Incubating & Hatching Eggs Part 2- Candling Eggs

Hatching & Incubating Eggs Part 2

Candling Your Eggs

 

In my first incubating post I talked about setting up your incubator properly and starting your eggs.  Around Day 7 for white or light eggs and Day 10 for brown and darker eggs you'll want to candle the eggs to check for fertility. 

 

There are many quality candlers on the market in a wide price range.

 

Many breeders and backyard hatchers, including us, also build their own egg candlers.  There are several great plans online for building simple candlers.  Here are a few I've found.

Mother Earth News (one of my favorite sites by the way) has a great post on building a candler from a coffee can here.

Instructables has a simple candler you can build from a small light, paper towel tube, and some electrical tape here.  

Urban Chicken Coops has a video on how to make a wooden box candler (a bit more on the handyman side but really nice) here.

Candling your eggs early from the 7-10 day mark can help you determine growth and fertility in your eggs.  It's also important so that you can make more room in your incubator or hatcher if you're incubating staggered hatches (post on how to stagger hatches next week), ensuring you keep bacteria down and protect the developing eggs, and to check on how well you're incubator is set up and running for proper conditions. 

 

The picture above is of an infertile egg.  You can tell because it will shine like a lightbulb, clear throughout.  I was so worried and nervous about throwing ANY eggs out in the beginning that I wouldn't throw them out at the 7 day mark but would wait and candle them again in another week.  This proved to be fine for us- no exploding eggs in the incubator that early.  I've heard others say they will but our PERSONAL experience is they haven't.  Once you get the hang of it and have fertile eggs, it becomes much easier to throw out these that are infertile because there's a significant different in them after you've practiced.  The egg above was infertile and we did throw it out.  Sometimes on the darker eggs - our blues and dark browns it can be harder to tell, especially if this is your first hatch so you can wait for your next candling.

This picture shows what's called a "blood ring" unfortunately.  A blood ring forms after an embryo has begun to grow, so the egg WAS fertile, but for some reason it dies.  Oftentimes, a bacteria has somehow entered the egg, or it could be caused from rough handling or a defect in the embryo.  It's a sign that the embryo is no longer alive and best to remove these from the incubator to prevent any contamination to the other eggs. 

 

Here is an example of a "good" egg.  It's a typical fertile, living embryo with normal development.  If you look closely you can see the veins appearing on the large part of the egg.  You can also see the dark space at the small end of the egg.  Hopefully, this is what you will mostly see at this point. 

Be gentle with your eggs.  You do not want to shake them or keep them out of the incubator too long.  You also do not want to keep your incubator open very long or continue to open and shut it.  The most successful eggs are those that are left alone!  Candle them carefully and quickly and place them back into your incubator.  Keep in mind what we discussed in the first post about losing humidity and reducing your temperature from opening the incubator.  If any water needs to be added for low humidity, now is the time to do it while you have the incubator already opened.  I like to gather everything together before I even touch the incubator.  I get warm water (if needed), my candler, and a washcloth (in case I spill because I'm a klutz!) all set on my table by my incubator before I lift the lid.

Place your fertile eggs and those you're unsure of and want to keep incubating back into your incubator and once again, leave it alone.  Keep an eye on your temperature and humidity as before.  For circulated air incubators keep a constant temperature of 99.5 and 102 for still air incubators.  For the first 1-17 days, remember, you'll want to keep your humidity between 40-55%. 

 

Many breeders will candle their eggs again around Day 14.  This is a good idea, especially for those eggs you were uncertain of.  It will also reveal any eggs that "quit" some time between Day 7 and then.  It's a good measure for beginners to assess thier incubator conditions also.  If you lose several eggs between Day 7-14 then you'll know you need to make adjustments on your incubator.  As with Day 7, gather your materials ahead of time and be certain to replace the eggs pointed or small end down so as not to have your chicks pipping at the wrong end of the egg. 

We use an incubator for days 1-17 and then transfer our eggs to a hatcher.  I gently and quickly candle my eggs again at this point because of my limited hatcher space.  Generally, this is not necessary if you are hatching and incubating in the same incubator.   The egg you see above is a fertile egg on Day 17 right before I moved it into our hatcher. 

On Day 18, remove your eggs from the egg turner if you're using one.  If you're manually turning, stop turning them.  Add water as needed to increase your humidity to 65-70% for hatching.  You've now entered the Lockdown phase.  Check out our next post, Incubating & Hatching Eggs Part 3 for more information and tips on humidity and hatching.  Happy incubating!

