What we found:
There were signs that development had begun, including some blood vessels inside the shell, but we could not see a recognisable embryo.

What we think happened:
The embryo appears to have stopped developing very early in incubation.

What we learned:
Even when an embryo stops developing very early, we can sometimes still find evidence that development had started.

What we found:
We found a very clear blood ring inside this egg. There was very little visible embryonic development.

What we think happened:
The embryo stopped developing very early in incubation. After development stops, blood can settle in the blood vessels around the embryo, creating the ring we could see.

What we learned:
We had seen possible blood rings while candling our eggs. Opening Egg 2 allowed us to see what a blood ring actually looks like inside the egg and confirmed that this embryo had stopped developing.

What we found:
Unlike our first few eggs, we could see a tiny embryo inside Egg 4, along with some of the blood vessels that had supported its development.

What we think happened:
This embryo developed further than the embryos in Eggs 1 and 2, but stopped growing during the early stages of incubation.

What we learned:
Embryos don't all stop developing at the same stage. Egg 4 helped us see how quickly a chicken embryo begins to form, even during the first part of incubation.

What we found:
Egg 9 contained a clearly developed embryo, with a visible eye, body and blood vessels. It had developed much further than the other eggs we investigated.

What we think happened:
When we compared Egg 9 with our earlier candling observations, we noticed something important: the embryo had not grown since around Day 7, and by Day 13 we could see more settled blood. This showed us that the embryo had stopped developing several days earlier.

What we learned:
An egg can still contain an embryo and visible blood vessels even after development has stopped. Comparing our observations over time helped us recognise that Egg 9 was no longer developing.