candling - air sac growing but...?

[celestina]

I have just candled some day 12 eggs and the air sacs seem a good size for day 12 (bigger than day 7) but I cannot see anything else in the eggs... I will try again in the dark this evening.

The air sac boundary makes a sharp clean line and not a muddled line.. if that makes sense...and are located in the right place...so all look normal to me.

Is it possible for the air sacs to develop as usual but with no chicks in the eggs?

[rocketbunni]

Is the rest of the egg clear? ...I think the airsack in clear eggs does enlarge simply as the egg dehydrates with heat/age

[celestina]

Is the rest of the egg clear? ...I think the airsack in clear eggs does enlarge simply as the egg dehydrates with heat/age

Right, yes I think the rest of the egg is clear although I will double check this evening...will that mean they are not fertile?

[Henwife]

Candle one of todays eggs to understand what's meant by clear.

[celestina]

Candle one of todays eggs to understand what's meant by clear.

Yes I did this yesterday and they looked similar other than a slight shadow and the air sac had grown... but will compare again this evening with my OH to get a second take on it... but I fear they may be infertile at the moment even though I have seen my boy treading... I have put some eggs under my broody today so they are a couple of weeks later... I also have 5 day olds in the incubator too...perhaps just a bit early for him yet with the frosts and weather as it has been...

[Henwife]

At the begining of the season fertility can be rather hit and miss. It's always worth putting in far more eggs than you want until fertility is up to around 90%. You can always dispose of the surplus fertile eggs rather than let them go on to hatch. I do this when I'm fertility testing, but once I'm certain that a high %age will be fertile, I can plan for what I expect to hatch.

[celestina]

At the begining of the season fertility can be rather hit and miss. It's always worth putting in far more eggs than you want until fertility is up to around 90%. You can always dispose of the surplus fertile eggs rather than let them go on to hatch. I do this when I'm fertility testing, but once I'm certain that a high %age will be fertile, I can plan for what I expect to hatch.

Thank you, that's encouraging... perhaps my boy is not up to speed yet and needs a couple more weeks....I was also worried about discarding partly developed eggs so that's good... thank you.

[Crepe Lady]

It could be your girls that are lagging behind in the the fertility stakes. I noticed that some of my pure breed girls have been a bit lacking in the fertility stakes until recently but the boy they are in with was definitely fertile as the little warren that I put in with them had fertilised all her eggs and I have hatched some hybrids from them (I put her in to avoid him damaging the other two pure breeds with his treading). However, just the last couple of weeks the p/b girls' eggs are now fertile. Yey!