I have hatched duck eggs before, but this is my first batch of chicken eggs. They are tiny, white-shelled bantams, and candling has been much easier than with duck eggs because the shell is so much more transparent.
But I was surprised this afternoon when I shone a flashlight into my locked-down incubator and saw the outline of the air cell in one of the eggs. I quickly figured out that if I shine the flashlight in there at just the right angle, I can see air cell, veins, and even movement.
Anyone else ever done this before?
It's giving me ideas--would it be possible to design the lighting in a home-made incubator so that you could switch "candling lights" on and off that would allow you to look inside your eggs without taking them out of the incubator? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do this during lockdown?
Anyway--it's very cool and I'm enjoying watching the dark chick grow, filling up to the bottom of the air cell, blocking my view of the veins, and also watching one of them (that already fills the entire egg except the air cell) probe around the bottom of the air cell--I think it's going to be the first to pip.
But I was surprised this afternoon when I shone a flashlight into my locked-down incubator and saw the outline of the air cell in one of the eggs. I quickly figured out that if I shine the flashlight in there at just the right angle, I can see air cell, veins, and even movement.
Anyone else ever done this before?
It's giving me ideas--would it be possible to design the lighting in a home-made incubator so that you could switch "candling lights" on and off that would allow you to look inside your eggs without taking them out of the incubator? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do this during lockdown?
Anyway--it's very cool and I'm enjoying watching the dark chick grow, filling up to the bottom of the air cell, blocking my view of the veins, and also watching one of them (that already fills the entire egg except the air cell) probe around the bottom of the air cell--I think it's going to be the first to pip.