Candling: I'm doing it wrong. Update, pg two! I see a baby!

[chicken-owner-31]

Granted I couldn't keep my hands off and tried it on day 3.

It's my first attempt to hatch anything. I figure I've got a pretty good bater (Brinsea mini Advance) and calibrated my hygrometer like a good girl. Got eggs from a friend (which might be the issue) and aside from the candling attempt (which took less than 2 minutes) I haven't touched the bator.

When I tried to candle with the LED flishlight in a pitch dark room, I couldn't see ANYTHING.

Ok, I could see a little bit....but I couldn't see any veins.

I saw what appeared to be the yolk and the air cell, which looked teeny. Most of them looked pourous, and one of them was like half and half complete pourous and solid. It was odd.

So I'm thinking that none of the 6 eggs are fertile. But I'm holding the hope that since I'm a dummy first timer, there is actually six little babies working away at becoming honest to goodness chicks. At this point, I would be ecstatic with 2. Heck, one.

I know there is a roo in with the hens that laid these, I've seen him myself. I also know it's too early to count them out. But I just have that "feeling."

/rant

 

[heathersboers]

Try candling on day 10- At 3 days-youre not gonna see anything- a good LED flashlight is what I use-It works great -about $5.00 at Wal-mart. Good luck!!

 

[Baralak]

That is correct.. it will take one day for the eggs to get to incubation temp, then only 2 days of growth. You won't see much of anything.. Wait till day 7 and look for the eye.

 

[WhySayWhat]

I don't plan on incubating eggs myself, but I did try out one of our little LED flahlights on my store bought eggs a few weeks ago. (After reading a ton of posts here and wanting to see for myself what was being talked about.) It was a freebie from Harbor Freight (they have coupons in the Sunday paper every week for them), but it worked amazingly well standing in my mostly dark kitchen! We buy 5 dozen eggs every 10 or so days, on a low carb diet and use eggs for just about everything, and those litytle eggs were really pourous! I had one that was odd shaped (compared to the other 59 eggs) and thought I might see something interesting, I did but it was just a super thin pourousy shell, lol.

Anyway, back to the point...the little LED flashlight worked great, and was free to boot!

 

[chicken-owner-31]

Thanks for the encouragement.....I am too impatient, it's a curse.

I decided to wait until 7 days. It was a compromise to myself from 10, hahaha! And I'm going to find another LED light. This one is an LED, and seems bright as all heck when you look into it (OUCH) but it isn't as bright as I remember others being.

Anyway, if I don't see anything in any of them at 7, I will try again at 10. If I DO see something at 7, I will leave them alone until lockdown. I have been studying the sticky thread on candling to the point of dreaming about eggs in my sleep!

At what point can you be confident that there is nothing going on and dispose of the egg? If none of the 6 have even developed I'm going to be so dissappointed. Like I said before, they are just mutts, but I wanted to practice a bit before I spent money on hatching eggs. I have another friend I might be able to get some silkie cross eggs off of, but wasn't really interested in more bantams. Although if I'm not cooking anything (so to speak) then I might be willing to try anything!

Thanks again!

 

[Baralak]

I candle on day 7, day 13, day 15, and day 18. (and some inbetween just for fun) The reason I do is there will be eggs that might not start for various reasons, you will know that on day 7. On day 7 I will mark the questionable eggs of the ones that I don't think are developing. You should at least see vessles.

On day 13, the eye should have formed, and the fetus will be moving all around inside the egg. Really check the ones that you marked. This is my first toss day.

 

[chicken-owner-31]

Thanks Baralak, I am definitely going to try again on day 7 with a much brighter flashlight. Here is a pic of my eggies in thier bator:

 

[lavacaw]

What is that in your incubator...the white thingy? I have a mini advance and don't use anything that didn't come in it. Except for some shipped eggs, I have had extremely good results with it. I have found the less I open it, the better it does. Top of the water twice a week and let it work. Candle at 10 days, lock down on day 19 and leave it alone. Best of luck.

 

[chicken-owner-31]

Hi Lava! That's my hygrometer. I have to put it in the seventh egg spot because there is no room for it anywhere else. I'm attempting a "dry" hatch after doing a lot of reading, because we live in a really humid area. The humidity normally runs between 35-42% for the past couple of days, and that's with no water in it at all. I want to keep that humidity there until lockdown, then I will fill the pots.

If this hatch doesn't work, and I indeed had fertile eggs, I will try my next hatch completely different. I suppose it's all about trial and error. But I don't have enough patience!

 

[speckledhen]

Be careful with that white thermo/hygro. Mine was way, way off. It's not accurate in the least, at least mine wasn't so I never used it for incubating. I bought one that was made with extreme accuracy specifically for incubating, the Egg-Temp (also called Spot Check). It reads each temp as it happens so it seems to be always moving, but you get a very accurate idea of the range of temps in your bator. The probe is very, very sensitive. You don't leave it on all the time, just do a "spot check" on occasion.

Household thermometers are only reliable to within two degrees for household usage, not nearly accurate enough for incubating, though I did find a Taylor thermometer with probe that is more accurate than most. You can use any hygrometer if you calibrate it to find out how much it's off. My little white square Acurite like you have in the bator never read more than 20%, no matter what, even in my very humid basement air.