# Fertile eggs



## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

So a friend of mine gave me a bunch of fertile eggs from her chickens and lent me an incubator(i have two super broody bantam silkies who are now stealing other eggs out of my nesting boxes to lay on) so I'm going to try to hatch them so the girls can have chicks.. Do any of you write the date on the egg when it was laid? I got eggs with dates on them she said it was the days they were laid as she does that when she hatches eggs .. 
She said i might get some chicks or i might not depending on the eggs.
I was going to let the silkies hatch them but i dont want to drain them as when they sit on eggs they dont eat or drink. 
So incubator it is.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Silkies do eat and drink, at least most of them do. They get up at the first indication of the sun and do whatever it is they need to do. Sometimes in the heat of Summer you'll find them doing more because the eggs are being kept warm by the heat. My Guinea girls would spend hours off the nest when our temps were in the high 90's. 

Yes, I wrote dates on eggs to keep track of when it was time to get them set. Or if I was collecting to sell.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

What did you use that doesn't wear off on the egg?
My Buffy wasn't getting off in the beginning, i watched her and had to force her to go eat and drink. Now she will, but if there are any other eggs in any nesting box she sits on them instead of the ones she is supposed to


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

For years there was concern that using a permanent marker would damage the egg with the chemicals. Several stepped forward, said they had used that method for years safely. So, it does not look like the marker chemicals get past the protective barrier of the eggs.

BTW, 99% of my hatches were done with my Silkie hens. I never lost a hen doing it that way. And we're talking a lot of hens and a whole lot of chicks. Just ask my husband, he was appalled when he saw how quickly the numbers kept climbing.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I left one egg for her to try to hatch so we will see how it goes... I might give her a few more


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## OldBrickHouseFarm (Sep 30, 2014)

I mark all eggs with the lay date, weight, flock # and egg #.
I track egg #s to adult hood with leg bands in a notebook. I know at least the cock, egg weight, egg color intensity and sometimes the hen #.
I use an ultra fine sharpie.
I used to use pencil but it is so hard to see on dark eggs.
Using the ultra fine sharpie, there is little chemical residue applied. Then it must get past the shell, outer and inner membrane. I doubt it does that to any detriment.

All chickens will eat and drink throughout setting. If they didn't they would have been extinct many moons ago.
They don't always come off the nest every day but most days they do. 
I often put broodies in their own apartment and with new clean bedding I can tell how often they come off the nest by the broody poo. That's how I determined they don't come off every day - but they won't kill themselves.
Just leave them alone, they know what to do.

ETA
dating the eggs allows one to tell the hatch rate depending on age and whether it's worthwhile to set eggs. Over 10 days is very iffy depending on storage conditions.
Egg weight is important to keep track of. It determines the amount of nutrition and space an embryo has and IMO, the general size of eggs the bird will lay when they mature.
Sire is important when line breeding so one doesn't set eggs from full brother/sister pairings unless they have a specific goal in mind.
Numbering the eggs lets me keep track of all that information more easily.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

She is on 5 eggs, she is getting up as she is keeping the nest box clean as there is no poop there. So she knows what to do. I do kick her out when i give them scrambled eggs and mealworms so she doesn't miss out.. I guess in three weeks I'll either have babies or rotten eggs


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

There is absolutely no reason why you can't candle them. She might be irate about you disturbing her, I did have to wear gloves with a couple of mine, just remove them from under her, take them some where dark and check them for development. Then take them back and either slide them under her or put them in front of her, she knows what to do.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

She is actually great letting me handle her and the eggs so i dont need gloves. Do i use a strong flashlight? I'll try it tonight when i get home from work to see if any are growing as she has been sitting on them since 5/18


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Just wait, you'll end up with one that is not so accomodating. More than once I had one grab the skin on the back of my hand. All I can say is I wanted to drop kick her in to next week it hurt that bad.

I've always used one of the little Maglights. They're beam seems to be more focused and not as spread out as the large flashlights. Even candling lights are small. 

There is also a trick using an inverted flower pot, one with the hole on the bottom and putting a light under that. I did try it but was probably to used to using the Maglight and went back to that.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Flashlight on an iPhone works superb if you've got one!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That makes sense since that is one powerful little light.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

My one sitting on the eggs is good, but her sister a silver silkie is a bitch and pecks me if i try to touch her so i have one of each lol.. 
My iPhone light is broken since i dropped my cell in the pool I do have a LED light that is super strong ill use that one tonight.


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## myhppyndng5221 (Apr 4, 2015)

If we had a feisty hen we always used an egg carton over her head area till we could do what we needed. First time hurts a bit for yourself but once you master the trick it works like a charm!


