Candling Eggs - temperature

[Merci BeauCoop]

I am a newbie to chickens and am jumping in with both feet. I have 29 eggs in the incubator and am on day 6. I plan to candle the eggs tomorrow for the first time. It has been a struggle to stabilize the temp and humidity (I have been monitoring it all day and wake up at night to check as well). My question of the moment is about the temperature while I am candling. When I open the incubator, the environment will obviously change. Do I remove all eggs at once and close the incubator to preserve as much of the environment as possible? Then candle them all and replace them all at once? How do you keep the rest of the eggs warm while you are candling each one? It has been an incredible challenge to maintain the environment inside the incubator. Any help would be SO much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[wleigh1021]

what kind of incubator are you working with? I put mine in an egg carton and candle them and close the incubator back up while I'm doing it. Its really more of a convenience for me. I don't think its really necessary though as a broody will leave the nest for a while when she eats, drinks, poops, etc. But if your incubator is taking a while to get back up to temp you may want to do it in about 3 batches.

 

[Merci BeauCoop]

what kind of incubator are you working with? I put mine in an egg carton and candle them and close the incubator back up while I'm doing it. Its really more of a convenience for me. I don't think its really necessary though as a broody will leave the nest for a while when she eats, drinks, poops, etc. But if your incubator is taking a while to get back up to temp you may want to do it in about 3 batches.

Thank you - that helps a lot! It’s a Little Giant with circulated air. I’ve had a couple of high temp scares (102.4 as the highest) but I check it VERY often and adjust it fairly quickly.

 

[Mosey2003]

It shouldn't take that long to candle. I don't even pick them up, nor do I candle anywhere near as often as most people on here. I have the room dark, open the lid, turn the candler on, and place it on the top of each egg. I can do a full 42 egg turner in a minute, provided I don't have to pull a lot of clears/deads out, which takes time. That's the beauty of only candling on day 18, or day 10 and 18 if I'm worried about bacteria - the egg is either full or clear/dead. Boom done.

Little Giants are notorious for temperature spikes like that, FYI.

 

[Merci BeauCoop]

Thank you - GREAT advice! I think it will take me a lot longer than a minute for me to candle the eggs I have researched everything I can get my hands on and looked at numerous photos of candled eggs. I can’t see it. (It’s like when I first looked at ultrasounds of babies - I try so hard to see the fetus but just can’t.) So long story even longer, I think it will take me awhile. I borrowed the incubator from a friend and I’m thinking that when I do this next time, I will buy a digital incubator if there is such a thing at a “reasonable” price. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Mosey2003]

Thank you - GREAT advice! I think it will take me a lot longer than a minute for me to candle the eggs I have researched everything I can get my hands on and looked at numerous photos of candled eggs. I can’t see it. (It’s like when I first looked at ultrasounds of babies - I try so hard to see the fetus but just can’t.) So long story even longer, I think it will take me awhile. I borrowed the incubator from a friend and I’m thinking that when I do this next time, I will buy a digital incubator if there is such a thing at a “reasonable” price. Thank you so much for your help!

Digital isn't always better. I'm gonna guess you've probably got a HovaBator with a wafer from that comment though. If it's set correctly (from your friend hatching) it will do a good job for you. If you want to buy a digital, I recommend the HovaBator 2370, it's digital but still the brand I trust.

If you candle on day 18, you seriously won't be able to miss it A good egg will be totally dark except for the bright air cell at the top, and a bad egg will glow like a bulb all/most of the way through. You'll see.

I'm editing to add I totally glossed over you said you have a Farm Incubators, and I even commented on that, lol. You're just gonna have to pray with that thing. My recommendation on the 2370 still stands.

 

[wleigh1021]

Circulated air I think is meant to run higher since there is no fan? not sure about that but I'm sure you could easily find it in the forum search. Do you have an additional thermometer at the egg level? This would probably help you feel better about temperature spikes. I candled the other day with the kids and left the lid open the whole time. We took our time candling 17 eggs and all still look good today. I candle day 7, 12, & 18. I also usually weigh eggs to monitor the humidity level as well which is why I do them one egg carton at a time since that's a longer process.

 

[Mosey2003]

You mean still air.

 

[Merci BeauCoop]

Digital isn't always better. I'm gonna guess you've probably got a HovaBator with a wafer from that comment though. If it's set correctly (from your friend hatching) it will do a good job for you. If you want to buy a digital, I recommend the HovaBator 2370, it's digital but still the brand I trust.

If you candle on day 18, you seriously won't be able to miss it A good egg will be totally dark except for the bright air cell at the top, and a bad egg will glow like a bulb all/most of the way through. You'll see.

Thank you - that helps a lot!

 

[Merci BeauCoop]

Circulated air I think is meant to run higher since there is no fan? not sure about that but I'm sure you could easily find it in the forum search. Do you have an additional thermometer at the egg level? This would probably help you feel better about temperature spikes. I candled the other day with the kids and left the lid open the whole time. We took our time candling 17 eggs and all still look good today. I candle day 7, 12, & 18. I also usually weigh eggs to monitor the humidity level as well which is why I do them one egg carton at a time since that's a longer process.

This one does have a fan. I have a digital thermometer/humidity meter(?) at egg level. Maybe I should get a 2nd one just to be sure? I’m very interested in knowing how you can tell the humidity level by weight. I have an accurate food scale that I could use.