Eggs Broodies Candling

RustyFenceRanch

Chirping
Nov 22, 2020
24
38
54
Hello All,
Would love some input on my first hatch.
Put fertilized eggs under two broody hens. (Purchased a doz from a local who has a low roo to hen ratio.)
One hen has Maran and Olive Egger eggs under her. One egg broke when another hen went into the nest early on. I wiped off the remaining eggs gently and returned them back under the hen. I candled them last night—day 10–and really couldn’t see much of anything! Some had veins. Since I’m new, I’d like to try to candle again one more time.
Second hen has a clutch of Cochin eggs. I saw clearly two that we’re moving about, the others I was unsure of.
Both broodies have been wonderful. One is an EE and the other is an Ameraucana.
Here are my questions:
Do you candle eggs under your broodies?
Do you trust that they know when an egg is bad? Do they really kick it out?
Do you find it takes several days for all chicks to hatch—day 20 to 23?
Appreciate your thoughts!!
 
The ambient air temperature, if a little on the cold side, can delay the hatch slightly. The hen will stay put for 3 days to ensure everyone that can hatches.

I've read of eggs exploding under broodies, so I wouldn't trust them to really know if an egg is bad. Some very likely do, but others not so much.

I find with a dead egg the embryo becomes very black and it loses the reddish/pink glow. The space around it will go very yellow and the dead embryo will sink towards the narrow end of the egg leaving a watery yellow layer under the air cell. You won't always see movement but as long as you can see veins the egg is still good.

I love candling eggs so I only let my sweetest girls who don't peck me hatch.
 
I've found that yes it does take several days for them to hatch for us. But I've also had all hatch over a few hours. Sometimes if eggs aren't rotated/moved around the nest well enough by the mama hen they take longer because of heat/humidity variations.

Seeing veins is great! With my EE hen even with my excellent candlerer I can't hardly see through the shell. Sometimes I can see the air cell and that's it. So with her eggs I never throw them out based off candling.

I candle around 1 week and again at 17-18 days. Eggs I am doubtful about at 1 week I pencil mark and really check those ones well (including smelling) at the final candling. Usually all are good but 1 or so.

Do you have a good candling device? I've found some to be crummy. I prefer the candlerer that came on my incubator, so I actually bring my broody eggs inside to candle and take them back out to the barn after. Only,takes a few minutes and I usually switch with a few golfballs so mama hen doesn't flip out.
 
I candle on day 17, If incubating, no problem with a hen. But if its a broody hen, I wear long thick sleeves and my leather gloves and get the hen, put her in a dog crate, and candle the eggs, remove the ones that only have a yoke, if in doubt I leave it. Put the hen back on the good eggs. I crack open the ones I took and they are always just yoke, so were not fertile. The rest either hatched or died. You can test if dead or alive at day 23 if they have not hatched by floating in 100 degree water and wait....wait for it.....to move! Or you might hear it peep! So exciting!
 
I check eggs sometimes when they go out to eat and remove bad ones. They sometimes kick by accident ND my hens usually hatch eggs on day 18 and 19 medium size eggs. Some hens do wait for all eggs to hatch others do not
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom