AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Is it supposed to be difficult to candle Araucana eggs? I've tried a couple of times, but I can't see past the spots of pigment in the shell. I'm a bit reassured that I can't see anything that would imply that they've gone rotten in the incubator, like floaty bits, but what I can see looks quite clear and it would be nice to be able to get some detail from them. It's day 8 today.

Rebecca

(I'm singing in the rain I'm singing in the rain ... the ducks are loving it, not so sure about the humans )

hi mate i had the same problem i can see into some chook eggs i have that are green,

Make the room pitch black, get a real powerful torch, but small in size. Seal your thumb and index finger around an egg. Put the torch on once you have it behind your hand and egg, then you should see at the large end an object about 1 inch in size at 8 days (approx.). I never have a problem with Aracana eggs if the room is pitch black, but is hopeless if there is even just a little light in your room. Good luck

Jo-chicken, thanks for the advice (I read the other thread as well). I bought a new torch and tried it your way. It wasn't an outstanding success - I'm still not absolutely sure - but I couldn't see a trace of anything solid in my eggs. The pigment spots were still in the way, but the eggs all looked clear, and at day 17 that's a crushing blow . The light from the torch was even shining through the eggs onto the wall behind. I don't know what I was looking at when I thought I saw babies in there the other day. I guess my other torch let me down. I'll give them until Wednesday, and if no action I'll crack them and have a look.

The question now is, what went wrong? They're looking like they either didn't develop at all or died very early on. I trust the person I got them from when she says they were fertile, so that's not it. I have a Covatutto 6 incubator, so I have no control over the temperature. I've manually turned them faithfully 3 times a day and topped up the water level as per the instructions. Other than turning I didn't disturb them for the first week. It has been hot here, but only for about the last week - before that it was cool but raining, so the humidity was very high. They're all clean and none of them smell remotely rotten, they just smell warm.

I'm really worried now about the Orpington eggs I've got coming in a couple of weeks. I was hoping these eggs would be a successful trial run before I put the important ones in. The Orpington breeder has said that he prefers to send eggs by regular post, not express, because he can't guarantee hatchability after they've been at altitude - could these eggs have been killed by express post before I even got them? They were well padded and looked okay when they arrived.

Rebecca

Toilet rolls are good to use for candling. Just pop the fat end of the egg into the top of toilet roll( being sure not to drop it down the roll if it's small or bantam size) and shine the torch up the roll. Outside at night is best. Works a treat

I've had eggs sent to me by express post from Victoria and had reasonable success rates so imo altitude doesn't have too much of a negative effect on hatchability. That's been my experience anyway

I can't really give you any advice on your incubator worries as i use a 700 egg Smart incubator and a 60 egg Hoverbator and not familiar with the Covatutto 6 but i do know that too much fluctuation in humdity can cause disasterous results

Hope things work out ok for you Rebecca, i know how worrying and stressful it can be waiting and hoping for chicks to hatch.

Altitude kills the delicate membrane inside. Serious breeders will always tell you they won't send them this way. I have always went and collected them, but that doesn't help you if it's from a distance away. My heart sinks for you because if it is day 17 there is no way you would see light through the egg if they were developing. There are a couple of explanations - eggs infertile (this may not be the breeders fault, could just be a bad coupe of weeks for their breeding stock - it happens), Altitude has killed them, or incubator is no where near temperature. Do you have a mercury thermometer in it? It should read 103oF for still air or 99.5oF for fan forced. If the temp is right the humidity won't ruin all the eggs so is can't be the cause.

jo-chicken

Hi jo-chicken,

I'll have to politely disagree with that statement as some of the people i have purchased eggs from interstate have won major chook shows and have spent years trying to perfect their particular breed/breeds so therefore i consider them to be serious breeders and as i previously stated, have had good hatchrates.

Someone must have forgotten to tell the eggs that i've recieved that altitude will kill them as they are currently running around the freerange grower pens

cheers n chooks

Darren

Could it have something to do with the length of time the eggs are in the air? The breeder I ordered the eggs from said it was a problem because of the distances involved (Victoria to North Qld).

Sounds lucky, I've only ever heard bad things about sending express, like I mentioned, one of the possible reasons. Some apparently still go by road (takes a little longer), do you think maybe that these were the "lucky eggs". I don't know, as I said I've never bought eggs via mail.

To Deans' poultry,
Altitude (or more specifically the pressure of altitude) does damage the membrane of an egg according to what I know, did these eggs that had good hatch rates go by plane or road? Because I have spoken to breeders who have told me that they have had eggs sent on many occasion and on investigation the ones that don't hatch anything were flown and the ones that have chicks hatch in fact went by road. Anyway like I said I have always collected my eggs because if I am paying $50 doz I don't want anything to impact their fertility. Anyway I hope the Orpington eggs give you more success elfael.