Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Some exciting (and some sad) news!

My mom stopped over today and we candled the eggs. We candled both the first batch (the $3/doz may-or-may-not-be fertile eggs) as well as the fertile hatching eggs from Destiny Farms.

First for the sad news- unfortunately, none of the first batch had anything growing in them. They were set on March 2nd in the afternoon, so they've been in there 8-9 days. All of them were completely clear.

The two blue-green eggs we weren't able to see through enough to diagnose- I'm pretty sure they're also clear, but I stuck them back in the incubator just in case. My mom is bringing over her candling light tomorrow so we can see if we have better luck with that, since it will cup the egg.

BUT.....

We have what looks to be 5 embryos out of 6 eggs growing! 3 definite embryos, 2 dark masses that we'll call "maybes" and 1 clear.

I will go ahead and apologize right now for the craptastic pictures- in order to get a good shot, we have to take them without the flash, in the dark; and of course we have the little one running around touching our legs and making us unstable. Not wanting to keep them out of the incubator for too long, we only have one shot and if it turns out blurry.......well, then blurry is what you get.

Egg #1- I believe is infertile. Actually, it may well have been fertile, but the air pocket is scrambled, since it moves. However, I cannot bring myself to throw it out just yet (still that tiny little chance of hope in the back of my mind).


Egg #2- Definite dark mass at the top of the egg. I can't say for sure that it's an embryo, but it's something. And something is better than nothing.



Egg #3- This one has some great veining- which of course you can't see (see above explanation of craptastic photos). If you look hard, you might be able to decipher it a bit. Pretend to quarter the egg, in the upper left quadrant towards the lower right portion of that quadrant, see the mass? With the veins coming off of it? No?! Well, I tried.



Is this better?



Egg #4- This is my cracked egg- lo and behold, there is a definite embryo growing in there!




Egg #5- If you can't see this embryo, please head to your nearest optometrist.


Egg #6- Dark mass, I *think* I may have seen a vein, but then again maybe I had a dog hair in my eye.

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