Official BYC Poll: Do You Candle Your Eggs? If So, How Often?

[BYC Project Manager]

Candling is a fascinating part of hatching—shedding light (literally!) on the progress of your developing chicks. But how often do you do it? Are you a frequent checker, or do you prefer to let nature take its course?

Place your vote and see how your candling habits compare with other chicken keepers!

Further Reading:

• Candling Pics Progression Through Incubation Of Chicken Eggs
• Information on Candling Eggs
• Development of a Chicken Embryo Day by Day

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[Perris]

I used to, till I realised that (1) I didn't really know what I was looking at, and then (2) it was just to satisfy my curiosity, and I could do that a whole lot better by looking at this site
https://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/embryonic-development-day-by-day
and using that site instead of candling (3) satisfied my curiosity without jeopardizing the health of the developing chicks or (4) annoying my broody.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Multiple answers. I candle eggs in the incubator on day 7 and again at lockdown. Day 7 is just curiosity, I don't make any decisions then. It's just fun to see what is going on. At lockdown I remove the ones that are obviously not going to hatch but if there is any question I leave them in. The reason I remove the ones that obviously will not hatch is to make more room in the incubator for the ones that do hatch and to make it easier for me to follow the ones after they pip.

I never candle under a broody hen. I don't see a reason to candle. I don't want to upset her and she knows more about what she is doing by instinct than I ever will.

 

[NagemTX]

I candle at day 7 to remove infertile or blood ring eggs. I candle at lock down to see if I have quitters. I incubate a lot of shipped eggs so I feel its more necessary to candle.

On my own eggs I candle at day 7 for infertile eggs mostly and not at lock down.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I candle at 10 to remove dead eggs and right before lockdown to remove any dead eggs. Other than that I leave them be. I had a bad egg explode once otherwise I wouldn’t bother candling at all.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

I candle day 7 and remove infertile eggs. Check again before lockdown. If I have anyone buying chicks that asks me to candle sooner I will.

Love this website too:
https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/how-to-incubate-chicken-eggs.html

It shows development day by day.

 

[BDutch]

Once on day 6 or 7 bc I am curious and to take out the infertile eggs. Sometimes a second time if it was not clear or if I didn’t manage to candle them all. I only check in the night to get a good view with a simple torch.

The broody may do the rest.
Never had eggs that exploded. But broodies have tossed an egg a few times.

 

[pac]

I know this is under Chickens...
But I'm a first time incubator with Quail and I'll be candling at lockdown. I was going to let it go, but then I realized I would be making more walking room so the chicks aren't stumbling all over the place while crawling over eggs.

On a bird that seems to have a lot of leg and foot problems, this seemed like a good thing.

If I was only incubating half the incubator's capacity or less, I'd probably let it go.

 

[Debbie292d]

Day 7 to remove any "lava lamps", as I call those unfertilized ones, then when moved to the lockdown incubator. Due to using a third incubator, and staggered hatches, they all get candled when a batch is moved to lockdown.

I set about 18 to 2 dozen silkie eggs every 5 days, so they're on a rotation, left to right.

 

[pac]

Cool desk!