To candle or not to candle...

[Chickety Charcoal]

So I have some coturnix eggs in the incubator for 3 days now. I was wondering if any of you candle your eggs, how you do it or feel you shouldn't. They are tiny, hard to see through (I think?) and I am inclined to leave well enough alone. BUT I am curious! What day would be best to candle if I did?

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

I candle on day 15 right before I stop turning them. At this point the eggs should not allow light through. You will definitely know a non fertile egg because they light up like a Christmas tree. Take a freshly laid egg and candle it. The light will shine all the way through.
I purchased. $2 LED flashlight from Harbor Freight. I then found a small piece of PVC that fits onto the top of the LED flashlight and let's the egg sit onto the flashlight.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

I 'chickened' out and did not candle them. I tried on one egg with the LED flashlight I had but got nothing. Couldn't even see the airsac. So I bailed and put them back in thinking I would do more damage than good, letting the eggs cool too much etc.

Right now I have some hatching so I will just let things play out.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

Did you see any light shining through the egg? If not, it's full of chick, and won't let light to shine through. You won't really see an air sack on the Coturnix eggs because of the dark splotches on the egg shell. A light brown or white chicken egg on the other hand lets you see the blood vessels, air sack, and baby chick growing day by day. The same development is happening with the quail, you just can't see it.

Chicken-Farmer

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

Not sure that I didn't see anything because of a quail developing or if my LED light was not strong enough. That's why I only did the one and left all the rest alone. I figured I would have the same information I had before I started candling.

In the future, for other batches, I may get a super bright flashlight. I'm just not sure if there is a point since in a few days after I candle, I would have whatever eggs would hatch, hatched.

 

[JJSS89]

Wait till day ten and/or lockdown.

If your LED light is good and strong and you are in a pitch black room and there is no light allowed to pass around the outside of the egg, you can see just fine with coturnix eggs. I took a mini-mag light, taped a bit of PVC to the end and then some electrical tape to ensure a glove-fit and put the eggs in pointy end to the light. Let it sit for a moment and then your eyes will focus and reveal that there will be a very light glow from the smaller end of the egg and you'll be able to see a few veins and movement of the embryo. Just experiment a bit and you'll figure it out. The eggs are fragile but they aren't ancient artifacts.

At this point in incubation, anything infertile will self-identify by lighting up throughout. It will also feel a bit heavier if you have a keen sense for that.

I had over 50 eggs out long enough to candle them and I don't think it hurt them because there was a 90% hatch rate.

 

[Chicken-Farmer]

I personally use candling as a guide for the amount of chicks that I can expect to see during my hatch. I hatch large batches, up to 1300 eggs, but the largest I've hatched so far was 500. Once I have a good idea of the eggs that should hatch I can gauge when I open the incubator,or when the hatch is reasonably over. And I'm not sitting there waiting on infertile eggs to hatch. I have already removed those eggs from the batch. The only eggs that are inside the incubator at hatch are fertile eggs that will most likely hatch. I do have a small percentage of those eggs that never hatch but the majority do.

Chicken-Farmer