Candling questions....

[Peep_Show]

It is Day 7 and I candled my SLW and Star eggs which arrived via USPS from two different sources. On a handful of eggs the little embryo was right up there with a big dark eye bouncing around. A few clear eggs and then about a dozen that I couldn't tell anything about....not clear, but not veiny. Just dark shadowy yolks. I put the dozen or so of them aside, pitched the clears and put the "definites" back in the bator.

I cracked open three of the dark yolkers and -- oops! -- there's an embryo. What's weird is that some were far more advanced developed than others. I put the remaining dark yolkers back in the incubator.

What's going on? Does dark yolk = embryo? I thought the veins and chick mass were the obvious giveaway of a viable egg. So is the rule of thumb to toss ONLY the clear ones on Day 7 and leave the rest even if you cannot see a chick? I am confused and pretty dismayed to think I really suck at candling..... I killed three chicks!

Any advice would be welcomed....

 

[Hennypen]

I had to add water this morning (day 4) and quickly candled one egg. I saw the same dark area at the top of the egg w/no veining that I could see. I'm using a large flashlight. I had the same question.

Do you candle from the side or bottom(pointy) side down with light shining up through the bottom?

 

[Peep_Show]

I have a candling "pen" arriving tomorrow in the mail, but in the meantime I have a home-made candling box.... A 75W reading lamp inside a cardboard box that has a 1" hole cut into it. I put the egg on its side to candle, but also rotated the eggs around a bit to the pointy end when I saw there was a suspected-with-eyeball mass on the very end of the big bulb side of the egg. So I am gathering that the embryos don't always float to the top of a viewed egg, as it were.

 

[panner123]

The only thing that kills more baby chicks than drowning is inproper candling. Yes, I know everyone wants to see what is going on in the egg, but if candling is not done properly, a good egg is cracked open only to find a baby chick. NEVER throw an egg out before day 14 if you must candle. It is best to candle only the day you set the eggs, looking for cracks. Then on day 18 when you remove the turner. After you have hatched out a few hundred thousand or more eggs you will know what I am saying. Some will say I am wrong, but I at one time was hatch over 5000 chicks per week. I didn't have time to candle all the time and my hatch rate was excellant 90% or better. If you are doing this for a class, 4-H or FFA project that is different, but if you are doing this to raise chickens, then you have to forget candling.

 

[Hennypen]

How does candling kill a chick? (other than dropping it or cracking it open when unsure?)

 

[chickintexas]

Hey, Peep_Show. I'm dealing with the same thing. You see all these photos online and in books that clearly shows a chick developing as early as day 3. I wish I had a better camera (not that my current one is bad) so I could take pics of good, developing eggs that don't show that "textbook" veining. At this point, I know that I've got viable eggs developing. I'm also not too terribly worried about candling every few days. I would love for them to all hatch out but at the same time, I want and need to learn everything I can. That's me, though.

I suppose that if it's a "bad" thing for me to candle as often as I do, then it shouldn't be for everyone. I know that I may be risking the viability of the eggs by handling them but how else am I going to learn?

 

[Peep_Show]

Panner123 -- Yes, I can understand your message. And I take full responsibility for cracking those three eggs and feel horrible about it. However, there were 11 returned to the bator with under 10 minutes out of the bator. My question deals more with not being able to tell a dang thing about the egg, period. No veins. No air space. Nothing that looks like all the textbook Perfect Day 7 embryos. Just a dark nondefined shadow where the yolk is with no veins, blobs or eyeballs. Which, again, begs the question "Does a dark yolk = fertile egg?"

I have had eggs explode before Day 14, so I do think that candling is a GOOD thing to eliminate the obvious. But my question goes to the eggs that are not obvious either way...and I guess the answer is to leave them in the incubator and hope they do not explode and contaminate the rest; right? And then at Day 18 judge if it's viable by the air space?

I swear.... when I incubated goose eggs they were straight-up honest. These "stealth" chicks are very frustrating....

 

[elmo]

Quote:
If you spend too long examining the eggs, they can chill. Alternatively, if you keep them over a hot light too long trying to figure out what's going on inside, that could be bad, too.

I'm a neophyte. So when I candled my first batch of eggs, the only thing I was sure about was that they weren't clear. I popped them all back under the hen and left them there. The only other thing I did do was sniff at the nestbox whenever the hen was off taking her daily bathroom break. It's a good thing the neighbors couldn't see me.

Every one of that clutch of eggs hatched yesterday (hooray).

 

[downhome]

I had my first candling party a few days ago, then my bator shot up due to solar gain from the open windows and the very large veiwing window.

so I re candled and many of the lighter shells I could see the "bouncing" or movement but many I could see no movement but a lot of veins and the dark at the bottom a few almost looked like rings wich I know a bateria laden or dead egg develops rings but I have several with movement that look simular.

even my porous eggs are developing (they look simular to porous eggs may be dark and light spots though) those are hard to see whats going on though.

I made a candler from a light socket robbed from a old lamp, cardboard box box and a compact flouresent 20 watt. works great for most of my eggs.

I did mistake three good ones at least I think they where good but no movement when I cracked them open. my test subject at four days I could see the heart beating?
but I did find 6 yolkers out of 120! I have sixty more to candle tomarrow. then sixty more in a couple days.

Im worried if I leave a bad one in I will have a mess and risk the rest.

is smell the best indicator other then candling. how many days till you smell a bad one before rupture?

for those that asked the air sac goes toward the light a thin shelled or white egg may be able to be candled from the side or either end
(not sure there just speculating my eggs are brown)

 

[greathorse]

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