Question on incubating...

[SunAngel]

I am wondering how everyone goes about candling all the eggs in the incubator? I have 41 in mine at the moment and if I open the incubator for even a couple minutes my temp drops a lot.

How is it possible to candle all of them without a big temp drop? Do you open it, take one out, close it and repeat til all are done or do you just open it and leave it open while you candle them all and just try to be fast?

 

[shelleyd2008]

I would just candle some at a time, instead of doing all of them at once. Do you have an egg turner? If so, you could do one tray, then later in the day, do the next, and so on till you have checked them all.

 

[SunAngel]

Yeah, I have a turner. Ok thanks, will give that a try

 

[swtangel321]

I would candle all at once, a mother hen gets off her nest at least once a day for up to a half hour at a time, so opening the bator for 20ish min shouldn't be any different than a mother hen.... I candle on day 7 - 12 - 17 and leave the bator open while I do it, Ive had no problems doing it this way, good luck !!!!!

 

[SGM]

I open, remove the eggs I want to candle into an egg carton. Candle them, mark them and then when I'm done I move them back. If the bator has trouble getting back to temp then I wait a day to do the rest. If the bator gets to temp easily I just swap out, put the candled ones up and take out the next batch.

 

[SunAngel]

So its ok if the eggs cool a bit while you have them out and are candling them?

Can you tell this is my first try at incubating lol. I took a couple out to candle and saw veins, so now I am eager to check the rest. Plus I don't want any exploding in there on me. I am only on day 6, long wait yet.

 

[swtangel321]

Quote:

Yes it is ok if they cool for up to a 1/2 hour, just like a mother hens eggs would cool when she got off the nest to eat,drink,poop !!!!

 

[corancher]

I candle all mine at the same time. I open remove the eggs to a egg flat, candle, then put them all back. I have not had a problem, however I only candle eggs a couple of times during incubation process.

 

[SunAngel]

Thanks for the help and reassurance. I will give it a try

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
The only difference is that when mom comes back to the nest, it doesn't take a while for her to warm back up...that's why I said I would do them in stages...