Susan Skylark
Songster
Day three is the earliest you can see anything in a fertile incubated egg, and that is usually only a slightly larger, darker yolk. Sometimes you can see a slight embryonic ghost or a little hint of red (early vein and blood development) but still too early to call reliably. So yes, those are good signs but I wait until at least day 4 to pull suspect eggs and if you are a novice you can wait even longer. I also candle daily because it is exciting and cool, I turn my eggs every which way and I have yet to kill an embryo save the two I accidentally cracked by dropping (which is the main issue in handling eggs a lot, accidents happen!). You won’t kill your eggs by messing with them occasionally. My current clutch (will not go past day 10, just a development study) has either been left sitting at room temp for 2-3 weeks or has been thrown down the stairs and tossed around in a padded box (shipping simulation). All the trauma eggs are developing (day 4, 15/15) as are the 4 old eggs (I’m staggering when I put them in the incubator, some are still at room temp and the others are day 2) also developed (though one died). They are amazing little buggers! They won’t die because you candle them (be gentle and quick) or move them wrong or think bad thoughts or step on a crack or sneeze, relax and enjoy the journey and candle as much as you like, practice is the only way to get good at it, also open your failures (they don’t smell, if it does, don’t open!) and learn about the stages of development, what is infertile and what a quitter, deformed chicks etc.
