Candling Day 9

Saturday, March 28, 2009
The eggs are rapidly growing! 9 out of 9 ducks are still alive! The eyes and definite body shape can now be seen through the shell while candling! The ducks move around, and swim in the egg while I’m candling them, and they react to light, and movement. You can see one of my super active eggs swimming around! If you look closely you can also see veins, and blood vessels floating around the embryo. Check out my video clip below....

Candling Day 7

Thursday, March 26, 2009
All bad eggs are removed so I can focus on my healthy eggs! I candled a few of my healthy eggs, and this is what they look like! The veins are starting to become thicker, and spread all the way across the egg. The embryo is the large dark spot on the left side of the egg!

Opening the Blood Ring Egg

Friday, March 27, 2009
I candled my possible Blood Ring egg, and it indeed is a blood ring with a dead embryo in the middle. The embryo was not visible until today. I checked several times for a heartbeat, or light veining but unfortunately there is neither. I’ve left this one longer because I confused another egg last October to be a blood ring. I was horrified to find a developing duck, with a heartbeat in the center of the so called “blood ring”. Now I know that if there is a circle with veins in the middle it is alive. If there is a circle of blood with no veins, it is a blood ring and already expired.

A “Blood Ring Egg” is an egg that is invaded by bacteria. The embryo dies within the first few days of incubation, and a thin ring of blood or bacteria is visible around the egg. Make sure to always wash, or sanitize your hands before touching your eggs. Sometimes eggs come in contact with bacteria before it even reaches human hands. You should never wash eggs after they are laid because it removes the natural oils the eggs have, and can block the eggs pores causing lack of oxygen, and humidity.
When I opened the egg it was very liquidy compared to the infertile eggs. The yolk seemed to have mixed with the egg white. There was no foul odor, but part of the yold appeared to look cooked. The embryo was red but had no definite shape to it. It looked as if soon it would have started to form into a duck shape. The embryo was more liquid than solid.

Opening the Infertile Eggs

Thursday, March 26, 2009
I collected the 7 infertile eggs, and opened them all one by one. They were indeed infertile. Some leave the eggs longer but it was obvious that they were infertile compared to the other developing eggs. If you are inexperienced, or unsure about any egg leave it unless it smells, or is secreting liquid! Any eggs that smell, or sweat should be removed as soon as possible.

Candling Day 6

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Today is Day 6, I candled all eggs and 9 heartbeats are visible! The others are definitely 7 infertile, and one blood ring. I’m still giving them a few more days in the incubator in case of any delayed development.

Good Egg Vs. Bad Egg

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Candling on Day 4

Monday, March 23, 2008

I quickly checked the development of a few, and they are growing!! I can see heartbeats, duck embryos, and veining!! I candled them all to check for fertility and out of the 17 that were set:
-9 appear developing
-7 seem infertile
-1 possible blood ring

I’m not 100% positive of the blood ring, or infertile eggs so I’m leaving them to incubate for a few more days. If there are no signs of development I am going to remove the bad eggs, and crack them open to see inside. I’ve read that people leave infertile eggs as long as 20 days, but when you are sure they aren’t fertile, there is no point in keeping them in the incubator. They can spread bacteria, or even explode which can contaminate every other egg in the incubator.

Here are a few quick pictures I snapped with my camera phone. The "C" shape in the middle of the veins is the Pekin Duck embryo growing!