Which shall I start with? The bad. I know you are all waiting for news on the candling of our incubated eggs, as promised. Well we closed the shutters and turned off all the lights in the spare bedroom and held our breaths to see if the torch showed up the expected signs of life ... the first egg was placed on the candling torch ... and ... nothing. No telltale veins or dark spots were evident to suggest a developing embryo inside, and what we saw didn't fit the illustration in our book. Well incubators don't get a 100% success rate, so we moved onto the next egg ... nothing ... and the next ... all 18 eggs were duds. We were all so downhearted, especially the children. We began to wonder if our temperature and humidity sensors were correct or if we'd stored the eggs at too cold a temperature during the week we were collecting them prior to incubation. They were all removed and placed in a basket ready to go on the compost heap next morning.
Just before I took the eggs out after breakfast the next day I decided to crack a couple open, to see if there was any clue for failure, or sign of initial development. We all gathered around and you can't imagine how gutted we all felt, and how our faces dropped, when inside every single egg was a developing embryo the size of a large marble. The big eyes and little beaks were clearly visible, and their little bodies and wings. They had been developing after all, but for some reason our candling didn't show it up. For the rest of the day we all moped around knowing that we had removed perfectly healthy chicks from the incubator. 'Aaarrrgh', is all I can say. The mistake was understood and accepted by all but the youngest, who is still angry at me for being a chick killer.
And the good news? Well we need some after that! Another batch of eggs has now been placed in the incubator, this is day two. We won't even bother candling, we'll just wait the three weeks. And more good news? Today saw the arrival of three new birds to our flock. We got two silkie cross hens (one crossed with a speckled sussex, the other with a buff sussex) because they are the most reliable broody hens. Once they go broody the incubator will be out of action and mother nature can take over. The third hen is an 11 week old Rhode Island Red hen which is an ideal utility bird (reliable egg layer but also heavy enough for the table) for smallholders.
Ach, how heartbreaking!
I don't hold much by candling eggs. I have tried at the first stage of incubation to candle eggs, and like you thought there was nothing. I am a born skeptic however, and almost always put the eggs back in "for a little while longer". For my first several batches of eggs I never bothered candling. Granted my hatching rate was only around 70% but that's pretty good for mixed breed chickens on a hard-scrabble farm. However, I still like the more "natural" approach of just waiting to see what happens--even though mankind has been candling eggs since Ancient Egypt.
Once chicks begin hatching I always wait several days past when the last chicken hatched, if there are still unhatched eggs. Once, I put 25 eggs in the incubator all on the same day, but gathered over a week. For some reason they all hatched out with in 3 days of each other, except about 8 eggs. I let them go the week. Meanwhile I'd put some more eggs in half of the incubator and for one reason or another forgot about the 8. Almost another week later--nearly two weeks since the others hatched--I got a couple of chicks. A bizarre impossibility!
Last year, however, I had to start candling eggs. A couple of customers, and a squeamish wife found almost fully developed chicks in their breakfast eggs. Again, I cannot see how this happens as we collect eggs every day, twice a day during the summer, and process them that same day. Yet, 3 eggs almost made it to maturity. So, as long as a rooster was in with hens we candled eggs. The best set up I've found is a loo roll tube and a very bright LED torch. Slide the tube over the end of the torch--it must be tight fitting--and set the big end of the egg over the opposite end. View in a darkish room and hey presto! you can clearly see what's going on inside. This works good on those eggs which haven't hatched 3 days after the other ones in a clutch, to see whether it's worth trying for longer, or to pitch them before they explode.
Remember, eggs (and chickens) are incredible ancient, reptilian, durable things. I once discovered why we weren't getting so many eggs from our chickens one spring. They were all nipping outside the yard behind the coop and laying eggs. Some how, enough chickens were on the nest long enough during the day, and there were enough eggs in the clutch to keep things warm at night. By the time I discovered the nest there were perhaps 30 or more eggs in it. With perhaps only 5 at most chickens laying on it, that would still take over 2 weeks to build. I decided to try hatching the eggs, so into the incubator they went. I can't remember if we candled any, but we put all of them in. With in two weeks we were getting chicks and more then 50% of the eggs hatched. I put the rest down to infertile eggs and the ones on top which may have gotten chilled. I fully believe if I had left them alone in the nest, and a predator hadn't gotten them, they would have hatched.
