Day 0-1 incubation.. Fertile or not?

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Roar9roar

Roar9roar

Hatching
Feb 26, 2016
7
0
7
Beavercreek, Oregon
I cant be the first to ask this so I am sorry for posting this question from my start. I have searched this site and just googled but I can't seem to find a straight forward tutorial. Any link would be great.

I have 21 chickens and one proud rooster. 1 incubator that handles 9-12 eggs. Its the JU12 off amazon. Not the best I know.

My question.. How do you sort out how to "candle" the eggs to find the best ones for the incubator. I understand the shell quality, but I cant find much of anything to explain selecting the best eggs for incubation, or how long they can sit from butt to incubation.

There is much info and pics regrading 72 hours.. But I want the best batch of course. My rooster is very active and everyone is from a batch of 30 16 months ago.

Thanks for your help and direction!

(ps. I will fill out my profile in a few, just trying to this question out to make sure I am doing it right.
 
I incubate with a broody hen and the way that works is that she lays an egg a day and then, when she has a nest full, she sits on them to start the incubation phase. A clutch is usually 10-15 eggs, so the first ones that are laid can sit around for 2 weeks before incubation starts and still be viable.
There is no way to determine if an egg is fertile before incubation, unless you crack it open, which obviously defeats the object and it is pointless candling in the first few days as there is not enough development to see anything.

As others have said, choose the cleanest eggs, set them away in the incubator and candle them at 7+days to check for development.

Good luck with your hatch
 
Roar9roar said:
Well thank you, everyone. That does help. I alway thought there was an easy way to candle and know which ones to incubate.

That said, I plan on dating the eggs I can confirm are developing, and then filling in the blanks with fresh possibles. At how many weeks should I stop mixing them? Like will 3 week old chicks have a problem with 1 week old? I am betting my first couple of batches are going to be small, and mixing flocks can be such an issue.

Off to read up on the links.
Click to expand...
Set all eggs on the same day. Do not continue adding new eggs unless you have a separate incubator to use for lockdown/hatching. Eggs that are ready to hatch need a higher relative humidity than eggs that are still developing. If you raise the humidity for the eggs that are ready to hatch, you risk drowning the embryos that are still developing.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC. Unfortunately i don't have any experience with using incubators, but I'm sure that someone will be along soon to give you some advice.

All the best
CT
 
Roar9roar said:
I cant be the first to ask this so I am sorry for posting this question from my start. I have searched this site and just googled but I can't seem to find a straight forward tutorial. Any link would be great.

I have 21 chickens and one proud rooster. 1 incubator that handles 9-12 eggs. Its the JU12 off amazon. Not the best I know.

My question.. How do you sort out how to "candle" the eggs to find the best ones for the incubator. I understand the shell quality, but I cant find much of anything to explain selecting the best eggs for incubation, or how long they can sit from butt to incubation.

There is much info and pics regrading 72 hours.. But I want the best batch of course. My rooster is very active and everyone is from a batch of 30 16 months ago.

Thanks for your help and direction!

(ps. I will fill out my profile in a few, just trying to this question out to make sure I am doing it right.
Click to expand...
You'll need to wait until about 7-10 days to see anything of substance to determine fertility. Less than that and they haven't really had time to develop.
 
The search box is a great tool for getting from here to there fast. Put "candling eggs" in there are even some charts with photos to show what you should be seeing at different stages of incubation.

Welcome to BYC - hope you enjoy it as much as we do. I have never incubated either, so don't know how long eggs can sit before incubating. It's usually recommended not to use the dirtiest eggs. For lightly soiled, - brush off as much as possible. You don't want to destroy the "bloom" that protects the shell from bacteria.
 
welcome-byc.gif


There are articles in the Learning Center, they might be of help to you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks

You could also ask over on the incubating and hatching forum:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/5/incubating-hatching-eggs

Good luck with your hatch, hope it all goes well for you!
 
Well thank you, everyone. That does help. I alway thought there was an easy way to candle and know which ones to incubate.

That said, I plan on dating the eggs I can confirm are developing, and then filling in the blanks with fresh possibles. At how many weeks should I stop mixing them? Like will 3 week old chicks have a problem with 1 week old? I am betting my first couple of batches are going to be small, and mixing flocks can be such an issue.

Off to read up on the links.
 

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