All bad eggs!?

[Mavrik]

I just did a day five candle with a coffee can/75 watt bulb and all I see is half is just dark. A definite straight line difference between half dark, half bright. Doing an egg from the refrigerator it's all bright. This half and half stays the same when laid on it's side. All the eggs look like this.

 

[KYTinpusher]

Give it more time. At day 5 it is still difficult to see anything unless you have a very bright light. Yours doesn't look bright enough. If you can get a good LED flashlight - 180 lumens or more - you will be able to see much better. The LED is better than an incandescent because it does not heat up the egg so you have more time to look.

 

[Mavrik]

A 75 watt bulb is about 700 lumens.

 

[KYTinpusher]

If you can get it all focused up through the hole in the can.

 

[Mavrik]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Here is a picture of an egg from the refrigerator and the same breed hen.

 

[KYTinpusher]

A light bulb puts out diffused light going in all directions, so the amount actually coming through the hole at the top is only a fraction of the 700 lumens. A flashlight is designed to focus all the light in a forward direction making the light available to candle much brighter. And an LED light will do it without the heat that the incandescent bulb puts out which can quickly fry your egg.

Looking at the 2 pictures though, I would guess you have a fertile egg with chick growing in your first one.

If you want to see what a really good flashlight can do for your candling, look here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation

 

[Mavrik]

I first did this with a D cell LED Maglite, which they claim has a 398 yard range. It candling looked the same.

I'm puzzled the egg looks nothing like the bright, vain pictures I've seen for day five.

 

[rosegal]

Take a pic of it sideways on the light and see if the darker part moves. It looks like it could be fertile, but hard to tell for sure for 2-3 more days. Don't candle them till 7 -9 days because you can detach the embryo.

 

[Mavrik]

Sideways candling looks the same as the first pic, the dark spot doesn't move, same position. I really don't want to take one out again after you mentioned the possibility of detaching the embryo. I didn't know this, I wondered how much handling these could take.

 

[kt6238]

To the person checking for veining,
At day 5 you should defiantly see veining in the egg. Should look somewhat like spider webbing.