Is it okay to candle often? (With the exception of after Day 18)

what day are you on?? if they aren't overdue why in the world would you drop the egg in water? if you saw movement with candling then I would just leave them alone...... over handling is never a good thing when hatching.

 

I don't candle at all. Never had a bad smelling or egg that explodes. I would never immerse my eggs in water for any reason. Leave them alone and throw the bad ones away after hatch occurs. I have even left eggs in incubator 4 days after all others hatch and no big deal. If you candled and guessed you had a bad one anyway what's the point? it wouldn't hatch anyway and you cant revive it. Some people replace bad eggs with a new egg, but I've done this staggering thing and its more trouble than its worth. Incubator has to be opened at different times and isn't good to eggs that would be behind the others in timing. Do get absorbed into all the scare posts on here about candling, weighing, measuring cell height, and exploding, you'll be worrying for 21 days over ( Analytical crap). Use good accurate hatching ( Not cheesy equipment) and Hatch and have fun.

 

They are your eggs. You can do whatever you want with them. In theory candling them every day won’t hurt them, but the more you handle them the more opportunities you have to have a problem. You can drop and crack them or get them dirty and infect them with bacteria if your hands are dirty. But the act of candling with a light won’t hurt them. Maybe you have children and you are showing them how the egg develops, to me that would be a good reason to candle often.

I consider water candling as something to do only in an emergency, say the eggs are late, nothing is going on, and you are ready to toss them. It’s one last check to see if there is any hope. If you water candle early on, you take the chance of washing the bloom off which could let in bacteria. Still, they are your eggs and you can do whatever you wish.

I normally candle eggs in in incubator somewhere around 7 to 10 days, just to see what is going on. I never toss one at this stage, it’s just to satisfy my curiosity. Then I usually candle when I go into lockdown and remove any clears. That’s not because I’m worried about an exploding egg, that’s just to remove the clutter from the incubator during hatch. I never candle eggs under a broody.

 

I haven't used an incubator in a couple of years, but I think I candled 3 times during the incubation period - around days 5, 10 and 18 - mainly to satisfy my own curiosity, and it fascinates me to see the development. (I may need to get a life! ) I never candle eggs that are under a broody, either. I just let her set and do her job, making sure she has fresh food and water available. I think less handling is better for the eggs for all the reasons stated in the above posts.

 

Many of us have hatched with Broody's, Most of us don't bother the broody at all. If your not sure of the day then just leave her alone and allow her to do what hens do best. The more you mess with her and the eggs the less chance you have of a successful hatch. If she is at the least only been sitting for 16 days then what's the harm in giving her another 5 days?

 

I remember the first broody hatch I had, Had a hard time keeping myself away.. I only say leave them be because I almost killed one of the chicks... That's why I am so anti touch unless their is a problem...

I did have to remove 5 eggs from my newbie hen/broody... I found one of the eggs on day 18 outside of the nest, at first glance it looked as if it had hatched, but as I got closer I realized there was still a chick in there, dead.. She had pecked it open and pecked the membrane resulting in the loss of the chick (there was a lot of blood) All 5 eggs were moved to the incubator and as of right now, four have hatched with a fifth working its pip... I'll let her try again next year when she is a bit older but for now she is being broody broken.