How can I be sure which eggs are quitters after candling?

[AALEX621]

Hi i have 7 silkie eggs incubating and they are at day 16. This is my first time trying to hatch eggs and i'm afraid to throw out any eggs that I think may be "quitters" and have stopped developing. I heard that sometimes it may appear that an embryo has stopped growing but in the end they could be fine and may still hatch? Also, at day 16 should all my eggs be pretty dark inside? I have 3 eggs that appear to be clear and one egg that has a dark spot in the small end which doesnt seem normal? Then 2 more eggs seemed to have developed inside but then stopped... All i see inside is a black dot like an eye and they're not mostly dark at all. Then only 1 egg is mostly dark with a nice air pocket

i'm upset that only 1 egg seems promising but hopefully it'll hatch! Should i definately throw out all the other eggs? I don't want to keep any eggs that could possibly explode! Please give me some advice on what i should definately keep and throw away! Thanks!

 

[Gypsy07]

Hi and welcome to BYC!

Firstly, almost all non developing eggs are perfectly safe to keep in your bator. Only ones that are badly cantaminated with bacteria pose any sort of risk of exploding, and even then, most bad eggs can be safely sniffed out and quietly removed long before they actually explode. If you don't have a 'bad egg' sulphury smell coming from your air vents, I'm 99.99% sure you'll be okay on the exploding stinker front.

I often leave in eggs that I'm not sure about, especially if they've been shipped, just to be on the safe side. I would hate to throw away a viable egg. And shipping them does funny things to teh air cells that make it harder to tell by candling which ones are good and which ones are quitters.

By day 16 your eggs should be mostly dark and almost full of chick. If you can see that the whole egg is clear, and the light is shining through it, that's a definite non developer. The one with a dark spot in the small sounds like either an early quitter or a blob of bacteria. The other two that seem to have started then quit don't sound great, but if you're new to candling and hatching it's sometimes hard to tell. The dark one with the air pocket definitely sounds good, but I'd say to be on the safe side keep the ones you're not sure about. Give each egg a good sniff just before lockdown and if they don't smell at all, they'll almost certainly be safe to keep in.

Also, it's useful to keep them, and after your hatch has ended, have a look inside the ones that didn't hatch. (It's known as doing an eggtopsy.) It's a good way to figure out what you're seeing when you candle, and also helps you to figure out if your humidity was okay. I always eggtopsy my non hatchers even though it's a pretty yucky task.

 

[ruthless]

The first several post of this thread have amazing pictures of egg development.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876

 

[bobbieschicks]

I left 4 eggs in our bator last time that I wasn't sure if they were growing properly or not - they never stunk or exploded and they were "quitters" - so you can just leave them. You WILL know if one needs to be removed because it is bad b/c there will be an odor & I can smell the bad ones with the Hovabator closed. I just sniff it periodically then sniff out the bad ones & carefully remove to outside trash.

This go round anyone who isn't developing I will leave until Day 14 unless they are stinking - then I'll remove them to give the ones who will hatch room to move around.

 

[AALEX621]

Thank you so much! All your responses are very helpful. I'll just toss out the clear ones and keep the ones that i believe quit just in case... Thanks!