If you decide to candle I wouldn't worry about too much other than checking for sloshy or clear eggs.... most of yours should have a clearly defined air cell. A lot of folks don't candle at all, some do it frequently, just a matter of personal preference, though as mentioned by SunnysMama, the primary advantage is to remove the potential contamination of a bad egg from the nest.
Thank you, I will buy an LED flashlight and see if we can peek. I certainly agree an exploding egg would not be a good thing to experience.I use an LED flashlight and my hand to candle eggs in my bathroom with the door closed and the light off!!Works perfectly and I was able to watch the progression of a baby turkey using this method.
ETA: I personally would candle because if you have bad eggs they can explode and contaminate all the eggs in the nest and that is the most disgusting smell.
Thank you for your advice. I think I'll look for the LED flashlight and see what we can see this weekend. I've heard we might be able tos ee a dark spot which would be a chick eye? Definitely don't want a bad egg to explode in the nest but worried that I won't be able to tell a clear egg from a growing chick, maybe it's not that difficult.
When eggs get further along they are mostly dark, with an opaque or clear bubble on one end (the air sac) That is probably all the detail I would hope to see on a 2wk dark egg.
Thank you, the thread was very helpful. We found an LED light and candled a few last night and saw: air sacs, veining and dark spot in each of them. Realized after I should have marked those. Anyway, I think this weekend we will candle them all, just this once and then count down to hatch.
