Have candled - it's about day 12, and still haven't a blardy clue what is going on...

[handlemecarefully]

Have 6 pale eggs and 6 eggs with dark brown shell. Of the 6 pale eggs I can see blood vessels in 2 of them, of the remaining 4 I can't. Moreover 3 of the 4 have spots of eggy stuff on them - so I think possibly one of them has been weeping (the others may just have got some on them by contact with the 'weeper') - but how to tell which is the 'weeper' and which just happened to be leaked on by the weeper? (eggs like this must be removed shouldn't they because they can explode?)

Of the 6 dark eggs - I can't see anything really because the dark colouration of the shell seems to preclude seeing inside. I can make out an air sac I think at one end of the eggs and I think a dark dense mass in them, but tbh I haven't got a blardy clue

How can I clean off the 3 pale eggs safely (that way I can figure out which one is weeping)

and can I dab a small area of the incubator with disinfectant (where there is some dried egg leakage - about the size of a 10p piece) whilst the other eggs are still in situ?

Thanks

Are you sure it's day 12 HMC? after 14 days you should see the chick(dark shadow) and the air cell. So your dark eggs sound good. blood vessels around a dark spot are about 7 days I think. I would probably leave them till 14 days check again and if you see no change in the white eggs I'd get rid of them
I've never used an incubator so am not sure about the disinfectant. sorry.

Yes definitely day 12 ingles2 (I hate candling!). Will try again in couple of days - good to hear that the brown eggs sound about right

i'd go ahead with the disenfectant, you don't want new chicks pecking at bits of rancid egg - and they will start pecking within hours of hatching! the r-com will get back up to temp/hum within minutes, so eggs should be no worse than when a broody hen gets off a nest for food.

do you have incubator disenfectant? if so, i'd give the other eggs a wipe over with warm diluted solution and bin the weeper pronto!

dark eggs are difficult to candle but sound OK. are you candling in a darkened room? it makes things a bit easier. what candler are you using? - some get quite hot so shouldn't be held to the egg for too long, even if that means not knowing whether there's anything growing within.

you'll know soon enough anyway...!

Hi DNB... How are you? and new addition? (and I don't mean the chicks )

New addition & I doing very well! He's very quiet and likes being in the sling whilst DH or I wander round the fields feeding animals etc! I'll have him mucking out in no time.

oooo lovely... Congratulations!
(starting them young on mucking out is a great idea )

lol at getting him "mucking out in no time". I imagined you might be carrying him around and just casually getting on with your daily business in a no nonsense eminently practical way

Thanks for the advice - yes I have got incubator disinfectant so will do

I am trying to keep a lid on my rising enthusiasm, but day 21 is Thursday this week [nervous anticipation emoticon]. Dh has threatened to leave home on that day because he thinks that tensions may be running high