Candling blue eggs?

[AmeraucanaHank]

hi,
My first time incubating with a incubator it's day 6 and candled all my eggs with a flashlight, all were developing except I couldn't see anything in my Ameraucana's egg and my olive egger because it was too dark in the shell! do I need to buy a fancy candler? What should I do? I really don't want to clean out an exploded egg!

 

[Buckingham Palace]

maybe try getting an stronger light.what have you been using? I’m to sure how dark Oliver egger or ameraucanas eggs. So I won’t be much help. Good luck with your hatch.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

maybe try getting an stronger light.what have you been using? I’m to sure how dark Oliver egger or ameraucanas eggs. So I won’t be much help. Good luck with your hatch.

thank!

 

[NNYchick]

I have not had luck with seeing anything in my Ameraucana eggs, until lockdown you can see they dark vs clear. I leave them in as long as they don’t stink and I don’t smell anything coming from the incubator. I’m too afraid of throwing out a perfectly good embryo.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

hi,
My first time incubating with a incubator it's day 6 and candled all my eggs with a flashlight, all were developing except I couldn't see anything in my Ameraucana's egg and my olive egger because it was too dark in the shell! do I need to buy a fancy candler? What should I do? I really don't want to clean out an exploded egg!

I use the Magicfly Candler which is available on Amazon for about 20 bucks. It’s rechargeable, very strong and doubles as an awesome flashlight!
I find blue eggs sometimes even harder to see into than the very dark Marans eggs. There is a trick you can try which I have used successfully, use your candler on the large end where the air cell is, and then use an iPhone flashlight or similar LED flashlight on the other end at the same time. You need to be in a very dark room, even a dark closet if needed and it helps to have a second pair of hands. You also have to be very careful not to drop the egg. Good luck with your hatch!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Dark brown, blue, and green eggs can be hard to see inside. The brighter the light and the darker your room when you're candling the easier it is but with some it's just not easy.

I'm not sure what you'd look for when candling to see if it will explode. The problem develops when bacteria gets inside the egg shell. The egg is the perfect food for bacteria to eat, scientists often grow bacteria in the lab by feeding them eggs. Incubating temperature is the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. So if bacteria gets inside it's going to multiply and be a problem. It doesn't matter if the egg is developing or not. If the egg is developing and bacteria gets inside it will kill the embryo. If the embryo dies and bacteria does not get inside the egg shell it is not going to explode. I just don't know what you would look for when candling that will tell you that it will explode.

If bacteria gets inside the egg it will start to smell like a rotten egg. So sniff each egg. If you notice a rotten egg smell around the incubator, sniff each egg. If one smells, carefully get rid of it.

I candle my blue and green eggs out of curiosity. Most of the time I can tell after seven days which ones are developing but sometimes it's not conclusive. I never toss an egg at that time based on candling. I candle again at lockdown and remove the clears. Not because I'm worried about them exploding but to reduce the number of eggs during hatch. If there is any doubt at all I leave them in.

I've never had an egg explode or even start to stink in an incubator. It can happen, some people have had it happen, it is not pleasant when it happens. I do sniff eggs, I don't want it to happen. I had it happen once under a broody hen. A thin shelled egg was broken and egg got on some eggs so bacteria got inside through the porous shell. A totally ruined hatch and not pleasant at all to deal with.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

Thank you everybody who write back! It gave me a lot to think about!

 

[My2butterflies]

When candling blue and dark eggs I look for shadowing in half the egg. You may not see veins, but this shadowing shows some development is taking place.
Here is a very dark marans egg on day 8.

And of course as others said, use a very strong flashlight and be in the darkest room possible. I candle at night or early morning before the sun is up. It’s just the easiest time to see.

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

When candling blue and dark eggs I look for shadowing in half the egg. You may not see veins, but this shadowing shows some development is taking place.
Here is a very dark marans egg on day 8.
View attachment 3049764
And of course as others said, use a very strong flashlight and be in the darkest room possible. I candle at night or early morning before the sun is up. It’s just the easiest time to see.

do you maybe have any pictures of blue eggs?

 

[My2butterflies]

do you maybe have any pictures of blue eggs?

I do. But only of day 5 and day 14.
This one was day 5 from a hatch I had last year. You can see the shape of the inside yoke has changed to a saddle shape instead of a circle. You can also see a dark dot in there(embryo) you can’t see vains, but there is clearly development taking place.

And here is one on day 14, current day on my incubated eggs.
Veins are now visable but you can’t see much else.