candleing too much?

[showjumper_girl2002]

hello! i have 8 scovy eggs in my new Rcom 20 and this is my first time ever hatching eggs. i'm so excited and super impatient! i was just wondering if it's possible to candle eggs too much (meaning taking them in and out of the bator too often)? i candled them once on day 10 and all but one looked good (i think lol). anyway, it's only been 4 days since and i already want to candle them again to see what's going on

is it ok if i do this or will it mess them up? is anybody else this impatient

 

[bargain]

My theory is that you can candle too much.... Think about it. Each time you lift them out or lift the top of your incubator, you handle them, you risk transmitting oils, dirt from your skin as well as alter their humidity and temperature. Many times, I only candle upon lockdown - day 18! I once dropped an egg I was incubating and it was horrendous.

That's my humble opinion..... Hope it helps and yes I'd love to see development every few days but I simply just don't want to risk the hatch!!! I'm sure you'll hear a lot of different versions!
have a blessed day. Nancy

 

[ReikiStar]

That you were able to sit on your hands for 10 days...congratulations. But there is the idea that candling too often does stress the embryo/chick. You're handling the egg, taking it out of its nice warm environment, rotating it and sticking a very very bright light up to it...none of that sounds like much fun (though it's a necessary step a few times during the process) for the chick, esp. in the early stages when they don't even have eyelids to shield from the light.

I'm very grateful to people (and the chicks) who have done photo series showing each and every day of the incubation so we all have an idea of what it looks like on a certain day.

We use a roughly once a week schedule for our chicken eggs: Day 5, 10 & 17 then lockdown. Some people candle less often.

 

[silkiechicken]

If this is your first hatch and you are new to hatching, there are plenty of things to work out before you start candling all the time. I would candle just once or twice until you get all the hatching bugs worked out, and then once you have it all down, candle as much as you want. Of course, the downsides have been mentioned, that if you candle a lot, this can greatly impact hatch rates due to the increase of variables.

 

[showjumper_girl2002]

thanks for all your replies! i guess i'm just gonna have to tie my hands up and wait to candle at lockdown

 

[anaiyuk]

I have a different opinion than most. If your hand are very clean then candling duck eggs with an led light that wont transmit heat is okay. If you think about the natural process when a mothr duck is caring for them she lets them cool for about a half hour at a time. She also rolls them around a lot more frequently with rougher handling than we ever do. I candle my duck eggs fairly often and the one time that I didn't I lost my whole batch of 100% fertile eggs to one stinky egg!

 

[showjumper_girl2002]

Quote:
i thought about that too but i'm so paranoid i'll mess them up since this is my first time hatching eggs. i really want at least a couple to hatch

 

[MuckyPuppy]

I am only going to candle the eggs once or twice each but that is only because I'm so very bad at it.

I candled the first time to remove any clears or early quiters as even I can tell if an egg is clear. Then I will candle just before lockdown just to make sure I didn't miss any. I hand turn my eggs and wash my hands very well before and after handling them for any reason. I personally like hand turning them because I have caught a few "leakers" early before they had a chance to explode all over the incubator.

 

[cmom]

I candled quite often when I first started hatching. I do wash my hands good before I handle the eggs and after I handle them. Now I candle at lock down and after the hatch if there are any eggs left that haven't hatched. Most often the left over eggs are infertile or early quitters.

 

[koakritters]

i'll just say, that my most successful hatch (14/15 hatched) was my first one, and I candled the things at least once a day!!!!

it was too much fun.... but ever since then i've left them alone mostly and I've never had as great of a hatch...