I couldn't tear myself away from BYC last year when I just started hatching, you will find it very informative, which is comforting when trying something new.
I personally can't stand the idea of an egg going rotten and bursting in my house,
so I candle and remove duds ASAP. I find silkie and cochin eggs to be easy to candle, the color is not hard to see through. If you are on day 5 or 6, and you can see the yellow of the yolk, but no veins, then the egg is what we call clear, if it hasn't developed by now it never will. If the egg has a porous shell and it is difficult to see through, I leave it a little longer and recheck it a few days later. If by day 10 you can't see any development, I toss the egg. Here is a link to egg candling pictures which will give you a good idea what you should be seeing when you candle. I used it a lot last year!! It will help you tremendously. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261876
Best of luck with your hatch!! Don't worry about the eggs cooling a bit while you candle, remember that hens get off the nest to eat, drink and poo every day. The eggs will be fine. Brinsea has even put out research saying that periodic cooling is good for hatch rates and they are building new incubators to have cooling periods. http://www.brinsea.co.uk/cooling/ They are tougher than we know.
I have seen some beautiful pictures of little fuzzies but this.....i'm in love!!!!
sure wish I could have a copy of this...a lady I work with has a 16 year old daughter who does drawlings and paintings and has won several 1st places on her work...She would love to do this!!
I wouldn't throw any out until at least day 10... unless there is black spots right away or a blood ring...get a good led light... so i am told, to candle and anything you may question I would let go for the ride until it is clear there has been no more development or everything hatches then no action from the egg then crack it open to see how far it developed... this site is full of very useful info and also GREAT friends who will lend a helping hand... Good luck... by the way mine were set on the 28th also!!!!!!
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wow.. i have never seen this thread before... wish i could save it somehow or mark it as a fav.. very neat!! I always knew there was someone who posted egg candling to this extent. Thanks for posting this!!
oh my I just realized I posted up most ofthe 7th page... See what happens when I go back to work... I have to play catchup when I get home..lol
Ok my byc friends... I need your advice...I am hatching most of these eggs as a test for my cousin... there are 49 eggs. a few 1st generation olive egger.. rest will either be pure barred rock and/or black sex-link. I know the black sex-link pullet will be all black.. the roos will be black in coloring but have a white dot on the top oftheir heads. in the pics I have seen this evening the sex-link legs and coloring is more of a black shade. The barred rock has white or yellow spot on the top of their head and appear to have more of a grey/black coloring as day olds and appear to have yellow legs. Is this correct? Do any of you know something that will help me figure out weather the peeps are barred rock or sex-link? I really don't want to raise them all until they start to feather out...I am going to keep the black sex-link pullets because he doesn't care for them... I thought I may keep a barred rock pullet or 2 also...would like to tag them somehow for him so he knows what he has... Thanks!!
Anyone else candle today or this evening?
one more question.. for those of you that have the marans... what do you use to candle? I dont think a led light will be bright enough???
I really am thinking about ordering a cool candler for those eggs. If I have something like that it might not grow legs...
When you go to the heading for Incubating and Hatching, you will see a picture of a lock and the word "Sticky" like to first thread. There are several permanently posted threads with valuable information there. That is where I pulled it from. Everyone new to hatching should read through them, there is a lot of good info in there. I can't take credit for any of it, but I referred to them several times last year.