I'm clearly not yet an expert on candling. I have 58 eggs cooking. On day 4 I candled & guessed all but 2 were duds! Ha. So I waited 4 more days. This time - some of the eggs you could clearly see a shadow swimming around in there on several of them. In fact most of them I thought were duds before had a good sized shadow. I culled 10 eggs though -they looked clear - well most of them did. I left 3 or 4 that I just couldn't tell in the bator - the rest all looked good. Anyway - I decided to check my accuracy on candling by opening the culled eggs. 4 had started to grow - 6 had broken yolk or no fertilization. Of the 4 that had started - 1 was nothing more than a single red vein. 3 however had little bug eyed still kickin chicks : (( It looked like the yolk was broken on all three - at least that is what I'm telling myself - the yolk poured out of the egg like water & the chick came out after. I'm telling myself they would have died anyway because of the broken yolk. But I still have 48 in the bator - & most of them look really good. Considering they were shipped in the cold & 1 box left outside in the snow by the post office (I still have all 10 of those in the bator though 1 was questionable) I'd say I'm doing OK. For my first hatch. In a home made incubator.
Next time, don't candle until Day 10. The yolk fell apart because the egg was opened. But that's okay. Live and learn, right?
This is my first hatch as well.... I keep candling and on day 8 and on day 10 I left all the clear eggs in the incubator I think when I candled at day 12 or 13 and they were still clear I finally chucked them. I have 4 I am looking at now that look like they have died and yet I keep putting them back in just in case. We are at day 15 right now and I am crossing my fingers for the rest- I think I am going to have to get another batch just to make sure I am doing everything correctly before I pay for eggs Good luck!!!
I have only incubated once and I am so unsure of what I am seeing when I candle that I don't dare take any clears out until at least day 10. I take more out at day 18. I was so worried about taking out one that might be viable, I actually had one make it through lock down and the other eggs hatching that had not even started. I just like being really careful.
Awww I always worry about that too when I pull eggs. It is a live and learn so don't be hard on yourself. I candled last night on Day 6 but I only pull the completely clear ones that early. The ones that I see any sort of veins, I leave till Day 14 or even 18 now.
Taking out 10 eggs means 20% wont hatch. I have 30% more for a solid showing of 50% - that means I can lose 15 more & still be right where I thought i would be. Lets hope I do better than that - but there are 3 or so eggs that I wanted to pull - but couldn't for some reason. Wish I had pulled them instead of the three with chicks - but in any case - can't change it now.
