've been very diligent about monitoring humidity and temperature. I'm using a Harris Farms NR360 which is, in my very un-experienced but exhaustively well-read experience, a DARN GOOD incubator!

These are shipped eggs that arrived in pristine condition.

First is egg 1. I was initially thinking this one was infertile on day 7. The light shone right through. Now on day 14 I'm seeing a dark mass near the top. No movement that I can discern. I was going to toss this egg if it still looked clear but I've changed my mind.

Next is egg 3. I'm seeing the "black blob of death". I stared at this clearly defined blob for about a minute. I can't detect an odor at all. I messed with the contrast on this photo to give it more definition. Thoughts?

Another shot of egg 3:

Here is the above egg 3 on day 7. I thought it looked infertile:

Egg 4, I have NO CLUE what to think here. I could not see anything going on. No detectable odor (I am extremely sensitive to sulfur). No visible movement. The air cell looked decent though. It's a bit porous.

Egg 7 frankly frightens me. There is no detectable odor, but this egg is DARK. It was not like this a week ago. What on earth is going on in there?

Another photo of egg 7:

Thanks for taking the time to look!

 

[Weeg]

@Eggcessive

 

[Buckeye Amy]

63 views and no one wants to bite? I guess I'll find out in 6 days.

 

[Buckeye Amy]

@ChickenCanoe these are the eggs I was talking about 2 weeks ago that were shipped to me. I decided not to let them settle and put them in the bator the evening I got them.

 

[Weeg]

@Eggcessive @casportpony anyone?

 

[Buckeye Amy]

@Eggcessive @casportpony anyone?

It's OK, thanks for trying to help. Everyone is having a good time on their long weekend in Kiki's back yard.

 

[Kiraeh]

I've never hatched eggs that dark, but I find even fairly light brown orpington eggs make it a lot harder to see veining. So I wouldn't count on being able to see them in these dark eggs at all. Or being able to see a clear blood ring. But you can clearly see the air cell, and some amount of light passing through or not. We can work with that.

I think egg 7 may be your only one pictured that's developing. Day 14 eggs are getting pretty full, and with a slightly saddled air cell taking up some of the room, I can imagine it being full dark.

The rest of the eggs look like they're not developing to me. Not necessarily infertile, shipped eggs can have invisible damage that causes them to quit very early.

What I'm looking at is the quality and definition of the air cell. When there's no development, it starts to degrade, so it's a good indicator of life. Look at your two pictures of egg 3; on day 7 the edge of the air cell is crisp and there's a sharp color change from it. By day 14, you can still see where the edge is well enough to trace it, but it's a very soft gradient, almost the same colour on both sides of the line. This doesn't mean that the there was life on day 7, the air cell takes a bit to degrade so it's not a very quick indicator.

 

[Eggcessive]

I don’t have much experience hatching that many eggs, but the black copper marans eggs I had, were difficult to candle. I am not a good one to help.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

@ChickenCanoe these are the eggs I was talking about 2 weeks ago that were shipped to me. I decided not to let them settle and put them in the bator the evening I got them.

I incubate dark eggs too and I don't have a high powered candler so I just look for a blob after a couple weeks and again at 18 or 19 days to verify they aren't clear. It is nearly impossible for me to see veins and only occasionally do I see movement. So, I don't stress out about it. I just keep them in till hatch day unless they are obviously clear. On hatch day I pull all the chicks and leave the rest of the eggs in another day in case there is a late bloomer and then I move on with the hatched chicks.
If they don't jump out on their own, I'm not going to make the effort to save any unhatched. Those potentially are genetics I don't want to perpetuate in my flocks.
Of all the assisted hatches I have done, I've saved perhaps 5-10% of them. It just isn't worth it to me.

 

[Buckeye Amy]

I incubate dark eggs too and I don't have a high powered candler so I just look for a blob after a couple weeks and again at 18 or 19 days to verify they aren't clear. It is nearly impossible for me to see veins and only occasionally do I see movement. So, I don't stress out about it. I just keep them in till hatch day unless they are obviously clear. On hatch day I pull all the chicks and leave the rest of the eggs in another day in case there is a late bloomer and then I move on with the hatched chicks.
If they don't jump out on their own, I'm not going to make the effort to save any unhatched. Those poteentially are genetics I don't want to perpetuate in my flocks.
Of all the assisted hatches I have done, I've saved perhaps 5-10% of them. It just isn't worth it to me.

Thanks for this. It is encouraging.