First time hatching

So I put the eggs in the incubator 3 days ago, I'm super excited to candle them! When is the earliest you can do it?
I put in 8 eggs from my grandpa, he has welsummer, black sex link, and a buff Orpington hen and a red bantam Cochin roo, as well as my blue laced red Wyandotte roo living with his chickens. And I put in 18 eggs from the store, I bought a couple different free range organic brands to try out, I don't expect much from those eggs but I had seen several people on here try it and have some success, so I thought I'd experiment while I had the incubator. I borrowed my grandpas incubator, he's had good hatch rates with it, I don't know what kind it is, it looks about a hundred years old lol. But I'm welcome to any advice on hatching! And I definitely would like to know how soon I can candle them.


Very old and hard to clean!

At day 7 you will be able to see veins emanating from the forming embryo. Then don't look again for a week. I over-candled my first batch because seeing the development was so cool! And I probably compromised my hatch because I was introducing germs, jostling the embryo around, disturbing the temperature and humidity levels, etc. THEN, it came time to hatch and I couldn't contain myself, trying to help a chick that looked like it was struggling. Only 3 out of 29 eggs hatched and one of those chicks was fairly deformed, probably from my "help". It'll be the hardest thing to keep your mitts off of them, but try to resist!

Starting with a squeaky clean incubator is pretty darn important too.

abbygibson1212 said:

So I put the eggs in the incubator 3 days ago, I'm super excited to candle them! When is the earliest you can do it?
I put in 8 eggs from my grandpa, he has welsummer, black sex link, and a buff Orpington hen and a red bantam Cochin roo, as well as my blue laced red Wyandotte roo living with his chickens. And I put in 18 eggs from the store, I bought a couple different free range organic brands to try out, I don't expect much from those eggs but I had seen several people on here try it and have some success, so I thought I'd experiment while I had the incubator. I borrowed my grandpas incubator, he's had good hatch rates with it, I don't know what kind it is, it looks about a hundred years old lol. But I'm welcome to any advice on hatching! And I definitely would like to know how soon I can candle them.


Very old and hard to clean!

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Hi!!! So exciting. Ok, so here's the thing. Candling is a personal decision. I myself am a candling addict. I spot candle every night at least a few eggs. My last hatch I set 6 eggs aside to candle every single night (to aid in my argument that candling does not affect hatchability if the right precautions are taken.) The other's (21 total) I scheduled with candling on the normal 7/14/18 days. I had one quitter the first week that happened to be one of the eggs that I was NOT candling daily. The other 20 made it to lockdown and hatched happy and healthy. The most important things to remember when candling are:1) Wash your hands. Bacteria transfering from hands to egg shell can be an issue. 2)Be gentle. Rough handling and shaking can cause damage to growing embryos. 3)Be timely. While the cooling period naturally mimicks the hen leaving the nest, you don't want them out excessively. Now, of course the more you handle the more chance of something happening such as dropping the egg, so keep that in mind.

Now, as to how often you can see something- alot of that depends on how dark your eggs shells are. (And how good your candling device is.) The lighter the egg shell the earlier and easier you will see something. I can usually see growth as early as day 3. By day 5, I can usually see development in all my eggs that are fertile. (I don't pull clears until day 10.) My green eggs after the first week-week and a half I can barely see anything. If you want a good candling guidline I use this one: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

Some people only candle on days 7/14/18. Others don't candle at all, then there are those of us that candle more often. You need to find your comfort zone and just take the precautions to keep them as safe as possible.

Good luck on your hatch!!

@WashingtonWino Thanks for the advice! And the incubator is clean, I made sure to go through the inside and clean everything, and I tried cleaning the outside too but I think it's just stained, like I said it is really old. And it's been used out in a barn all these years.
@AmyLynn2374 Thanks for your advice as well! And what is lockdown?

abbygibson1212 said:

@WashingtonWino Thanks for the advice! And the incubator is clean, I made sure to go through the inside and clean everything, and I tried cleaning the outside too but I think it's just stained, like I said it is really old. And it's been used out in a barn all these years.
@AmyLynn2374 Thanks for your advice as well! And what is lockdown?

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Lockdown (for chickens) is usually day 18. It's when most people stop turning the eggs and take out the automoatic turner if they are using one. (I now stop turning day 14.) Last candling and marking air cells is done, and the humidity is raised in preperation for hatch.

@AmyLynn2374 Why stop turning them? What does this do for them?

Just candled them, all 8 of the ones I got from my grandpas farm have the "blood island" although a couple of the eggs look porous, so that's a bit worrisome, but we'll see what happens, and two of those 8 had tiny little veins that I could barley see. And 8 of the 18 store bought eggs have the "blood island" as well, although some of them aren't very dark. So not sure if many of them will end up hatching, but 8 is more than I expected for those ones! I'm very excited. I will probably candle them again on days 7/14/18 and just leave them alone the rest of the time. I just couldn't help myself today

abbygibson1212 said:

@AmyLynn2374 Why stop turning them? What does this do for them?

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The reason we turn is to keep the young embryos and yolk from sticking to one side of the egg and causing development problems. After 2 weeks, it is not needed as the embryo is developed far enough long that it is no longer a concern. Most people stop turning at lockdown. I stop turning at day 14 now because according to the growth chart that is the average time that the chick turns in the shell toward the big round end and my philosophy is let the chick turn without interference.

Day 7, candled and it looks like only 3 are developing, should I throw out the rest?

abbygibson1212 said:

Day 7, candled and it looks like only 3 are developing, should I throw out the rest?

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I don't throw my clears out until day 10- but to be perfectly honest I've never had an egg that looked clear at day 7 not look clear at day 10.