Candling

[crooked stripe]

Do the large hatcheries candle their eggs and if so how do they keep the other eggs up to temp while doing so? I notice when I remove the top of my incubator to add water the temp falls to around 92 degrees. Is it a must to candle?

 

[LoneCowboy]

Don't worry about that. Hens get up off their nests to eat so it's not a big deal. Besides, the egg doesn't cool that fast. It's the internal temp of the egg that is important, and it stays up there.

 

[crooked stripe]

I never though about that. Tomorrow is seven days but the eggs are buff orps and I read to wait till 14 days to candle brown eggs. What do you think? John

 

[silkiechicken]

I believe big hatcheries have very large candling devices where they go over whole flats of eggs at the same time that is with a machine that picks up eggs that are not fertile. Some places use infaraed too and remove eggs that are too cold (meaning no developing chick). Totally automated to do hundreds of eggs a minute.

As your your own bator, don't worry about temps dropping for 15 or so when you are candling. If you have a bright light, it won't hurt to candle now at day 7.

I candle all colors day 6,14, 18.