Candling Day 7 or wait until day 14?

[zchickens]

1st time incubating eggs. I wondered if I should wait until day 14 to candle (so I disturb the incubator less) or do it on day 7? I have 14 wheaten maran eggs and 8 buff Brahma eggs (had 9, but one got stuck underneath the turner and got cracked, luckily was able to remove it before the contents spilled into the incubator). I have pictures (haven't figured out the picture posting thing yet

).

Temp varying between 99.1 to 99.9, humidity sitting at 46-48%, and am 2/3rds of the way through day two. Your thoughts?

Z

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Try on day 7...you will see veining and the embryo or eye...make your room very dark and use a small mag. flashlight...if you have a questionable egg mark it with an ? mark and wait til day 14 to candle again and throw any clears out....

 

[silkiechicken]

I personally would candle but I have quite a bit of hatching experience and know what to look for on day 3. My recommendation for you is that if you want to learn what may be there, go ahead and candle, but use a high power light source and do it quick. Dark shells may make it really hard for a first timer to learn, and if you want to see really well what is going on, try a few "cheap" white eggs and candle throughout. That way you can learn.

However, if you are aiming to remove "bad" eggs, wait till day 14 as less disturbing is generally best. If something stinks, defiantly candle and take out the bad egg.

 

[Berynn]

Everyone does things different, I candled on day 7 and discarded my blood rings, and clears. Saturday will be day 18 for me, and none of my eggs are leaking or smell bad, I am sure that some are not good, but will leave them alone,.
You can usually find missprissy, and several others in the chat room they know a lot.
under pic of the week will get you into the chat room

 

[zchickens]

Update,

I decided to go ahead and candle on day 7. All eight batam buff brahma eggs showed development

as well as one of the wheaten maran eggs (was only able to candle the lightest color egg in the batch, all the others were too dark to candle). Actually I am a bit surprised that all the brahma eggs are developing considering that the eggs were in shipping for 5 days (shipped over the president's day holiday, so they got stuck in shipping a few extra days), and it was -9 F when I picked up the eggs at the post office. Hopefully things will continue to go well.

Z

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Good job...see you will be a great candler!!...Isn't it fun to see them developing?....