Candling Woes!

[LilyD]

I usually candle day 5 and day 10 using one egg from each group for a representative (different each time) Then on day 15 I candle everyone to remove the duds before going into lock down. That way I am assured that everyone going in is healthy and ready to hatch. I don't think you need to candle more than that.

 

[cmom]

When I first started hatching I candled nearly every day to see the progress. Now I sometimes candle at day 10 but mostly at day 18 went I set the eggs for hatching. I just had hatches for the past two weekends. All the fertile eggs hatched. I did have quite a few infertile eggs. My boys are kind of on strike right now I think it's because it has been so hot here. The past few days it's been in the upper 80's to lower 90's, Last couple of months the temp here was in the upper 90's every day. I checked 5 eggs for fertility a few days ago and 2 out of the 5 were fertile.

 

[okiedrifter]

I candle at 10 days and at 17 days and never touch an egg after it is set in the bator I use a led light that sets right on the egg if its not good the egg leaves the bator...I hatch on cardboard egg crates with fresh crates with each new batch...at 17 days the whole crate is set down in the hatcher.....to much handling is bad for the egg....

 

[Time-Out]

This is my first hatch. I candled at around 7 days (I did only a few at a time so the bator didn't chill too much) and then again around 15 days, then just before lockdown. For my next hatch, I'll change and only candle once at 15 days then once before lockdown. The reason being, I thought I saw lots of eggs developing when in fact they weren't. They were empty. I only realised this when I had a proper dark egg at 15 days to compare with. At 7 days it was too early for me.

 

[ContessaKris]

Thanks for all your advice. We will wait until next Sunday to candle. That will be 10 days. Or we might wait every longer. I'm just worried that something will go rotten if we don't check Sunday...

 

[Time-Out]

I was worried about that. I'd versed my OH in what to do if I caught so much of a wiff of anything (there was no way I was going to deal with it lol). By day 15, I was very anxious, but I could easily tell which were alive and which were dead, so I just removed the dead ones and checked them out outside. No explosions, thank goodness!

 

[Reyvaughn]

I candled on day 3 and 4 (it was day three for one batch, day four for the other batch). I checked because I had some cracked ones I wanted to make sure weren't going to be explosions. I also had a full incubator, so I wanted to weed out the early quiters/not fertilized ones as soon as I could. I won't candle now until day 10, then on day 18. I also candle in small batches so the temps of the incubator don't go down more than 2 degrees and the eggs aren't out for any longer than needed. I also use an LED light. I wash my hands before I touch them, and I have to hand turn them - 3 or 4x a day. I kept a few that I thought I saw some veins forming, but I wasn't sure.

I hope I am doing something right...

 

[chickens? not yet]

Quote:
Glad you posted this I had not even thought about stressing the embryo! I've been picking one or two up every night when I turned them and putting the flashlight to them, and say'n I don't think they are going to make it!! I feel like a dumb something for not thinking of that!! So a big THANK YOU for posting this!!