Brown egg candling

[CariLynn]

Tonight, I tried using a high powered flash light to see into the eggs Zoe is setting on and saw nothing...so I am not sure if it is because the shell is thick or well, there isn't anything in them or that I am not doing it right. If there isn't a chick in there I would rather know so I can get her new baby chicks and slip them under her one night than wait another 15 or so days and be very disappointed. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[chickpeaz]

Make sure your light is really bright, to start with. I tried using DH's maglite and it was a bust -- I went out and got a small LED flashlight that's rated 75 lumens (I think) and that helped a lot. Make sure your room is completely dark. Shine the light into the fat end of the egg first and check to see if you can make out the air cell, and then start slowly rotating the egg and look for dark/light areas. If you can get the light to hit on the very edge of dark to light, sometimes you can see veining there and once you focus on it you can start to make out more veins, movement, etc.

Sometimes the shells are just too dark (like a marans egg), but if they're just regular brown eggs, a bright enough light should do the trick.