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I never candled eggs before at two weeks what should i see if there is a possible chick?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It took me a while to find what I was looking for. This isn't quite it but pretty close.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/ea/e3/e5eae31f5c9ec91d0507aeecd40c3306.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.pinterest.com/profanick/projet-poussin/&h=564&w=736&tbnid=zEZrdGSK9Uo38M:&zoom=1&docid=nsiGHmnl7GOcUM&ei=8uVoVYjDHsnPsAXX3oPIAw&tbm=isch&ved=0CEAQMygZMBk


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Ok i candled all the eggs, two have veins in them, the others do not, but she gave me more last week so they wouldn't show anything yet correct? The other two she gave me from May 17 are the ones showing veins inside(blood vessels )


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Some of the 5/25 eggs have what looks like little bubbles inside


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Bubbles are not good. Look closely at the newer eggs, there should be some sign of veins if last week was five days ago.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The only ones that have veins are the older ones, the rest have the yolk shape and some have the bubbles


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If you tilt the eggs with the bubbles, do the bubbles move? You see that with eggs that the air cell is ruptured.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The 4 in the incubator look like the eggs i have on the counter with what looks like little air bubbles. Two in the nesting box have veins and the other two in the box have air bubbles too


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

No the bubbles aren't moving. I googled candling eggs and one link had the same pic of the bubble look but it didnt say what it was. 4 are like that and two are veiny. The veiny ones Buffy is sitting on, the bubble ones are in the incubator


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The two veiny ones you can see the air spot really well , the bubbly ones you cant see a air spot


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The two from May 17 and 18 have veins. All the others are bubbly looking- i candled a few eggs on the counter and they all look the same with the bubbles.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

It sounds like they have ruptured air cells. These were not shipped, were they? Rough handling can rupture them.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Shilalah.homestead.com has a good pic of the bubbly egg.
Nope not shipped my friend handed them to me. Maybe i damaged them while handling? Its the only thing i can think of.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I looked, I didn't find what you're seeing at Shilala. 

Try tilting the egg, do the bubbles move with the egg movement? If they do, the air cell is shot. 

With really fresh eggs you won't see an air cell or maybe a tiny bit of one. It develops over time as the egg ages.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html

The pictures here has the one pic that looks like the ones that are bubbly.. Its on the right column


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The bubbly ones are from 5/25,5/26


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Which egg are you seeing that you think are bubbles? I'm being very confused now.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

The later ones,i got them in two batches. The later ones from a week ago have the bubble look inside. The ones from two weeks ago have veins


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

No, I mean which of Shilala's pics looks like yours. 

This gets so hard sometimes trying to do this this way.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Lol. Third pic on right the egg with the bubble looking stuff inside. Its labeled bad egg. 
I cant save the pic on my iPhone it wont let me


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Third one down on the right ... Not left


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

OK, that's not bubbles. That is an egg that has the shell with unevenly distributed shell. The lighter areas is thinner shell. Those eggs are hard to get to hatch because of that thinning. I'm not sure if its because bacteria can travel easier in to or if there is too much loss of moisture.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

They are still in the incubator so I'll see what happens. I couldn't figure out how to describe it so figured bubbles was close


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I've seen bubbles "inside" an egg. That's why I kept asking about a ruptured air cell.

I set them anyway too. Can't remember now if any hatched but then I also set those with ruptured air cells and did have a couple of those hatch.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I figure I'll see what happens


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

Ok this week its been cold- in the 50's... Today bill said the eggs Buffy was sitting on were a little cool today as she went off the nest to eat, another hen laid an egg in another box and Buffy sat on that egg not hers.... Do you think they are ok? Or shoukd i give her two maybe eggs and bring the two fertile ones inside in the incubator??


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

They can handle cooling off, it just delays things a bit. If you can, see if you can keep her from getting confused on which nest she's supposed to be on.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

That's going to be hard- she sits on any egg in any box if another hen is sitting on her eggs.. I move her to her eggs when i am home after work but my fiancé was put most of the day so he couldn't move her back . Her sister is Broody too but if another hen goes in there to lay an egg its a crapshoot... I am getting a second maternity coop for her as i dont trust the other big hens to not kill the chicks


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I tossed out the other eggs nothing was growing in any of them. So its now the 2 that Buffy is sitting on that are left


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Hopefully, she'll quit being confused and will return to her nest each time.


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## Maryellen (Jan 21, 2015)

I got the eggs the day i posted so some of them were already a few days old as the first one was dated 5/18 and some dated that day. They went in incubator first then hen


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