Day 3.5 on my eggs help!

[CrazyFowlFreak]

Hiya! I am on day 3.5 incubating my eggs. Should I be seeing anything when I candle them? I've only seen three of the 32 with darker colored veins in them, the others have a darker tiny spot in them or nothing at all. Also, a moment of silence please for the Cameo peafowl egg I dropped candling. *cries*
Thanks!

 

[mom'sfolly]

I think its easier to see if you give them until 5 or seven days. At that point you can cull any that don't seem to be developing.

 

[taraann81]

I think it is a liitle premature to be worried yet. They suggest you wait until day 7 to candle you will be able to tell for sure at that point. I wait until day 10 then I am VERY sure which ones need to be tossed.

RIP young peafowl egg!

Good luck with the rest!

 

[vfem]

I always was told to wait until day 8! Occassionally I've done day 7.... but I never through anything out I was questioning until I checked on day 14.

 

[CrazyFowlFreak]

Phew, I feel lots better now. I am so excited about this, I can't stand myself!

This is our first time with chickens, so I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

Thank you!!!

 

[mamanaturale]

ha ha! the infatuation begins.... i am on day 11 of duck eggs and i still can't hardly stand it!

 

[lorieMN]

I wait until day 18 and candle when they come off the turner..works well so far

 

[BeautifulBlue]

With my first hatch I could see veining very clearly on day 3, with this batch I had to wait until day 5/6 before I could make anything out!

 

[dancingbear]

I won't bother to candle until at least day 7, day 10 even better.
Because, (1)You can damage embryos by excess handling when they first start to develop. They're more fragile then. This is especially true of shipped eggs.
(2) They don't need the temp flucuations they get when you keep taking them out of the 'bator.
(3) By day 10, you can see for certain any that didn't start at all, and it's easier to tell a true blood ring (dead embryo, no visible veining at all, just a ring) from funny looking veining that can fool you early on, causing many to pitch eggs that would have been fine
(4) Day 10 is plenty early enough to get rid of non-starters, they won't have had time to get really bad and explode or anything like that.
(5) Day 3, you often can't see much anyway, you just make yourself crazy with it.

Any I'm unsure of on day 10, I move to one end of the set, and make a mark on them. Then when I candle again on day 18, I pay extra close attention to those, and get rid of any that are not as they should be. I may or may not re-candle just the questionable ones at day 14 or 15, to see if there's any change. If I'm in doubt, I leave them in, but on the far side of the others, if I have room.

 

[CindyS]

Lots of people candle for the fun and curiosity of it, not for a purpose, so candling whenever you feel like it is just fine! The embryo is really fragile in the early stages so you do need to be careful, no jarring or swift turning. So if you want to candle on day 3 or 4 its fine to do so, but just for curiosity not culling- especially if inexperienced.