Should I candle or leave them be?

[kelly77]

I am dealing with fertile eggs that were layed here at home by one of my Silkies. Everyone talks about candling but I think it is best to leave them be and not mess with their temps. Mama hen doesn't do this so why should I? What are people's opinion on this topic?

 

[sumi]

Personally I don't candle. I'm terrified I'll mis-read the situation and toss an egg that was fine. It does have it's uses though, for example you can identify and discard any off eggs before they become a problem.

 

[miss silky]

I,m addicted to candleing. and if you have kidts un for them to see! Just don,t let them crack em open! otherwise I heard it,s best to leave em alone. I take 1 0r 2 out at a time so they don,t cool off so quick, which they do!and its more opening the bator, even though it,s QUICK!

 

[kelly77]

Well this is my first batch of eggs I am incubating...so needless to say I am very nervous. I only have 5 eggs in there so hopefully some will hatch

 

[miss silky]

Did u get em via mail or local farmer? I,m threw being dissapointed by mail, anyone in northern Il.?i,d love some FERTILE eggs 2 hatch!

 

[chicken pickin]

I promised my self I wasnt going to candle but 2 3 times tops. But it is so exciting to see the changes inside the eggs going from slight veining to tons of veining to tiny masses inside to actual movement. I have candle 2 eggs on day 3 just to see, All eggs on day 5 EEEE it was so exciting and I will do all tomight on day now I guess 7 1/2. My husband and kids didnt see me candle the other day so they looked at one egg this morn and it had grown since day 5 and had so much movement. I want to recheck them all because the other day I had 2 clears and 3 I was unsure of. I have a notebook and am keeping detailed notes of everything. I hope candling isnt too bad because I am enjoying it. I promise I wont candle again til day 14

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[Becci]

For me personally, any eggs that go into the incubator are candled on days 7, 14 and 18 to ensure the air sacs are developing properly, which is how I keep check on my humidity. Larger air sacs = not enough moisture, smaller air sacs = too much moisture. Any eggs underneath a broody do not get candled during incubation unless there is an issue. That being said, I candle any egg before incubation to check for hairline cracks and other abnormalities. I also candle any supposedly dead eggs before trashing them, and I'll be honest, I've saved a bunch of chicks by doing this.

Generally candling itself has little to no effect on the temperature of the egg if you do it correctly. The internal temperature of the egg takes awhile to cool down. When the outside of the egg begins cooling down, internally, the egg is still warm. The problems occur when you're opening incubators to candle, causing the incubator's temperature to fluctuate, which can harm or kill the embryo's if it isn't stabilized quickly. This wouldn't be an issue underneath a hen.

Last year I did an "experiment", where I marked two eggs out of the entire clutch and candled them every night from day one until hatch. I kept a notebook to write down what I saw, and took pictures of each egg, it was very interesting to see how much they grew day by day. Both eggs, despite me taking them out of the incubator for minimum 5 minutes every night during incubation - hatched perfectly fine, and on time. In fact they were the most energetic out of the entire bunch.

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[kelly77]

Well we candled tonight...we were not going to, mostly out of fear but we needed to know if our efforts were working. I am happy to say 4 out of our 5 have veins. Our large egg that was out of the norm for Coco to lay has no veins. Has an air sac though. I am leaving it in ..maybe something will change? It is day 8 in the incubator