Power Outage while incubating eggs - Candling question

If you candle you eggs, after a few days you will see veins running around what appears to be the outside of the inner shell and possibly a little blob inside which will be the heart.

After a certain stage, the eggs will show up as being black with just the air sac at the top showing. You shouldn't expect to see any other detail other than this blackness. These are viable egs that should hatch.

If you get some of the eggs that appear to be partly clear at this stage whilst the other ones simply show up as black, then these are the ones to dispose of.

Eggs that appear clear are not the ones to be concerned about, although you might as well dispose of them anyway. The ones to worry about are thoe that have started to develop and then die. These eggs are the ones that are likely to explode, smell and pass on bacteria and germs to the other eggs.

If you want to and you're not sure what it is that you're seeing, then its possible to bob your eggs in blood warm water. The viable eggs will float, whilst the duds will sink. Get rid of the latter.

If you have some eggs that are overdue and you are not sure what to do with them, its a good idea to use this method again. The good eggs will float as before but the living ones will also rock independantly in the water.

it should be said that the water bobbing is not 100% as i did it with my eggs and they sunk to the bottom and yet one of them is starting to develop


but i am not saying bodger is wrong but it didnt work for me  

Am I right in thinking that the sinking is due to no air being left in the egg or is it something else?

My incubator is a home made jobby and I believe the temperature is about right. I spent a great deal of time testing it, as the thermostat cuts in and out the temperature fluctuates between two points, about 10f so I came up with the idea of putting a small amount of water (about that of an egg) in a cup and measuring that instead. I certainly think this gets a more accurate temperature reading and regular reads 101f.
The humidity I am just guessing though, using a small pot of water with a sponge in and wondered if you measure humidity and either way what sort of success have you had?

Hi,
You can view some pics on my blog here:

Home made incubator

And I've just taken some more and put them on flickr:

Flickr Photo's

Currently there are six Light Sussex eggs in there :-)

you should do a step by step on that one its very well made top job

Hey thanks :-)

It's only scrap wood but I like making stuff especially out of salvage.

KL
Where have you situated the thermometer in your incubator ? Did you know it should be at the height of the eggs ?

Yes, it's at the approximate height of the eggs and at the back of the unit, when I did the testing I measured at the height of the eggs and later measured the temp. of water in cup which gave me a stable reading.
I might in future add a fan using a pc one and a psu to aide equal temp. and humidity circulation.