Does everyone candle??

[Glenmar]

This is my first time. I have some Marans eggs that are hard to see through. They are not the darkest Marans eggs, but I am also not sure what I am doing. I am going on day 6. I was thinking about just going with the sniff test and maybe candling before lockdown.

Any advise?

 

[debilorrah]

There are some eggs I just cannot see inside of so I let them go til day 23 and then toss them.

 

[Robert Boyd]

Quote:
We had a hairline crack in an egg, we didnt see it till we candled them, the crack looked huge when we candeled and the egg wasnt developing, I could just imagine sniffing that at day 18 or so:^}

 

[AmIafarmeryet]

I dont see the point in candling, causes you to handle the eggs for what? piece of mind? I leave mine till day 23/24. I'm sure someone can give you a good reason for it, but for me it seems risky with no real reward...I would almost guarantee you that if you took two batches of eggs and controlled all factors involved with incubating, except one batch gets candled and the other doesnt, the non-candled batch will hatch better.

 

[Glenmar]

Good advise. Thanks.

 

[gryeyes]

I leave myself notes to candle around day 12 and usually ignore them. Sometimes I candle just before lock-down, sometimes not.

The first few hatches, I didn't candle specifically because I didn't want to be disappointed more than once for that hatch. That still tends to be what keeps me from candling.

 

[clayb226]

This is my first try at hatching some eggs, I candled at day 4 (today the 15th), mainly for the experience and learning aspect. I had difficulty seeing anything at first, but the last several all had veins and an embryo in them. The others may of also, but my untrained eye took a minute to see what I was looking for. I will candle again in about a week or so to see what I can see then. I did have a few porous eggs, and some speckeled ones which made it hard to see anything.

 

[Glenmar]

Quote:
This is what I have noticed too, and since I dont know what I am looking at, I thought is was best not to take a chance on droping them.

 

[geepy]

I candle around day 5 to look for veins. After that I just wait and wait and wait............................
I had a 97% hatch rate out of 32 eggs.

Darn all with this candle talk I want to set more eggs...........must resist!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
I will let you know the point of candling. Bad eggs do not develop, and if bad eggs are left in the bator there is a good chance of an eggsplosion that can contaminate the whole batch.

I do not candle obsessively, just day 10 and at lockdown. I do not want an eggsplosion.