Blessings,

 

 

They're here! Incubating Eggs Day 1



 

Samuel Little, Bantam Salmon Faverolle Cockerel

Incubating & Hatching Chicken Eggs
We ordered hatching eggs last week to continue working on our winter hatching program.  We'd already picked up our adorable Paint Silkies to start that project.  With this batch of eggs we're continuing with Porcelain, Patridge, Lavender, Buff, and White Silkies as well as some Bantam Salmon Faverolles (Poor Samuel Little needs some ladies to keep him company), and we're helping a young friend out by trying to hatch some of he and his Mom's first Japanese Bantam eggs. 

Since we just finished a hatch of Silkie eggs about 7 days ago, I need to first clean and disinfect our incubator.  We're using the Hovabator 1588 for this clutch.  I disinfect with a Clorox and warm/hot water mix (4 parts water/ 1 part Clorox) then rinse and dry.  Always, always clean and disinfect your incubator after hatches and I also like to clean and disinfect it one more time before putting new eggs in.  I'm a bit of a nut for biosecurity. 

Once I have the housework of it done, I set it up at a Temperature of 99.5 and humidity level of 50-55% for 24-48 hours BEFORE setting the eggs.  This ensures our eggs go into proper conditions.  I took this photo when I first set up the incubator, about 20 minutes into it being set.  As you can see, the temperature is still too low and the humidity was too high.  This gave me a chance to make adjustments PRIOR to jeopardizing the chicks' development.  If I already have the eggs, we keep them at room temperature and just ensure we rotate them (or be lazy and put them in the egg turner OUTSIDE of the bator like this time) until it's time to put them in.   That's what leads us to today! 

 

Hatching eggs should arrived packaged very securely if you're purchasing from another breeder.  If you're hatching your own eggs, you won't have to concern yourself with this part.  As you can see, this breeder does a thorough job of protecting the eggs from the jarring and tossing that happens to boxes during the mailing process. 

She also takes special care of the eggs inside of these bubble wrapped and filler surrounded (I've already removed the newspaper filler that kept the egg cartons from shifting around.  THIS type of care and concern is what I've grown to expect and love from my favorite breeders.  It's not only professional but it shows great pride in the chickens they raise and I know they want us to have a successful hatch almost as much as we do!  

Of course, next we carefully unwrap the eggs, notate the date and which eggs are there (breed, type, variety, condition, etc.) and I  mark each of the eggs with the breeder's initials if I'm incubating more than one breeder's eggs. This helps me keep track of which colors and chicks I hatch from each breeder for future use. I also use this information to track things like hatchability and any defects. All of this plays an important role in breeding if you're trying to improve the quality of your birds and not just breeding to do it.

 

I use an egg turner in my incubator, it makes the job of hatching easier because you won't have to turn them yourself.  We put our eggs gently in with the small (pointed end) down into the turner.  If you don't have an egg turner, you'll also need to mark an X and an O on opposite sides of your eggs.  You'll need to gently turn the eggs three times a day up until Day 18.  When you place the eggs in your incubator without a turner, you'll want to lay them on thier side and all of the eggs with either X or O facing up.  This helps you remember which eggs you've already turned during those three times a day. 

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 I then place my egg turner into my incubator and secure it properly.  I usually check on the eggs about every 30 minutes the first few hours.  Adding the eggs to the incubator and holding it open while you add them changes your temperature and humidity so you'll want to keep a close eye on that.  If the glass begins to accumulate drops of water on the underside of it (if you're using an incubator with a viewing area) then your humidity is TOO high.  Open some of the plugs found on it for ventilation.  I keep two thermometers and a hydrogmeter in our incubator to ensure I am accurately tracking my conditions.  If the humidity is too low or the temperature is too low, close those holes and/or add water.  This is why it's so important to have your settings correct before you start.  You'll have a better feel for your incubator and much more control over your new chicks' environment.  I never have any trouble checking the incubator this often- most of the time my kids are checcking even more often!  The big rule is, however, look all you want but LET IT BE!  If your conditions are right where they need to be- LEAVE IT ALONE! :)  It's hard for me so I realize it's tough for the kids but it's so important. 

 

Now that you're monitoring your clutch carefully- you are all set until Day 7 if you'd like to candle them!  Enjoy the anticipation!  The closer hatch day comes - 21 days from your first day of incubation- the more it feels like Christmas around here!  We'll be back around Day 7-9 to discuss candling!  

 

Love,

Tiff