Does candling too much affect incubation of egg?

[MrViskers]

I have a habit where i must check the development of a baby chicken every time I go to turn the eggs, I only candle about 2 eggs out of a dozen for example per day and I hold them for no longer than 7 seconds and I also use a not too strong Everyday brand flashlight, the eggs are on about day 7 of incubation.. will my habit disturb the chicks from developing?

 

[thebanthams]

it might or wont happen, best is to leave them alone, only candle 2 times during the incubation !!

 

[Becci]

I personally only candle once during incubation - on day 18, when I'm preparing the incubator for lockdown, and when it's so easy to tell which eggs are good and which are not. However up until last year, I'd candle at least one egg every day. It's so interesting, and quickly becomes a habit. It never effected my hatch rates, though.

In fact, last year I did an 'experiment', where I marked an egg, candled it, took pictures/video and wrote down it's progress every single night, from day 1, up until day 18, and he was probably the healthiest most determined chick out of 18 others! I'd try to narrow it down to candling once a day, rather than 2-3 + times a day. That being said as long as your light isn't getting too hot on them, and as long as you're being gentle, and not allowing them to cool down too much, I don't think it'll hurt. Good luck.

 

[MrViskers]

I believe so, I done it on my last hatch in April and done it again on my current hatch. I always get this conscience feeling to check or not to check on if they are developing, Guess some habits are hard to break.

 

[silkiechicken]

Ideally, open as little as possible. If the bator takes a long time to reach optimal temp and humidity after you open it, the more impact opening the bator will make. Every bator is different so you have to find what works for you. I've candled as little as not at all, to as much as daily for the purposes of the candling thread. If just hatching for chicks, I candle around day 3, 10 and 18 and call it good. I have a custom incubator though which will re-stablize temps within 5 minutes of the door being opened. It's a beast. LOL

I've heard that some styrofoam types takes hours to re-stabilize.

 

[MrViskers]

Yeah im cutting back on candling leaving it for the final days before day 18 and my incubator is a dodgy Janoel 60 egg incubator that I bought off Ebay from China last year for $110 and now has dropped half price. It is dodgy because it always plays up and requires turning by hand but it is a good seller and people have had good hatches with it including me.

 

[cochins1088]

I don't think it does to much harm. I mean as far as opening the incubater, you have to anyways for turning, why not pull out a flshlight and candle a couple. My first hatch was my best hatch and I candled everyday from days 3 to 19. I was just too anxious, I had to see how my little ones were doing. Not kidding about the everyday thing, and I had a 95% hatch rate. I still candle fairly often, I candle all the eggs on days 5, 10, and 18 and a couple here and there just to see how they are developing. I try to cut down, but agree that it's a hard habit to break, and if it only leaves the incubator open for 1 extra minute, I see no harm in the enjoyment of watching your little ones.

 

[MO_Chickens]

I personally only candle once during incubation - on day 18, when I'm preparing the incubator for lockdown, and when it's so easy to tell which eggs are good and which are not. However up until last year, I'd candle at least one egg every day. It's so interesting, and quickly becomes a habit. It never effected my hatch rates, though.

In fact, last year I did an 'experiment', where I marked an egg, candled it, took pictures/video and wrote down it's progress every single night, from day 1, up until day 18, and he was probably the healthiest most determined chick out of 18 others! I'd try to narrow it down to candling once a day, rather than 2-3 + times a day. That being said as long as your light isn't getting too hot on them, and as long as you're being gentle, and not allowing them to cool down too much, I don't think it'll hurt. Good luck.

Thank you for sharing this helpful information for us newbies.

 

[mcdze]

if youre quick i dont think it hurts them .. but newbie mistake #5081 is killing eggs with youre own anxiety and trying to 'help' them .. set the temp and find something else to do lol .. mainly you want to candle at the halfway point to get rid of 'clear' eggs so you dont wind up with a rotten one stinkin your house up .. thats the idea .. medical intervention by you to fix something .. forget about that idea .. trust me ..