Candling Green Cheek Conure Eggs

Hi,
We have just started hand-raising our first clutch of baby Yellow-Sided GC's. Originally they laid four eggs but only two hatched. We candled these eggs as this was recommended to us as the parents are only a year old and most people told us that these would not hatch. We clearly could see embryos in all eggs so not sure what happened to two of them. Is it possile that you can destroy the embryo from candling?
Also would like to know if it is possible that two Yellow-Sided GC's can have babies with different coloured mutations as one of them is not showing as much colour as the other chick which is only 2 days older but quite a bit bigger than its 2 day younger sibling?

I doubt that candling, in itself, could kill embryos, but too much handling could.....eggs are porous and any handling with uncovered/unprotected hands can cause those pores to become clogged with the oils from your fingers/hands, thereby suffocating the embryos inside the eggs.....

The lineage of the hen determines the color of a chick, so in answer to your question, yes.....

You might want to read up on how the different colors and lineage of the parent birds determines what color kicks a given pair will produce.....some colors require several generations to develop.....

Here's a link to get you started, but there is quite a bit more information you need to learn & understand if you are planning to raise green cheek mutations: Green-Cheeked Conure mutation colors prediction tables by The Feather Tree/ Steve Garvin.....

After you finish reading the links and webpages written by Steve Garvin, You can find additional information at:

www.tdaviary.com/GREEN-CHEEKS.htm

Pamperedpeeps Aviary- Yellow Sided Green Cheek, Green cheek breeder, exotic parrot breeder

lafeber.com/pet-birds/species/green-cheeked-conure/


as well as other sites on the internet...good luck.....