Purpose of candling before day 18

[Spore]

Okay, help me out my fellow flock. I get why you want to candle before lockdown. But why do we candle before day 18? Is it for fun? I appreciate that people want to toss out eggs but the common line goes like this "I candled, and x amount are clear, X amount might be (fill in the blank with quit early, blood ring, yada yada). BUT I am going to leave them in the incubator until day 18.

I ask because: I am patient and have no desire to handle the eggs more than is necessary, and can wait for as long as I need to. So why would I candle before day 18??

 

[KellyHM]

I candle on day 10 and toss anything that doesn't have a visible chick at that point. People who still leave them in are either candling too early to know for sure or are unsure of their candling skills.

 

[kelseygirl707]

Well for me, I love seeing the little beating heart on day 4, and on day six they start to wiggle. Plus if you use shipped eggs, you really don't want to waste your time on a bad shipment, so candle on day 7 and if clearly nothing is happening for me, I move on and get new eggs. I enjoy candling, and I am super impatient too!

 

[Illia]

Why not candle them? I always candle them on day 7, 10, 14, 17. . . It helps you see the progress of each one, who's developing, who isn't - It allows you to see what problems occured and why. If you only candle on day 18, you won't truly find out when or why your quitters, duds, and so on are, well, not going to hatch. Also, you get to see the heart beat, the development of the fetus, etc. I don't see how someone could just candle for ONE day.

 

[Chosen Chickens]

Also, you run the risk of exploders that can ruin the whole hatch if you dont run through and throw out the bad ones!

 

[TriciaHowe]

I candle for fertility and quitters. I do not hang onto "maybes" until day 18. I candle at day 5, 10 and 18. I chuck any eggs as soon as I notice they are not viable.

 

[eac04]

Being a mom of FOUR kiddos, I think of candling as an ULTRASOUND! OMG, it excites me so to see a tiny little someone growing in there. It makes me so happy that I talk to the egg and kiss it before putting it back.

I know, it's cheesy, but it's so neat!

I know that if I had been given the opportunity of seeing my baby as it developed I would have taken it and cherished it. If I can do that with the baby chicks without harming them, then I'll do it too.

My husband is the ONLY one who has told me to back away from the eggs. Maybe women are more prone to candle than men?

 

[Spore]

awesome, thank you for the incite everybody. I am on day 7 and deciding on whether or not to candle tonight or wait until 10. most likely will wait another couple of days.

 

[Illia]

There are plenty people who are pretty addicted to it - I know that for a while I candled every night.

By day 12 or so, I candled once every three nights.

 

[Spore]

is it a good idea to toss the clear eggs or keep them until day 18?