Backyard Chickens: DIY Egg Candler

DIY Egg Candler

Our newest endeavor: egg hatching!

My kids and I made a DIY egg candler to see what’s going on inside our chicken eggs. We went on a field trip to a local farm, and the kids were each given a fertile chicken egg to bring home. After some hesitation about whether it would work, the kids talked me into getting an egg Incubator. We’ve been incubating our eggs and turning them regularly.

Incubating Eggs

We learned that different eggs need to be kept at different temperatures — chicken eggs at 99.5. The hardest part is getting the temperature right at first, but it has stayed pretty steady.

We also learned that humidity is very important, and we are keeping clean water in the little troughs in the bottom of the incubator. It’s been a pretty easy process so far, (keeping the cat off the top being our biggest challenge.)

In our estimation, they should hatch in about 8 more days.

DIY Egg Candler

We used a pencil cup as a holder for the flashlight since it was so heavy.

Using a juice pouch box, we cut a hole in one end of the box. We couldn’t cut a good circle because of the thickness of the cardboard and my inability to use an exacto knife properly. I used a scrapbooking circle punch to cut through a folded up piece of black paper and taped the paper to the end over the other hole.

Then, we cut a hole in the other end to fit the pencil holder with the flashlight standing up in it.

Once the candler was set up, we turned off the lights in the room and set each egg on top to see what was inside.

All three of our eggs are showing veins and air sacs. We are all so excited to see that they are actually making progress and can’t wait to see if they hatch.

Here are some resources for kids we’re finding helpful:

Let’s Read and Find Out Science: Where Do Chicks Come From? is nice for younger kids. It’s got really good drawings of the “anatomy” of an egg. It shows what goes on inside the egg during different stages of development.

This website was recommended to me by the chick supplier from our local farm supply store. Their Learning Center section has articles on getting started with eggs and hatching chicks. They have some good pictures of candling eggs and a chick hatching in an incubator.