when to candle??

[mstricer]

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If you don't candle and you have a dead one then you could be exposing all the rest of the eggs to deadly bacteria. I have lost healthy eggs before to a dead and roting one.

I've never had that happen. I don't candle until day 18. Hens don't candle and I'm sure that not all their eggs hatch either.

 

[ChickadeeMom]

thanks for creating this post... i was also unsure of when to candle...i "tried" to candle at day 18 or 19 but i have no idea what i was looking for. so i just put them back and am waiting patiently still.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

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If you don't candle and you have a dead one then you could be exposing all the rest of the eggs to deadly bacteria. I have lost healthy eggs before to a dead and roting one.

In 10 years of incubating thousands of eggs I haven't.


Also just because an egg died does not mean it is infected. An just because its alive does not mean it is not infected. Candling does not point out infected eggs any faster than your nose can. Smelling it every day works fine.

The only candling i do now is for the fun of it or to check air sack size.

 

[Hackmatack Ridge Farm]

I've never had that happen. I don't candle until day 18. Hens don't candle and I'm sure that not all their eggs hatch either.

Bacteria grows much better and faster in an incubator than under a hen. The incubator cerculates the same air around and around for the mast part. Under a hen there is always fresh air and when the hens gets off the nest to eat the moisture that the bacteria loves to grow in escapes.

I once had about 80 (all fertile) eggs in a hovabator and one went bad and I didnt relize it. Everything was perfect (temp, humidity, etc..) Only 6 hatched the rest died. I had hatched many eggs from the same hens before and after this batch with excelent hatch rates. That was the only difference.​

 

[ddroland]

I just candled after 6 days, I can distinctly see the embryos in some of them, most of them the top half of the egg is darker than the bottom half and there are prominent veins. I can't see any dark spots but there are veins, what does this mean?

 

[Hackmatack Ridge Farm]

Means they are fertile and doing fine.

 

[ddroland]

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Good news, thanks!

 

[Pascal PicklePants]

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This is something I've been wondering about too. Yesterday (day 16) I started to notice a "suspicious smell" Not all together bad or overpowering, but different from the first 15 days or so.

It is day 17 today, so I'm going to try and candle tonight and give each egg a good sniff. Is the smell a distinct/overpowering rotten egg smell?? I'm so paranoid about tossing a good egg that I'm tempted to leave them all alone. At the same time, i'm only slightly less paranoid about leaving an "egg bomb" in there for lockdown.

Sheesh....it all seemed so simple in my head

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
If you don't candle and you have a dead one then you could be exposing all the rest of the eggs to deadly bacteria. I have lost healthy eggs before to a dead and roting one.

In 10 years of incubating thousands of eggs I haven't.


Also just because an egg died does not mean it is infected. An just because its alive does not mean it is not infected. Candling does not point out infected eggs any faster than your nose can. Smelling it every day works fine.

The only candling i do now is for the fun of it or to check air sack size.

Of the books I have read about hatching ( because yes I am extremely paranoid about screwing this up so have done extensive research, yikes!) they have all said that it is important to clear dead eggs in an incubator because they release toxins that when absorbed into healthy eggs can kill them.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

And not to be combative but for the sake of a very interesting discussion, how can you be sure you have never lost an egg or two to a rotten one? I mean unless out of all of your hatches all eggs except one rotten one survived then there would really be no way to tell for sure weather or not a rotten egg was the culprit of another egg being an early quitter. I for one would rather candle once a week to be certain.