Egg candling day 5 - fertile or not?

[jessejeanne]

So I have a broody who is sitting on eggs of her sister.
My question is, since I do not see any veins on day 5, are they even fertilised?
The eggs have a thicker shell than the ones of my Barnevelder, all I see right now is a dark yolk.
The eggs I have inside of her sister are all clear. Thing is that I haven’t been lucky with the eggs of those two sisters and not had a succesfull hatch of them, only the Barnevelder bantam eggs hatched all 3 times I had broody’s.

 

[NatJ]

My question is, since I do not see any veins on day 5, are they even fertilised?
The eggs have a thicker shell than the ones of my Barnevelder, all I see right now is a dark yolk.

Is there any way to candle in a darker place, with a brighter light? Sometimes that helps.

If you still can't see any veins, I would probably give them a bit longer to see if anything changes. Eggs with thick or dark shells can be hard to candle, but at later stages you can sometimes see when the chick is bigger than the yolk, even if you couldn't see veins early on. (Although I have read of people with very dark eggs that don't even bother candling, because they can never see anything at any stage.)

If you really don't think they are fertile, you could take one egg and crack it open as a way to check. If you see development, leave the rest under the broody. If no development, crack another one. The problem with this is that if you do see development, it is too late for that egg: no way to patch it back up and let it go on to hatch.

If there really are no veins on day 5 of incubation, then it will never hatch. The problem is to figure out whether there are veins that you aren't seeing, or whether there are no veins to see.

 

[jessejeanne]

Is there any way to candle in a darker place, with a brighter light? Sometimes that helps.

If you still can't see any veins, I would probably give them a bit longer to see if anything changes. Eggs with thick or dark shells can be hard to candle, but at later stages you can sometimes see when the chick is bigger than the yolk, even if you couldn't see veins early on. (Although I have read of people with very dark eggs that don't even bother candling, because they can never see anything at any stage.)

If you really don't think they are fertile, you could take one egg and crack it open as a way to check. If you see development, leave the rest under the broody. If no development, crack another one. The problem with this is that if you do see development, it is too late for that egg: no way to patch it back up and let it go on to hatch.

If there really are no veins on day 5 of incubation, then it will never hatch. The problem is to figure out whether there are veins that you aren't seeing, or whether there are no veins to see.

Thank you so much for your tips! Well, I’ve only got my phone light. I will try to candle them again with a stronger phone light in a darker room. I know she had eggs before that were fertile even though I didn’t see clear veins in them. I don’t dare to crack one open haha, I did that once by accident and it would break my heart to kill a chick that was developing.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you so much for your tips! Well, I’ve only got my phone light. I will try to candle them again with a stronger phone light in a darker room.

For a dark room: look for any source of light, and then see if there is a way to block it. For example, close the curtains in a bedroom, close the door, turn out the light, then go into the closet and close that door too.

For a brighter light: make sure the battery is fully charged. I know some people have good results with the light from a phone, and I've sometimes used a small flashlight (new batteries can make a big difference if it is getting dim.)

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

Normally before getting rid of infertile eggs I wait until day 10. By day 10, chicks should full about half the egg up, if your only seeing the yolk - no veins not nothing... than you have an infertile egg and you mitaswell get rid of it.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Thank you so much for your tips! Well, I’ve only got my phone light. I will try to candle them again with a stronger phone light in a darker room. I know she had eggs before that were fertile even though I didn’t see clear veins in them. I don’t dare to crack one open haha, I did that once by accident and it would break my heart to kill a chick that was developing.

go to Home Depot. buy the Defiant 225 lumen light. darker shells are difficult, but it works for lighter eggs and most dark, but not all.

 

[The_1898_Homestead]

For a dark room: look for any source of light, and then see if there is a way to block it. For example, close the curtains in a bedroom, close the door, turn out the light, then go into the closet and close that door too.

For a brighter light: make sure the battery is fully charged. I know some people have good results with the light from a phone, and I've sometimes used a small flashlight (new batteries can make a big difference if it is getting dim.)

 

[The_1898_Homestead]

Tomorrow will be candling day for the eggs under our broody Colombian Wyandotte. The last time I checked she had 20 eggs under her. I found two eggs today that were laid on and around her earlier. Our Brahma Mama was almost covering her today and laid one of the stray eggs. There are multiple other nests they can use but they all want this one.
Unfortunately we have a roo who is taking advantage of a non moving target.
I am sure we will have a hard time with the dark Marans eggs, however the rest will be easy and we hope there is life in them.

 

[chicChickChick]

None of our cell phone lights were sufficient either. Another vote for a better light source. Then you have an emergency light for your kit anyway.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Quail eggs are hard to candle, veins aren’t easy to see very often so you watch for the ever growing yolk shadow, the less you can see day by day the better! Might help with your dark chicken eggs as well?