Another Candling Concern

[KimChick]

I was just going over my last year's thread on Day 10 Candling.
And because I would never want to drop an egg or have it slip a bit and crack, do people turn off the incubator and leave the lid off while candling?
Don't mind me... by only doing this once a year, I did not leave a note for myself whether or not I turned it off during candling.
But it makes sense to.

[kenya]

No I don't, you want the heat to stay up for the eggs, besides I usually only take 10 or 12 out at a time to candle no sense letting the rest get cold.

[LongCrow]

I have changed from day 10-12 candling to wait until I move them to hatcher at day 18. I shut it down to prevent the alarms from going off.

[Killerbunny]

Noooooooo!!! I quickly remove eggs into a carton, candle and put them back quickly.

[Ontario Chick]

Depending on how many eggs in the incubator, remove 12 at the time, candle and return, removing the next 12.
Helps keep the incubator temperature and humidity from dropping too low and taking too long to stabilize.

[WLLady]

lol i have a sportsman and take the racks out one at a time and candle the entire rack then shuffle it to the back and take the next out.....6 racks worth usually. candle day 7 and at lockdown. thats it. lockdown is moving from incubator to hatcher anyways

[KimChick]

Thanks everyone.
I can do as suggested - take out a few at a time, candle them, return them, and take out a few more, etc.
It would help if the incubator lid had some type of hinge or handles for lifting it off. But, oh well.
There are 25 eggs incubating, so I'll take out about 8 at a time.

[Jaye]

... and don't unplug it. Keep the heater and fan going.

[Kbr42]

Ok, going to add my 2 cents here. I never take the eggs out to candle unless I can't tell what's going on. I use my candler i just hold it above the egg. The only time i actually do more than gently turn them, is when I mark the air sac on day 18.

I find I can see enough to know where we are in development. Anyway, it works for me. I don't have the lid off any longer than when i turn the eggs.

[KimChick]

Karen, everybody's 2 cents is helpful information. I have never tried keeping the eggs on the turner while candling. Maybe I'll do that in a few days to see what I can see.
Last night, out of the 25 eggs, there was only 1 to mark with a "?". But there was definitely no blood ring.
I took out 8 at a time, placed them into a pan lined with a dish towel, and worked as quickly as possible, marking with a check mark if life was apparent.
All in all, it was a successful Day 10 candling.

Onward! Time to clean a coop!