I want to point something out that I did myself this very week and almost destroyed some of my own silkie eggs/chicks. I was impatient and candled on day 4..yup, nosey..couldn't wait. I tell people all of the time, don't do it..let them incubate a while and don't disturb them until you can make a good decision. Well, when I candled I thought for sure I had a whole bunch of infertiles and blood spots in half of my eggs. I was freakin out and told dh. Of course, he said "that's impossible..why would that be". I said I don't know but I left em in just in case I was wrong.
Now mind you, I hatch well over 1000 eggs a year and consider myself to be pretty experienced at incubating and candling. I am so happy I left them be. I candled again on day 7 and every egg is growing just fine. I don't know what I thought I saw, or maybe they just took a little longer to kick start, but I worried myself over nothing and could have destroyed a perfectly good hatch by reacting to hastily. This is exactly the reason I tell people don't candle too early. Not only can you make bad decisions or ruin a hatch, you risk damaging the very fragile embryo & vein network that is trying to get started in there. Good luck with all of your hatching...may you be overflowing with chicks.
Jody
Now mind you, I hatch well over 1000 eggs a year and consider myself to be pretty experienced at incubating and candling. I am so happy I left them be. I candled again on day 7 and every egg is growing just fine. I don't know what I thought I saw, or maybe they just took a little longer to kick start, but I worried myself over nothing and could have destroyed a perfectly good hatch by reacting to hastily. This is exactly the reason I tell people don't candle too early. Not only can you make bad decisions or ruin a hatch, you risk damaging the very fragile embryo & vein network that is trying to get started in there. Good luck with all of your hatching...may you be overflowing with chicks.
Jody