Candling - Do broody's eggs look different to incubator eggs?

[Gypsy07]

I know this might be a dumb question, but do broody's eggs look different from incubator eggs?

Just caught my first ever broody hen hopping off her nest to eat and drink and I managed to grab the eggs for a quick candle. This is the first time I've looked at them since she started sitting on them 18 days ago. All eight eggs were fertile and had started developing, but one had quit early.

At day 18 I was expecting to see full eggs and big air cells, but none of the eggs had clearly defined air cells. All of them looked pretty dark and full of chick, but the air cells were definitely not like anything I've seen before.

I remember when I changed from incubating my eggs lying on their sides to incubating them upright, the first time I candled at 7 days I thought they were all infertile cause they looked so different to what I was used to. I still find it harder to see the embryo in eggs being incubated upright, but now I know to expect a difference I don't worry so much.

Are broody's eggs like that too?

I put the seven okay looking ones back under her, but now I'm not sure whether to expect any chicks from them...

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

All eggs develop the same way using an incubator or amen doesn't change the stages. Of course you know heat too low and too high can change the length of time. Also if you are not in a very dark room candling can be tricky, and could limit what you see as can egg shell color.

 

[Gypsy07]

Yup, the stages don't change, but like I already said, just swapping from incubating flat to incubating upright made a big difference to what I could see in the egg, especially in the early stages of incubation. Candling didn't show me much (at day 18 there's never much to see anyway) but these eggs are pure white so not difficult to see through.

I just thought the air cells looked odd compared with the way they always look in an incubator. If these were incubator eggs, I'd be getting ready to toss them out. But cause I've never had a broody hen sitting on eggs before, I'm going to wait and see what happens with them.

Time will tell I guess...