candleing question

[huneyb]

how soon can u candle eggs to see if they are fertile

 

[Free Feather]

I typically check on day five, but sometimes you can see on day three. I would not toss any out until at least day five, though.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends a lot on the specific eggs you are candling, the equipment and technique you use, and your experience helps. There can be a learning curve. Like many things that requires your judgment you get better with practice.

White and light brown eggs are generally pretty easy to candle. Brown, blue, and green eggs can be a lot tougher. With some of my green eggs about all I can see is the air cell. Forget seeing any veins or that type of development.

Some people have pretty fancy set-ups and use really good lights. I use an LED flashlight with fresh batteries and hold it up to the eggs. I could set up better to see more but to me it’s not that important. It does help for the room to be extremely dark. You don’t want any other light in there.

I normally don’t candle until Day 7. That’s just to satisfy my curiosity, and that’s only eggs in the incubator. I never candle eggs under a broody hen. I’d never remove an egg that early based on candling. When I first started I made mistakes. I’m a lot better about it now but I still wait until I go into lockdown on Day 18 before I toss any eggs based on candling, and those are only the clears there is no doubt about.

With white or light brown eggs, good equipment, and good technique it is certainly possible to see development at Day 3, but different factors have to come together. There is nothing wrong with candling that early to see what you can see and gain experience. There is a thrill when you see development. Just don’t be in a rush to form judgement and certainly don’t do anything dramatic that early.

 

[Free Feather]

It depends a lot on the specific eggs you are candling, the equipment and technique you use, and your experience helps. There can be a learning curve. Like many things that requires your judgment you get better with practice.

White and light brown eggs are generally pretty easy to candle. Brown, blue, and green eggs can be a lot tougher. With some of my green eggs about all I can see is the air cell. Forget seeing any veins or that type of development.

Some people have pretty fancy set-ups and use really good lights. I use an LED flashlight with fresh batteries and hold it up to the eggs. I could set up better to see more but to me it’s not that important. It does help for the room to be extremely dark. You don’t want any other light in there.

I normally don’t candle until Day 7. That’s just to satisfy my curiosity, and that’s only eggs in the incubator. I never candle eggs under a broody hen. I’d never remove an egg that early based on candling. When I first started I made mistakes. I’m a lot better about it now but I still wait until I go into lockdown on Day 18 before I toss any eggs based on candling, and those are only the clears there is no doubt about.

With white or light brown eggs, good equipment, and good technique it is certainly possible to see development at Day 3, but different factors have to come together. There is nothing wrong with candling that early to see what you can see and gain experience. There is a thrill when you see development. Just don’t be in a rush to form judgement and certainly don’t do anything dramatic that early.

Good advice - definitely be careful about throwing eggs out. The first one I ever threw out had a live chick in it that was breathing and wiggling when I cracked the egg open...
I candle broody eggs because in the past one of my hens had an egg that got so rotten it exploded during everyone else's hatch, and that is very dangerous. Plus, you never know if they are fertile or not. The first two broody hatches I did were a miserable failure because all the eggs were infertile, and I did not candle. If you know they are infertile, you can give her new eggs instead of waiting on chicks that do not exist.