How hard is it?

[rancher hicks]

How hard is it to candle brown/peach/tan/beige eggs? Any advice on how to best do it? I intend to use a toilet paper roll and flash light. How often should I do it? They just started today at 12:30. Do I have to do them all? 13 eggs in a Hova bator 1206N. Turning by hand.
Just put them in temp down to 95, hum 68. How long to I wait til I get concerned the temps not back to 100? You can pm me if you'd like.

 

[nhnanna]

Quote:
Don't touch the temp. It always goes down when you put the eggs in. Just keep your eye on it and if it doesn't come back up in a few hours, then you can give the dial a very gentle turn. You don't want the temp to go up too much and kill the embryos.
I think your humidity is to high though. You don't need it that high until the last three days. I keep mine between 35-50 the first 18 days.
Hope this helps.

edited to add that I use a led flashlight to candle. Sometimes you can't see into dark eggs but you can see the air sack at the top.

 

[dancingbear]

I only candle once at day 10, and again at day 18 when I take out the turner. I shine the light in through the top of the egg, I don't turn the egg upside down. At day 10, I can see veins and usually the embryo moving. At day 18, I can often see just a bit of veining at the edge of the air cell, otherwise, it's all dark by then. the only reason I candle at 18 is to see if they look like they're still alive. If one died at say, day 12 or so, most of the egg would be clear, and the veins will be gone. If one died at day 17 or 18, you wouldn't be able to tell for sure. So if they're dark at 18, they stay in until they hatch, or until day 25 if they fail to hatch.

Most of my eggs are brown/tan/peach/green/olive, the green ones are the hardest to see into. Some of my darker brown ones are hard to see into. If I can't see into them, I just keep them, and see if they hatch.

When I first add eggs, it may take about 24 hours for temp to return to 100F. (I have a fan in mine, an LG) It takes a long time for eggs to warm all the way through. I don't change the temp until 24 hours has passed. It won't hurt a thing for it to be a little cool, at first. But too hot, will kill them. Likewise when I add water on day 18. It will cool a little. Let it wait several hours before you adjust, to avoid temp spikes. Nudge the knob as little as you can. Increasing slowly is the safest.

I dry incubate, no added water at all until day 18. But I'm in a humid climate. My hum runs about 45% with no added water, just right for the first 18 days. Then I take it up to about 55%, no higher. It will rise on it's own when chicks start to hatch. Then I put a q-tip stick under 2 corners of the lid, that increases airflow just a bit, without cooling the 'bator. The reason I do that is because more moisture in the air means less oxygen, and they need plenty of oxygen while they hatch.

 

[Critter Crazed]

Quote:
The eggs I hatched were beige-ish. I was able to just use a flashlight and my hands but I bet your's are darker so I'm no help there. I candled a few on day 11 but all I saw was a dark mass, no veining and I think I saw some movement. Forgot.

Then on day 14 I was able to see a lot of movement. I candled all of them because you do not want infertile eggs in your incubator for too long. I've heard stories of them exploding! So candle all and discard infertile ones or ones that you KNOW are dead. Never throw out questionable ones because they might be alive. You never know. I didn't candle on day 18 because I was worried I would hurt an egg and 10 out of 11 hatched. You can candle then but I was too nervous.

My last which was also my first hatch the temperature dropped a lot when I put the eggs in. So I turned it up a little. Came back and the temperature reached 105 F! I freaked out a TON and I thought I killed them. I quickly adjusted it to 100F. I caught the temp spike in time so the hatch was okay but just leave the temperature like the others said!!!

Humidity should be around 35-50% first 18 days and then increased to 65-75% last 3 days. If you don't use the dry technique. You need humidity the last 3 days otherwise the egg membrane will shrink wrap the chick inside the shell but you also need oxygen like someone said above. Does your incubator have vent plugs? If so, follow the manual instructions. Mine has two plugs. One take out day 1 and take the other out on day 18 to increase oxygen. I don't know if that's what your manual says to do though. I'm telling you this because I didn't know about the vent plugs and I took the first one out a week late. But the hatch was fine thankfully!!

Good luck and I hope all goes well. It is sooo hard to wait three weeks for chicks.