First Time Egg Candler Scared!

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scflock said:
Whew! First time incubating? What kind of incubator?
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I would love some advice if anyone is willing to be in contact with me. I may have a few more questions in these next couple of days. It's my first time hatching chicks and using an incubator. It's day 15 and we never did any candling. Should we candle today? There are 38 eggs in there, and I'd rather not candle now in fear of fluctuating the temperature and humidity too much. I was thinking of just smelling each egg to recognize the bad ones. I know it can be dangerous to leave bad eggs in there, correct?
 
LongevityKitchn said:
I would love some advice if anyone is willing to be in contact with me. I may have a few more questions in these next couple of days. It's my first time hatching chicks and using an incubator. It's day 15 and we never did any candling. Should we candle today? There are 38 eggs in there, and I'd rather not candle now in fear of fluctuating the temperature and humidity too much. I was thinking of just smelling each egg to recognize the bad ones. I know it can be dangerous to leave bad eggs in there, correct?
Click to expand...
Well, the cool down period during candling is not bad. Actually some of the newer (high end) bators have a cool down period for the eggs. The theory is it mimicks the time that the momma is of the nest to do her stuff. And being a candling addict myself....lol I say candle them. Not just because seeing the development is cool (oh boy is it.) But if you candle at days 7/14/18 it allows you to keep track of your air cell growth so that you can adjust humidity if needed. I feel newbie hatchers can beneifit from starting out by checking the air cells to monitor growth and get an idea of what percentages work for them. Not only that, but if you mark your air cells for day 18 you have abetter idea of where the chick will pip and (if you are obssessive about hatching like me) you can have that side pointed up so you can see the process.

It is not good to leave a smelly egg in there, no. They have the potential for exploding, but you normally don't have to sniff the eggs to know you have a bad one. Usually opening the bator will reveil that...lol You may have to sniff to tell which one it is though....lol

We welcome your questions and most of us will give you our opinions on anything you ask. Just be prepared to get different opinions...lol
 
At day 15, it's okay to candle the eggs. The whole process doesn't take long, once you've looked at a few and understand what you are looking for. Unless you can darken the room the incubator is in completely, you will want to wait until tonight, when it's easier to see development.

What you want to see are distinct blood vessels running up to the air cell, so the best candling method is to have the fat end of the egg up and shine the light down into it. If you can see distinct blood vessels and a red glow, the embryo is alive. Like this:




Yours should be pretty close to this in appearance.

If you don't see this, but instead see a dark band around the middle of the egg at the widest point, or just a pale cloudy area, those eggs are not developing. There is a candling tutorial in the learning center that will show you many other examples of what you may see and what it means.

What humidity level are you running now? Depending on the local climate and the type of incubator in use, many of us don't raise the humidity until the last few days of incubation. This helps the air cells develop in sync with the chick so the chick has enough air to prepare for hatch and enough room to move.
 
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Ow
AmyLynn2374 said:
Well, the cool down period during candling is not bad. Actually some of the newer (high end) bators have a cool down period for the eggs. The theory is it mimicks the time that the momma is of the nest to do her stuff. And being a candling addict myself....lol I say candle them. Not just because seeing the development is cool (oh boy is it.) But if you candle at days 7/14/18 it allows you to keep track of your air cell growth so that you can adjust humidity if needed. I feel newbie hatchers can beneifit from starting out by checking the air cells to monitor growth and get an idea of what percentages work for them. Not only that, but if you mark your air cells for day 18 you have abetter idea of where the chick will pip and (if you are obssessive about hatching like me) you can have that side pointed up so you can see the process.

It is not good to leave a smelly egg in there, no. They have the potential for exploding, but you normally don't have to sniff the eggs to know you have a bad one. Usually opening the bator will reveil that...lol You may have to sniff to tell which one it is though....lol

We welcome your questions and most of us will give you our opinions on anything you ask. Just be prepared to get different opinions...lol
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Wow that was a speedy reply! How nice of you to type up a response and explain your thoughts. Thank you! I will try candling then. Thanks again.
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I'm also nervously waiting on my first hatch. I candled yesterday, day 8, and couldn't see veining in any of the Ameraucana or the Araucana eggs. Is this because of the dense shells, the green and blue color? I did see through the Houdan egg which is developing. I need encouragement and advice, please.
 
AUZLDY said:
I'm also nervously waiting on my first hatch. I candled yesterday, day 8, and couldn't see veining in any of the Ameraucana or the Araucana eggs. Is this because of the dense shells, the green and blue color? I did see through the Houdan egg which is developing. I need encouragement and advice, please.
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The greens are very hard to tell. In my greens usually all I can make out is right by the air cell. If you shine your light into the air cell end and look closely around the rim of the air cell, usually you can make out a bit of veining here or there. With the green eggs, if it doesn't smell, you leave them in, cause they are very hard to tell anything.
 
WalnutHill said:
At day 15, it's okay to candle the eggs. The whole process doesn't take long, once you've looked at a few and understand what you are looking for. Unless you can darken the room the incubator is in completely, you will want to wait until tonight, when it's easier to see development. What you want to see are distinct blood vessels running up to the air cell, so the best candling method is to have the fat end of the egg up and shine the light down into it. If you can see distinct blood vessels and a red glow, the embryo is alive. Like this: Yours should be pretty close to this in appearance. If you don't see this, but instead see a dark band around the middle of the egg at the widest point, or just a pale cloudy area, those eggs are not developing. There is a candling tutorial in the learning center that will show you many other examples of what you may see and what it means. What humidity level are you running now? Depending on the local climate and the type of incubator in use, many of us don't raise the humidity until the last few days of incubation. This helps the air cells develop in sync with the chick so the chick has enough air to prepare for hatch and enough room to move.
Click to expand...
I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate all this advice! I will do the candling tonight. I bought a hygrometer because the built in one wasn't accurate, and it's been between 50 and 60% humidity at almost all times. I have a farm innovators pro series incubator with 41 eggs capacity, egg turner, and fan.
 

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