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

[Flutterbee]

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.

Oh God, I really hope I didn't kill them :/ This is like my tenth broody I've had in my life, but I was so little with the other ones, I didn't realize you could do things like candle and that sort of thing. I read up on a lot of research and saw it wasn't harmful (I maybe candled three eggs a day for about forty five seconds before putting them back under Edna). See, my mother says "no more chickens" and this is the last batch I am allowed to hatch where I currently live seeing as I'm going off to college so I really, REALLY hope I have at least one hatch. When I candled, light style, I saw a lot of movement in several of the eggs I did. I hope they make it to the end of this week into the next and hatch. I will seriously be depressed and blame myself if something happens to them.

 

[LovemyBabies]

I candled our broody hens and marked the ones that took- 1 hen has a habit of laying her egg in with momma - so I had to do egg count each day so I wouldn't wind up with all these eggs to hatch so far apart - take out ant extra eggs - I usually candle also in middle stage to see development if any were lost- then once more right before lock down- we've had instances were we did like 20 and say 10 didn't take or not fertile - then that leaves more room for the ones that did survive - hens do get off nests to go eat, drink etc so opening an incubator really doesn't harm them and we've had successful hatches with the living ones- but I'm very very careful in doing it - our broodies were hand raised so it didn't bother them one bit with me lifting them a lil and doing egg count

Everyone has their opinions on how to do, what to do, not to do etc- as long as you keep certain aspect rules then you're good- I've never heard of water candling until now - me personally flash light is only safe way to go

 

[Flutterbee]

I candled our broody hens and marked the ones that took- 1 hen has a habit of laying her egg in with momma - so I had to do egg count each day so I wouldn't wind up with all these eggs to hatch so far apart - take out ant extra eggs - I usually candle also in middle stage to see development if any were lost- then once more right before lock down- we've had instances were we did like 20 and say 10 didn't take or not fertile - then that leaves more room for the ones that did survive - hens do get off nests to go eat, drink etc so opening an incubator really doesn't harm them and we've had successful hatches with the living ones- but I'm very very careful in doing it - our broodies were hand raised so it didn't bother them one bit with me lifting them a lil and doing egg count

Everyone has their opinions on how to do, what to do, not to do etc- as long as you keep certain aspect rules then you're good- I've never heard of water candling until now - me personally flash light is only safe way to go

Edna is pretty good with me lifting her up a little. She puffs up and croaks, but doesn't try to peck me, I've hand fed her since I bought her at 20 weeks. She's sitting on a whole lot of eggs and I know some are alive, I'm just worried that I've killed them or something when I was trying to be safe and check on them. I make sure never to take them longer than thirty seconds to a minute and I've very careful with handling them. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing, but I really want at least one to hatch. I already have all the feeders/waterers bought and the names picked out. I know she has been sitting for certain since August 1st, but she could have started a few days before that as I was away from my house.

 

[LovemyBabies]

Depending on bird size 13 eggs is a lot IMO - I found with ours that if there was too many not all the eggs would actually be sat on- hence why I limited the number- ours were bantam- 1 bird is small enough she could only successfully cover 3 eggs to incubate- the other was 5- 6 /7 was pushing it- I'd find one outside not even under them which naturally kills the chick being at the one point had too many eggs due to the other hen laying in there too

 

[Flutterbee]

Depending on bird size 13 eggs is a lot IMO - I found with ours that if there was too many not all the eggs would actually be sat on- hence why I limited the number- ours were bantam- 1 bird is small enough she could only successfully cover 3 eggs to incubate- the other was 5- 6 /7 was pushing it- I'd find one outside not even under them which naturally kills the chick being at the one point had too many eggs due to the other hen laying in there too

I had a silkie once manage to hatch a dozen Rhode Island eggs (God knows how she managed it) but she had such a difficulty keeping those babies under her after they hatched xD. I've noticed a few eggs out from under Edna, but I think those are from my other hen, Myrtle, because when I candle them, they look like hour old eggs with no development. Thanks for replying to me so much, it's seriously helping my nerves.

 

[MeepBeep]

As said candling is not harmful in itself, from day 1 all the way up to hatch...

The risk comes in the handling of the eggs, wash your hands (or wear clean gloves) and be careful and that handling risk is minimized to nearly nothing...

 

[LovemyBabies]

As some else said everyone does things differently - it's just keeping the main rule of thumbs - don't do too much, clean hands, easy handling- etc- and another main rule not all chicks are meant to survive no matter what happens it's the way of life - I'm just thankful for what survivors and hatches we do get- if you think about how many actual birds you would have if they all made it then factor in how many possible roosters. Lol. One hatch we did was 25 eggs starting - lost 5 in beginning no development - 5 more in middle stage then remaining 11 actual hatches. 7 wound up roosters as it was. It's all on how the cards play out on the strong vs weak ones- even hatcheries don't have 100% hatch success --- just my thoughts and opinions

 

[Flutterbee]

As some else said everyone does things differently - it's just keeping the main rule of thumbs - don't do too much, clean hands, easy handling- etc- and another main rule not all chicks are meant to survive no matter what happens it's the way of life - I'm just thankful for what survivors and hatches we do get- if you think about how many actual birds you would have if they all made it then factor in how many possible roosters. Lol. One hatch we did was 25 eggs starting - lost 5 in beginning no development - 5 more in middle stage then remaining 11 actual hatches. 7 wound up roosters as it was. It's all on how the cards play out on the strong vs weak ones- even hatcheries don't have 100% hatch success --- just my thoughts and opinions

I always seem to get more roos than I do hens with every clutch my chickens hatch. I'm hoping I will have more hens with this batch seeing as Mother doesn't want anymore roosters (one time, we have fifteen roosters and one hen on my farm). Tomorrow is the day before "lockdown" for me so I'm praying that if I stay away from the eggs until then, everyone will finish developing nicely and be ready to hatch on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.