On the 4th day of the hatch the thermometer showed 106 degrees. I have no way of knowing how long the temp was that high, but just a few hours earlier it was at 101. Now it's day 6 and I'd like to candle the eggs to find out if they are still viable. I made a candler, but is it too soon to tell? I know that candling on the 7th day is supposed to let you know if the embryo is still developing, but if it developed properly until the 4th day and then died, what will I see when I candle? Another thing is that the temp may not have actually been that high, as I noticed the mercury had separated. Now I have a new thermometer and it shows a steady 101 (it's a still air incubator).

Please help! The last thing I want is to incubate 90+ dead eggs in the bedroom!!

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), January 26, 2002

Answers

This link may answer some of your questions, and they state: If the incubator does not have a fan to circulate air (still air incubator), the suggested temperature is several degrees higher, about 102 degrees F. Incubation and Embryonic Development, http://ohioline.osu.edu/b633/b633_4.html By 5 days of incubation, blood vessels should be visible if the egg has a white shell. If the egg has a brown shell, several more days of incubation may be required before blood vessels are visible. If development does not occur, the eggs may not be fertile, or there may be serious incubation problems. By day 8 or 9, the chick may be startled by the light, and its movement can be seen. Candling at later stages of incubation should show that the embryo is growing and filling up the space inside the egg

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 26, 2002.

Elizabeth, I am incubating 30 eggs right now myself. Around day 5 or 6 my incubator (homemade forced air) temp went up around 104 for approximately 2 hours until my wife discovered the problem. However, when I candled the eggs (brown) 2 days later all was well. I use a streamlight flash light with a toilet paper roll taped to the end with black electrical tape affixing it. I used my closet to candle in and guess what! All but 4 of the 30 eggs were fertile and doing fine. I could actually see the little embryos become startled and try to move away when the light beam came on. I broke open the eggs which showed no life to see what I could learn as suggested in Gail Damerow's book Raising Chickens. 3 of the eggs were infertile alltogether and the 4th apparently died early on in incubation.

Good Luck, DV

-- David Valliant (dhvalliant@yahoo.com), January 26, 2002.

The link that BC gave us is wonderful. One thing to remember: you can candle white shelled eggs at 2-3 days (if you know exactly what to look for), brown eggs take longer to see through and the green eggs of the crossbred easter-eggers are very hard to see through. The rarer breeds of darkshelled eggs, Moran, Barnvelder etc. , it is impossible to see through them when candleded.

-- Bonnie Norris (queqid@att.net), January 28, 2002.

Just a quick bit of advice...If the mercury on your thermometer separates, (happened to me before) just put the therometer in the freezer for about 5 minutes and your problem should be solved.

-- jon (jon@yahoo.com), January 31, 2002.