Solitary chicken - need advice

[leopardstar]

I'm new to this business, I understand candling is to see if the egg is fertile but how do you go about doing it??! Is it safe to take the eggs out and how often should you do it?

[Griffin]

I use the light on my mobile phone because it's very small and very bright, much better than the pen candler I bought. It's best to do it at night, although I can candle during the day if I pull my cardi over my head and shove the egg and phone up my top Basically hold the egg so it's pointy end up and hold the light underneath the egg very close to it. You should see the air sac at the bottom and the contents of the egg on top. Depends what you see on which day it is. Also a lot depends on the shell colour. I've got blue eggs and white eggs in my incubator at the moment and they're easy to candle, very dark eggs would be tricky.

 

It only takes a few seconds, a minute at the most, to tell if everything is as it should be. I leave my incubator switched on, lid on, and remove each egg one at a time before popping it back in. Fiddly but at least they don't get cold.

 

I do it first around day 6 or 7 to discard the clear eggs and then a couple more times just to keep on top of what's alive and what isn't. If you're not sure, leave it in a few more days.

[feemcg]

I have burnt out 2 standard Brinsea candlers so now have a Solway LED candler which is excellent (it doesn't heat the egg which a standard bulb does). I take the whole tray of eggs out.....a cooling period doesn't affect the eggs, same as if the mother hen gets off the eggs (also some large hatcheries have a deliberate cooling period). From around day 3 you can see a red dot with tiny red spider veins radiating from it, by day 7 the red blob is bigger and sometimes you can even see a tiny heart beating away in the centre. at day 12 or so I've seen an eye staring back t me through the shell, and little feet kicking....it's amazing

 

Bad signs are when the veins collapse and look black, or you get a thick red or black ring.

[The Dogmother]

I found candlers useless too Fee - just used one of those tiny Maglite torches.

 

There are some pictures here

 

Try this link

 

http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html

[Egluntyne]

I used a free magilite torch too. It did the trick.

 

I did manage to crack one egg when candling it.

[The Dogmother]

Ooops.

 

Rosie loved the candling process, it's hard not to do it too often. I candled when the hen was off the nest and eating, and then only twice.

[craftyhunnypie]

I either candle at 7 days or 10 days. I candled the silkie eggs last night & 2 out of 3 are fertile. I will get some day olds to go with them once hatched I think, as I now know of a chicken supplier in Sandbach.

I also use a l.e.d torch or a big torch with piece of cardboard & hole in it. It's usually the l.e.d torch that I use more often than not. There were brilliant veins & the peeps moved about too last night - very sweet.

 

Emma.x

[Lewis]

I have burnt out 2 standard Brinsea candlers so now have a Solway LED candler which is excellent (it doesn't heat the egg which a standard bulb does). I take the whole tray of eggs out.....a cooling period doesn't affect the eggs, same as if the mother hen gets off the eggs (also some large hatcheries have a deliberate cooling period). From around day 3 you can see a red dot with tiny red spider veins radiating from it, by day 7 the red blob is bigger and sometimes you can even see a tiny heart beating away in the centre. at day 12 or so I've seen an eye staring back t me through the shell, and little feet kicking....it's amazing

 

Bad signs are when the veins collapse and look black, or you get a thick red or black ring.

Hi Fee,

Could I be really cheeky

You say you burnt out the brinsea candlers, have the bulbs gone or is there an internal problem?

 

We're hatching some eggs at school and are planning on using my pen candler.

If you're not using them any more, could I possibly pay P&P and you send me one? My nans husband is an electrician and may be able to fix it, or DT department could have a look.

 

Sorry if it sounds cheeky, but you have to ask to get

Thanks

Lewis