We think that because we control the incubator that we know best. But the many times I've let chickens hatch their own clutches I've watched them get on and off the nest occasionally during the three weeks, until all but the final stages where they won't budge for anything. I am certain that those periods of cooling are necessary for healthy chicks--hen raised chicks always seem stronger than incubated ones in the first few days.
Good luck with the next clutch!
Posted by: Podchef | March 28, 2008 at 03:04 PM
What a huge disappointment. I wish you every success with your latest batch of eggs.
Marie
Posted by: marie | March 28, 2008 at 11:57 PM
Why did you choose to go the route of incubators and candling and all that, rather than let hens sit on their nests? While my grandma had chickens, I myself haven't ever had any, so am not sure about the reasons why you'd go one way or the other.
Posted by: Deb L | March 29, 2008 at 12:04 AM
You must have been totally gutted. We breed rabbits and are always heartbroken when one of the littlies falls out of the nest and gets too cold to make it. Better luck next time.
Posted by: Alison | March 29, 2008 at 01:50 AM
we had polish crested for a some time and they were wonderful! Chickens are wonderful!
Posted by: teaching handwork Mom | March 29, 2008 at 03:10 AM
Hi Deb L
We used the incubator because none of our hens were broody. They only go broody at certain times of the year, and some breeds never go broody (daily egg layers). Broody means getting the urge to sit tight on a clutch of eggs for 3 weeks. The brown hens we have don't go broody at all (isa browns/warrens), which is why we have just bought the silkie cross hens which are well known for having reliable 'broody' traits. When warmer weather arrives hopefully it will trigger them to go broody and we will give them a clutch of eggs to hatch out. In the meantime the incubator is giving us a head start.
x
Posted by: Rebecca (Sallygardens Smallholding) | March 29, 2008 at 10:39 AM
Oh my goodness I just couldn't have cracked those eggs for fear of what I might have found. This brings back early biology lessons that resulted in my not eating eggs for at least a couple of years as a child. Squeamish - I know!
Posted by: carolyn | March 29, 2008 at 04:54 PM
how gutting for you.:(
my hen is still sitting tight on her eggs.. have no idea if they are fertile or not.. letting nature take its course.(few more days to go yet)
Easter is a traditional time of year for broody hens - (think Easter chick etc..) - hopefully your new birds will do the job.
Posted by: colour it green | March 29, 2008 at 09:33 PM
Thanks for sharing. Trial and error is sometimes the best way to learn about life. Podchef had good things to say.
We lost a hen 2 days ago to unknown causes, looked like poisoning. My children were very sad.
Posted by: Lizz | March 30, 2008 at 07:52 AM
I'm glad you put up this post - I'm really sorry about what happened but posting about it will inform the likes of me! We're about to put some eggs in the incubator for the first time. A candling lamp came with it - but maybe we'll not use it!
Posted by: Jean | March 30, 2008 at 07:56 AM
Congrats on your silkie crosses (and condolences on the eggs). My bantam silkie cross makes is an excellent mamma and has hatched two broods for us so far.
Good luck on the next round.
Posted by: Laura | March 30, 2008 at 07:13 PM
Oh how dissapointing that would have been, I get you kicked yourslef! Good luck with the next lot, I'm sure they will all hatch and beautiful little chicks will fill you home with "cherpyness"... sorry I had to put that in! :)
Posted by: Maddy | March 30, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Hi there,
Have been reading your blog for a wee while now and I absolutely love what you are doing. How sad to hear about the unhatched chicks, you live and learn though. Our first attempt under a broody wasn't successful, but last year we hatched 9 chicks and it was such fun. We hatched 3 hens and 6 cockerels, and we ate the cockerels, the best chicken I've tasted in a long time!
Good luck with your new eggs, hopefully I'll be seeing photos of little chicks in a couple of weeks time. Doing it under a broody is great though, as you say letting nature takes it's course.
Lisa x
Posted by: Lisa | April 04, 2008 at 12:13 PM
We just candling our 26 silkie eggs. I think we're at four days so I won't be tossing them out just yet. It can be so disheartening especially when you have little ones that are so excited for the hatch.
Posted by: Sandi | May 27, 2008 at 05:29 AM