I Can't Candle! Is it a must??

[Hooterville]

Thanks, Cindy~~that's my biggest fear--the exploding stink bomb!

I do give them a sniff several times a day and I think I give them a look see about a hundred and ten times a day!
I should catch anything that starts to go bad.

 

[Akane]

Birds also tend to pick up when they have a bad egg and knock it out or stop sitting the nest. We don't until it smells very bad.

If you only candle a few eggs those just might not have been good ones and aren't growing. Eggs that are clear where you don't see much of anything but maybe a shadow for the yolk are the eggs that aren't doing anything. Usually by day 10 you can tell this after you've candled a hatch or 2. Eventually these will go bad. My worst rotten egg so far just looked clear. If they don't smell you don't have to candle them but I'd try to candle all of them and remove any clears by day 14 just in case. By then an egg should either have done something and be turning mostly dark or be mostly clear and obviously not growing a chick.

 

[chickenfanatic]

good luck on ur hatch and gaining candling experiance should u choose to keep trying if not i think ur fine

 

[Hooterville]

Thanks for all the tips and encouragement!

I tried a few more last night and can see darkness, but can't tell if I can see a heart beat or not--think I was just feeling my own!

I'm going to keep sniffing and cross my fingers til next weekend!

I set these at 9 am on 7/26/08. I'm thinking I should take out the turner and up the humidity on 8/13/08 as that will be day 18. Am I right?

Hugs!
Becky

 

[Melilem]

Well I don't candle with a candler- just a lightbulb in a box with a hole. It is enough to see cracks, and to tell on day 15 or so if the egg is fertile.

 

[Kanchii]

I candle mine so that I can take out the ones that aren't growing, which gives the ones that are growing more room to hatch.